McCain Recalls His Wild Youth

"We have let fear of uncertainty, and a view that education's primary purpose is to protect jobs for teachers and administrators, degrade our sense of the possible in America. There is no excuse for it," McCain said.

On Monday, McCain had told reporters on the campaign plane that he would advise today's youth against mimicking his teen behavior.

"I recommend against it strongly," he said. "It makes for colorful stories, but you pass up opportunities for learning and maturity."

THE HEALTH-CARE DEBATE

Elizabeth Edwards, Fighting Back

Elizabeth Edwards has kept a low profile since her husband, former senator John Edwards (N.C.), suspended his run for the Democratic nomination three months ago. But she emerged last weekend with an attack on Sen. John McCain's health-care plan.

Edwards, who has cancer, said that under the presumptive GOP nominee's health-care plan, she would not be covered, a charge McCain's aides dispute.

Edwards expanded on that claim yesterday at the Wonk Room, a new policy blog published by the liberal Center for American Progress, pointing out that McCain has also had cancer. But she said his health plan would be "devastating . . . to people who have the health conditions with which the Senator and I are confronted (melanoma for him, breast cancer for me) but do not have the financial resources we have."

Such people, she continued, "are left outside the clinic doors."