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.
Tancredo has name recognition. His silly statement about nuking Mecca has doomed any presidential ambitions, ever.
And Mike Pence has no platform from which to gain name recognition. He is not a "go to" guy when the press wants a comment on something, or for the Sunday shows.
So who's ever going to hear about him?
Well, his age does work against him, though his cancer hasn't returned for a couple of years.
If McCain ran against Hillary, a Senator would win the presidency, for sure.
The RNC will support whoever wins the primaries. If McCain were to win, he would have all the support from the RNC he needed.
Who do you think makes up the RNC?
I'll vote for Hillary before I'll vote for McCain. I can't stand that guy.
"And Mike Pence has no platform from which to gain name recognition. He is not a "go to" guy when the press wants a comment on something, or for the Sunday shows."
Are you kidding me? If you are not please do some research(hint Pence in WSJ today WASH post Yesterday,AP today,ABC Sunday show ON SUNDAY etc etc)
You know as well as I do, that President Bush was chosen and groomed to win the '00 primaries. Whom do you suppose did that? :-)
I know that most here will hoot and scream at me, but frankly, I would not be surprised at all, if Hitlery! doesn't run in the Dem presidential primaries in '08.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007278
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/18/AR2005091800469_pf.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1486608/posts
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-18-2005/0004109655&EDATE=
Tiny particles make air pollution a year-round problem in St. ...
WLS - Chicago,IL,USA
... Katrina September 19, 2005 (WASHINGTON) Indiana Congressman Mike Pence says dramatic ... Pence also tells ABC's "This Week" he also wants President Bush's tax ...
House Republicans to propose cuts to pay for Katrina
WCAX - Burlington,VT,USA
... highway projects. Indiana Congressman Mike Pence says there has to be dramatic cuts in "big-ticket items.". Republican Senator David ...
Seeking Ways to Pay for Katrina
WTOK - Meridian,MS,USA
Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana says dramatic cuts are needed in "big-ticket items." Pence told ABC's "This Week" he also wants President Bush's tax cuts ...
Coast Guard Official, New Orleans Mayor Meet Monday To Lay Plans
KWTX - Waco,TX,USA
... House Republicans want spending cuts to pay for Gulf Coast recovery. Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana says dramatic cuts are needed in "big-ticket items.". ...
News Shows
South Bend Tribune - South Bend,IN,USA
ABC's "This Week" -- Former President Clinton; Sen. David Vitter, R-La.; Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.; Caroline Kennedy, editor, "A Family of Poems.". ...
NEWSWEEK COVER: 'Bush's Math: No Big Easy'
PR Newswire (press release) - New York,NY,USA
... Rep. Mike Pence, the House's leading deficit hawk, challenged Joshua Bolten, a former Goldman Sachs banker who runs the Office of Management and Budget. ...
All Pence..just in the last two Days,and this is just a partial list!
his ego is such God should ask advice. If Az doesn't wake up, they'll have another Kennedy on their hands.
You're a Pence backer, so you have blinders on about him.
The last House Rep who ran for President and won was......I forget. Perhaps you know.
Barf...
We already knew he has a powerful ego.
Disgusting man.
LOL! Hillarious! (and perfectly understandable...)
WFC'S who Anus is? Or McCain? Please go away...both of them!
LMAO
I actually heard "Anus" say "I hate the media" and then refer to an unflattering article from NewsMax. Meanwhile, he will constantly have David Gregory, McCain, Biden, and lots of other media whores on his show.
McCain cant make it through the primary's ,Most Republicans are on to his act. Now if he did slide through the Democrats might elect him. Why not , he is one of them.
All the support from the RNC that McCain needs? I DO NOT think so....maybe George Allen, not McCain, never Happen!
Something that would ensure President Hillary Clinton in 2008.
Slick Kaplan took over MSNBC and Anus got worse than he was....include Time and Newsweek and all the other socialist's, putting it nicely...used to like Bernard but can barely tolerate him...Rob Bartlett is all about left of that losing show...by the way conservatives, beware of McCain pulling a Perot, with the liberal MSM media behind it, so he can get whatever position he wants from either side, unless we get a STRONG conservative in there...not a global-warming lover...against the 2nd amendment back-stabber like McCain...maverick my rear-end....
What a dork.
Garfield.
Pence's ID IS low,but that is changing because he DOEs have a platform and he IS a go to guy for the media(whom he plays like a fiddle)
I meant as a news story.
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