McCain Remarks on His Political Career

Press Conference -- Phoenix, Ariz.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-ARIZ.): Hi, everybody. I just wanted to give a brief update on my activities and agenda.

I'm very happy to be back and looking -- already spending several days at work here, and looking forward to a very active agenda, and looking forward to resuming my duties in the Senate and with the significant challenges that we face.

MCCAIN: As you know, President-elect Obama and I had a very good meeting and discussed a number of issues, ranging from Afghanistan and Iraq to the need for -- address the challenges facing our economy, including various reforms in the practices of the Congress, as far as spending and budgetary issues are concerned.

So I look forward to working with President-elect Obama and -- as we face these enormous challenges that we have.

As far as -- I intend to travel soon to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Obviously, the situation in Iraq, as regards to the status-of-forces agreement and the status of our forces and the -- the success of the strategy, and now the next steps we need to take, I look forward to discussing with General Odierno and the leaders of the Iraq government.

And, of course, we know we face significant challenges in Afghanistan, which I think almost all of us are in agreement will require increased U.S. presence, NATO participation, and obviously -- also, we'll be visiting Pakistan to discuss with the Pakistani government, the prime minister, and others, the -- and president, the state of our relations with Afghanistan and how we can work more closely together.