Posted on 09/19/2005 2:19:08 PM PDT by gobucks
U.S. Sen. John McCain knows why he wants to be president.
He isn't running for the job - officially. That won't happen, if it happens at all, until after next year's midterm elections.
McCain, who turns 69 on Monday, said "there's no point" in formally announcing his candidacy until after the 2006 congressional elections.
But the Arizona Republican didn't skip a beat Tuesday when asked why he would want to run for the White House in 2008.
"Because we live in a time of great challenges," McCain said in an interview with Arizona Daily Star editors and reporters.
Chief among them is the war on terror, a "transcendent issue" likely to last for years, he said. But there is "a broad variety of domestic challenges" as well.
Sounding much like a candidate ticking off the priorities of his platform, McCain said they include immigration, Social Security, global warming, rising health-care costs and the "obscene" spending practices of Washington.
"My ego is sufficient to say that I think I have the background and experience to take on these challenges," he said.
Asked about possible opposition to his candidacy from conservatives, McCain cited polls that show he and ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are "the two most popular" members of the Republican Party.
That, he indicated, is a crucial factor in deciding whether he'll seek the presidency.
"As long as I have strong approval and support from most of the Republican Party, then running is a viable option," he said.
A recent poll by the Gallup Organization found that McCain's favorable ratings have consistently hovered above 50 percent since 2002, two years after he ran for the Republican nomination for president against George W. Bush.
But while the four-term senator is thought of highly across party and ideological lines, Gallup found a potential weak spot among conservatives - a key constituency to prevailing in Republican primaries.
The problem McCain could face with conservatives became evident earlier this month when the Arizona Republican Assembly, a conservative Mesa-based group, voted to censure him for what it called "dereliction of his duties and responsibilities as a representative of the citizens of Arizona."
The group unanimously passed a resolution critical of, among other things, the guest-worker legislation he's sponsoring with the man they called "his Democrat soulmate, Senator Ted Kennedy."
McCain didn't comment on the resolution but vowed to continue speaking his mind.
As the Gallup Poll noted, McCain has a generally consistent conservative voting record but forged a national reputation after a series of notable breaks with fellow Republicans.
On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement.
McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.
The theory of intelligent design says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power must have had a hand in guiding it.
At a breakfast meeting Tuesday with the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, McCain said Sheehan is probably being used by organizations opposed to the U.S. mission in Iraq. But, he added, she is "a symptom, not a cause" of growing public discontent with the war.
"Romney has been squishy on the abortion and gun issues, but will develop more backbone during the primary season. He hasn't been a fire breathing gun grabber like Giuliani was and is."
I agree with this,however how is Allen to the Right of Romney?
I say let Hitlery win and bring the boil to the lancing stage.
ROTFL! Dream on sink. It won't hurt anything.
Key word here is R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N-S. Don't think they are popular among conservatives. Bet most conservatives look at them with great suspicion.
I am suspicious of most Senators who want to be President, though I think Allen might be a good choice. I would hope a good conservative with Executive experience might run--a governor, in other words.
But who cares? The election is three years off. Can we concentrate on diminishing the current influence of Democrats in Congress first?? :)
You would vote for Hillary over McCain? This makes no sense and obviously expresses your emotional tirade of the day. If it comes to McCain getting the nomination (which I don't expect) then I doubt any FReepers with any brains would vote for Hillary to spite McCain. Makes no sense.
McCain or Guiliani will be the man to beat in the GOP primaries in 2008. You can count on it.
Yep.
Kerry could beat McCain. Heck Dean could beat McCain.
BTW: Pence should run against either Bayh or challenge Lugar in the primary.
McCain's views are pretty well known: he's pro-life, he's pro-Iraq war and war on terror, he opposes pork spending in a big way, he's pro-second amendment.
We'll have to see how this works out, but the idea that nobodies like George Allen or Mike Pence are going to overtake a McCain is pretty silly.
Pence is OK. I could live with Rudy. McCain, NO! I don't trust him; he's a Democrat in sheep's clothing. He is way too close to too many liberals in the media.
If the GOP nominates him I'm voting Libertarian.
McCain or McKennedy?
You sound like a mental patient.
Voting for Hillary over McCain is what gave it away.
Forget it John ... you may be a presidental hopeful but it won't be as a Republican
I wouldn't vote for McCain for dogcatcher. That's the general election, let alone the primary.
Forf starters, he'll be rather old ( and he's no Reagan !), his cancer keeps coming back, most GOPers and ALL Conservatives hate the CFR Bill, and Senators have a lousy track record running for president! Oh yes, and the RNC isn't enamored of McLane at all, so they aren't going to help him at all.
If the GOP nominates him I'm voting Libertarian.
If the GOP nominates either of them I'm with you.
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