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PHOENIX — Sen. John McCain welcomed a crowd of more than 1,000 veterans to his home state Tuesday by advising them that "it's a dry heat."

And with Democrats spending the week one state away, at their own national convention in Colorado, the GOP's presumptive nominee notified the audience that Gov. Janet Napolitano was "out of the town, up in Denver at some big party they're throwing there."

"I guess my invitation got lost in the mail," McCain quipped to the Legion, a veterans community-service and lobbying organization.

The Denver summit — where Napolitano has been telling the national media that McCain could lose his home state to Democrat Barack Obama in November — is a place where McCain surely isn't welcomed.

But this crowd, gathered at the Phoenix Convention Center for the American Legion National Convention, is friendly — a more conservative, pro-military, older bloc of voters. Among this crowd, McCain's steadfast support of the Iraq war and his military background are major advantages.

McCain is even a member of the Legion (Post No. 2, Tempe, he said). Today, people attending the Phoenix event will see a recorded address by Obama along with speeches by Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.

McCain's speech here, scheduled as Democrats garner most of the media spotlight this week, underlined his support for veterans. But mainly it was intended to portray Obama as inept at foreign policy. It even included an outline of policies specifically aimed at women, a constituency McCain is overtly courting as Obama tries to mend fences with supporters of his former rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

McCain, often interrupted by applause, said: "When our leaders speak of this nation's history and purposes in affairs of the world, they should do so with confidence, gratitude and above all, with moral clarity.

"My opponent had his chance to express such confidence in America when he delivered a much-anticipated address in Berlin," McCain said, referring to Obama's headline-grabbing tour overseas last month.

"He was a picture of confidence. But in some ways, confidence in self and confidence in one's country are not the same," McCain said.

Pulling quotes from Obama's speech, McCain rebutted his rival's statement that the Cold War ended because "no challenge was too great for a world that stands as one."

"I missed a few years of the Cold War as the guest of one of our adversaries, but as I recall the world was deeply divided during the Cold War, between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny," said McCain, a prisoner of war during the Vietnam era. "The Cold War ended not because the world stood as one, but because the great democracies came together," he said.

McCain also took exception to a statement Obama made after the Russian invasion of Georgia, when Obama deplored the actions by Russia, and the Democratic nominee added, "Of course it helps when we're leading by example."

Said McCain: "If he really thinks that by liberating Iraq from a dangerous tyrant, America somehow set a bad example that invited Russia to invade a small, peaceful democratic nation, he should state it outright, because that is a debate I welcome." Loud applause followed.

Such talk by Obama, McCain suggested, would be bad for America's interests.

"In the end, confusion about such questions only invites more trouble, violence and aggression," the Arizona senator said. "To promote stability and peace, America must stand firmly on the side of freedom and justice."

The jabs are part of an effort by the McCain campaign to paint Obama, a first-term Illinois senator, as too inexperienced to lead the nation in a time of war. That criticism is said to be at least part of the reason Obama chose longtime Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate last week, hoping to neutralize such attacks.

McCain also is targeting Clinton backers, a quarter of whom say in polling that they will support McCain. In Tuesday's speech, he reached out specifically to women, commenting that the American Legion was founded one year before women were allowed to vote.

With the number of female veterans increasing, McCain pledged to expand the Department of Veterans Affairs system's ability to treat diseases that "predominantly or exclusively target women."

But as the Arizona senator makes the rounds out West — he touted an endorsement from rapper Daddy Yankee in Phoenix on Monday and then appeared on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" — Democrats are rallying in Denver.

Arizona Democratic Party spokeswoman Emily DeRose said McCain's speech in Phoenix sounded like he was questioning Obama's patriotism. "And that really is a cheap political ploy," she added.

"At the end of the day, what it means to take care of veterans is to treat their lives with the tremendous value they have," said DeRose, pointing to McCain's support of the Iraq war. And as McCain predicted Democrats would do in his speech, DeRose referenced McCain's initial opposition to the new GI Bill. McCain — who at first said the bill was loaded with non-war spending projects and that it might damage retention — supported it after a provision was added to let service members transfer education benefits to a family member.

And McCain, who is essentially tied with Obama in national polls, also defended himself on Tuesday's Leno broadcast over criticism that he didn't know how many houses he owns.

"I'm proud of my record of service to this country," McCain said. "And it has nothing to do with houses. What it has to do with (is) putting Americans in houses and keeping them in their homes."

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