Just saw this on the Chronicle website. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2943788 Dec. 12, 2004, 2:52PM Tongues wagging that McCain should run in 2008 By LIZ SIDOTI Associated Press John McCain U.S. senator from Arizona -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AGE: 68. (Born Aug. 29, 1936) EDUCATION: National War College, Washington, D.C., 1973-1974; Bachelor's of Science, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., 1958. EXPERIENCE: Pilot and captain, United States Navy; prisoner of War in Vietnam, 1967-1973; received Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross; Senate Navy liaison, 1977-1981; U.S. respresentative, 1982-1986; national security adviser, Dole/Kemp presidential campaign; candidate, U.S. president, 2000; senator from Arizona, 1985-present. FAMILY: Wife Cindy; Children Doug, Sidney, Andy, Meghan, Jack, Jimmy and Bridget. - Project Vote Smart WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain, the straight-talking Republican who often challenges the GOP establishment, has taken on a headline-grabbing issue -- steroids in baseball -- and generated talk of a presidential bid in 2008. Amid revelations about baseball's biggest names, McCain has threatened to push legislation early next year if Major League Baseball and the players do not clean up their act. McCain long has advocated harsher penalties for athletes caught using performance-enhancing drugs. The three-term senator from Arizona has earned a reputation as a go-to lawmaker, tackling campaign finance, the war on Iraq, federal spending and climate change. It's little wonder that his foray into the baseball scandal has revived Republican speculation about McCain and the 2008 presidential race. Even though President Bush has yet to take the oath of office for a second term, other names that have surfaced as possible GOP candidates in 2008 include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee; Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, George Allen of Virginia and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania; former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and George Pataki of New York. "The big question is: Can McCain get any hotter?" said Scott Reed, a Republican consultant. The talk is coming from outside the Washington Beltway, too. "He's pretty well set to go in four years," said Jerry Roe, a former head of the Michigan Republican Party. "Politicians that go anyplace are like rock stars. McCain's a rock star." A senator since 1986, McCain sought the GOP nomination in 2000 but lost to Bush in a bitter campaign. Over the next four years, McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war and deficit hawk who rarely held his tongue, became a frequent critic of the Bush administration and gained a reputation for bipartisanship. This year, McCain showed his loyalty to the Republican Party when he campaigned for the president and rejected overtures from his Democratic friend and Senate colleague, John Kerry of Massachusetts, to run for vice president on a bipartisan ticket. McCain stirred the pot throughout, defending Kerry when his patriotism was questioned and criticizing the president's foreign policies. McCain's actions drew widespread media coverage and heightened speculation that McCain was setting himself up for his own 2008 bid. McCain deflects questions about another run for the White House. "I have no contemplation for the next couple of years to do anything except be a good senator," McCain said last week on CNN. "I don't think I can help the people of Arizona by planning and plotting to be president of the United States when the present president hasn't even been inaugurated for a second term." Still, he leaves the door open. His Senate re-election campaign Internet site links Web surfers to an online store that sells his books, T-shirts, pins and tote bags emblazoned with "Straight Talk Express," the slogan from his 2000 presidential bid. McCain has not established a political action committee or latched onto the fund-raising circuit in early primary states. Then again, he does not have to. He's making waves just by "being McCain," say several Republican strategists and political analysts. "He's such a unique personality, and he's one of the few United States senators who has a national constituency," said Marshall Wittmann, McCain's former communications director who became a Democrat this year. He suggests that Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and perhaps Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts may be the only others. "Anything they say on an issue, people take note. And, if it wasn't an issue before, it's made into an issue," said Wittmann. That's why, analysts say, McCain will not lose his bully pulpit when he steps down as chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in January. As the new chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, McCain will have hearings into allegations that a Washington consultant and lobbyist bilked tribes out of tens of millions of dollars while representing them on casino issues. He will get involved in immigration reform, overhaul of the Social Security system, campaign finance reform and global warming. And, then there's baseball and steroids, an issue guaranteed to bring him headlines. If McCain were to run, he would turn 72 on Aug. 29, 2008, at the height of the campaign. Only President Reagan was older -- 73 at the start of his second term. McCain's health is another issue. The senator has had several cancerous lesions removed from his skin. Still, Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California, asked: "Who else is there? "Other than the president, McCain can upstage most other Republicans in his party," Pitney said. "Frist may be the majority leader, but McCain is the Republican everyone knows."
How well would a Kerry/McCain campaign have done? I like McCain, from what I've seen of him. Bipartisanship is always good, and if the Democrats can't scrounge up anything better in the next 4 years, I would vote for McCain. It'd be nice to see Gore or Hillary though.
If Republicans are smart, they would put McCain up. I really like the man. He seems to be really believing in his values. What really strike me is that his past performance really doesn't just follow the Republican party's agenda, but is more sporatic. Which is always a good indicator of voting on his own values. While he might be a conservative, I personally believe that if he wins the presidency, he'll do what he can to benefit the country instead of just himself. Even if his approach might differ from mine, I would feel that he really is doing what he believe is right. That's my problem with the current administration, I get the feeling that they are out to benefit themselves or push agenda through just because they know it will give them votes or personal gain.
To loosely paraphrase Donna from last week's West Wing: Memo to DNC: You've got less than four years to convince me not to vote for him.
He's too good for the right to nominate. I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Love to see him and rudy or colin. that'd be a ticket i really would believe when they said they'd lead in a new and better direction. my nightmare is jeb bush.
Jeb would be interesting. He'd surely take Florida, so all he would really need is Ohio and the usual red state suspects to win it. That would be the liberals' absolute worst nightmare. 12 STRAIGHT YEARS OF BUSH! maybe even 16...
You're talking nothing but horse race, while Hayes is actually telling you about a guy he'd vote for having voted D last time. It'd be more fun to talk politics with you if you talked issues sometimes and not just horse race. Meanwhile, your buddy Jorge seems to be backing out of my dart game. Can you stand in for him, do you think? That'd be fun for me. I've met him but not you. I still hope he'll change his mind but either way you should come around. No D&D talk at these get togethers. Only Rockets and any other thing that brings us all together. Til midnight at least. Then all bets are off. Hope to see you out there. Check the hangout for details.
Warner doing anything for 'ya ? Who was Donatella talking about? I havnt seen the west wing in awhile but caught some previews with alan alda. Is she talking about alan alda? Kerry 08'
Batman, tell me you aren't seriously falling for the whole McCain as a moderate thing? I guess compared to Cheney, but seriously.
McCain will never get the Republican machine behind him. He is too much of a maverick for their liking.
After all, he did GO to Vietnam - so through a set of rosey RED glasses he couldn't be anything but a right winger.
Nah, Warner doesn't do anything for me. I'm not sold on the Southern moderate Dem strategy. I think we need to stand up for what we believe in. Most Americans are liberal on most issues. The Democrats have fallen for that BS DLC strategy of equivocation for too long. Time to stand up. That means no on Warner and no on Kerry. glynch: Of course I don't think McCain is a moderate, but then again I don't care for moderates ("You are neither hot nor cold so I vomited you out of my mouth. That's what I say about moderates." - Jerry Brown). But I also don't think he's an ideologue. And while I rarely agree with his politics, I admire the hell out of the way he speaks truth to power. Put him up against Kerry or the old Gore or Warner or Bayh and I've got a very tough choice to make. Put him up against Edwards and it'll depend on which Edwards we get. The VP version's no better than Kerry. The two Americas version would get my vote. I personally love Hillary, but I don't see it and I don't think she'll get the nod. I have a feeling she might not even run. All I know is Dean damn well better get DNC chair and if it's not him it damn well better be Rosenberg. The thing with me and McCain is I'm like the vast majority of Americans -- I have way more respect for someone who says what he believes and says it forcefully than someone who pretends to be something he's not (see: Kerry, Gore, Dukakis). Troy: Yeah, Donna was talking about Alda who's pretty much running as an elder statesman version of a McCain Republican. You should really start watching WW again. Last year stunk, but this year's been among the best ever. It is seriously thrilling.
I think that it's thinking like this that caused the Democrats to lose the last election. Most Americans are more conservative than most liberals think.
No it's not. Kerry refused to stand up for core liberal values. He equivocated on everything and that, more than any issue, swung the election. It turns out that Americans are more socially conservative than liberal. You're right about that and I wouldn't have said so before the last election. But on education, environment and health care they are indisputably more liberal. Everyone's against taxes, but on tax cuts for the rich versus a balanced budget they are also more liberal. In fact, according to polls, most Americans value deficit reduction over tax cuts in general. Everyone is also against 'big government,' but like deficit reduction this issue amazingly belongs more to the D's than the R's these days as Bush has presided over the biggest government in the country's history - by far. Foreign policy stuff and issues of war swings back and forth. Abortion's a wash, but it's moving right. I read variations on the following quote from generic undecided voters more times than I could count over the last cycle: "I don't agree with what Bush is doing, but I believe he says what he means and means what he says, so I'm leaning toward voting for him." More than any ideological issue, Americans vote character. Kerry ran away from his core beliefs so he lost. Same with Gore. Same with Dukakis. In fact, same with Bush I.
Most Americans are ignorant on most issues. Unless it's the latest issue of TV Guide. I'd vote for McCain, but there's no way he'll make it out of the primaries, what with that illegitimate black baby dangling around his neck, and all those other mixed metaphors, racial or otherwise.
I'd vote for McCain in a heartbeat. I really think he'd win a presidential election handily. The candidates who fail to toe the party line and are independant-thinking, like Senator McCain have a harder time in the primaries than they would in the general election, imo.
No way. He'd lose. As a Republican, if he gets the nomination he's the guy to beat. He gets all the R votes, some D votes and the vast majority of the I votes. As an independent, he starts out with a serious competitor for the R votes. He doesn't need that. And he didn't back a guy he deeply hates last time around to chuck it all and run (I). He did it for the primaries. It will probably work. Rudy's his strongest competition and he's no more conservative than McCain. In fact, most of the frontrunning R's are relative moderates.
