No Single-term Pledge For McCain

Politico: Republican Rejects Suggestion Some Allies Believe Would Allay Questions About His Age

(The Politico)  This story was written by Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen.

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John McCain stated unequivocally in an interview with Politico Wednesday that he would not pledge to serve only a single four-year term, rejecting a suggestion that some allies believe would allay questions about his age and underscore his non-partisan message of putting country first.

“No,” McCain said flatly, “I’m not considering it.”

There has been speculation that McCain, 71, could couple a single term promise with a untraditional running mate such as Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman to make the case that he would shove political interests aside and run a consensus-oriented government with the Democratic-held Congress.

McCain did, though, sketch out in a half-hour conversation in this college town not far from the Mexican border what his presidency would look like, drawing implicit contrasts with President Bush in the process. Speaking to Politico just after finishing a town hall meeting, the Arizona senator vowed closer relations with Congress, a more open dialogue with the American people and a commitment to address some of the thorniest issues facing the country.

But he declined to outwardly criticize Bush and flatly stated that he wouldn’t do anything as president to underscore his difference with the unpopular incumbent.

“I don’t have any need to show that I’m different than President Bush,” McCain said when asked if he’d take any steps after being elected to demonstrate where he’d diverge from his predecessor.

McCain made plain, however, that he would aim to take a far more transparent and consensus-oriented approach than Bush, whose promise to be a uniter, not a divider, was unfulfilled.

“First thing I’d do [as president] is to go to see the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate - I assume that that would be Sen. Reid, I hope not, but I think that’s probably the reality of this election - and I would say let’s have an agenda, let’s work together, we know what the solutions are and we know what the options are - Social Security, on restraining spending, on Medicare, on all of these, energy independence, on all of these issues,” McCain said when asked how his approach to governance and politics would differ from Bush.

He promised he’d give the Democratic leaders “all the credit” and cast the bipartisanship as a win-win for all parties.

“Let’s show the American people…that there are opportunities for us to work together for the good of the country,” McCain said. “And I think that they would benefit as much or more as I would.”

McCain added: “I’m not being elected dictator - I’m being elected president. And you have to work with Congress. And they know the priorities as well as I do.”

As for those priorities, and specifically what the two parties could accomplish together in the first 100 days of a McCain presidency, he touched on spending cuts and entitlement reform before talking in more general terms.
After the interview, his traveling press secretary sent an email message clarifying what the Republican’s goals would be after being sworn in.

"Senator McCain's priorities during the first 100 days of his administration include ensuring a safe and secure nation, implementing a plan of action to get the economy moving, and reforming Social Security and Medicare for the sake of future generations,” said Brooke Buchanan.

McCain made no specific mention of the economy in his initial answer, only speaking of making “the country safer both from domestic and foreign challenges.”

Discussing the public image of his prospective administration, McCain promised to take a series of extraordinary steps to increase his access to citizens.

He said he’d do “Question Time” along the sme lines of the British Prime Minister’s regular appearances before Parliament in the House or Senate chamber “once every couple weeks.”

Further, he reiterated a campaign pledge he made during the primary to hold weekly press conferences and expanded upon that proposal.
McCain said he’d take to C-SPAN “all the time” to offer “a full and complete explanation of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.”

It was something that would have been valuable in recent years, he noted.

“During the war in Iraq, once the surge started anyway, if I’d have been president, I would have gone on C-SPAN once a week,” McCain noted. “I’d say, ‘Here’s Iraq, now here’s what’s happening, here’s why Basra is so dangerous, here’s what’s going on in Ramadi.”

McCain has, however, severely limited access to reporters during this election campaign - a radical shift from his freewheeling, anything-goes approach to media relations in his 2000 presidential run and during the primary earlier this year.

Reminded that he had remarked unfavorably this year about the sort of guarded and on-message approach that he’s now taking - deriding as 'unfun' a campaign in which he was sequestered from the press behind a curtain on an airplane - McCain was tight-lipped.

“We’ll continue to try to get more access to the media,” he said, tightly.

As for where the “old McCain” was, the senator hinted that he preferred being competitive to offering the sort of open exposure that delights reporters but often drowns out the campaign’s preferred message of the day and can also lead to embarrassing gaffes.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement, particularly in the last couple of weeks as we’ve come up in the polls,” he said, reminding that “the object of it is winning.”

McCain also suggested that, had Obama taken him up on his proposal to hold joint town halls, the increasingly negative contest would have been more high-minded and journalists would not be frustrated with the well-packaged campaigns.

“You would have, as the media, been happier because you’d have seen us together,” McCain said. “And when you’re standing on a stage with somebody, this is my political experience, it’s hard to be quite as tough on them when you’re looking them in the eye. It’s when one of your surrogates is out there, et cetera.”

[bigwhtpony]

The only thin a 79 year old needs to be doing is a greeter at WalMart or watching the Weather channnel.
Posted by midvale3 at 02:02 PM : Aug 22, 2008

50 is the new 40. Live with it, assclown. BTW, I''m sure it wouldn''t be an issue for you if it were a bedwetting democrat.

[midvale3]

This story is just stupid. Looks like CBS continues to only recruit high school dropouts as journalists. Why would McCain just serve 4 years? He is capable of leading this country for 8 years in a balanced and reasonable way much more than the socialist pothead Barack Hussein/Mugabe Obama.


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Posted by caren3333 at 03:51 PM : Aug 21, 2008

Lets see 2 terms = 8 yrs + 71 = 79 at the end of his term. The only thin a 79 year old needs to be doing is a greeter at WalMart or watching the Weather channnel.

[misha128-2009]

McCain should be given a NO term, ZERO Term mandate to bring an end to billions and billions of dollars US Government expenditures going to US Corporations that hire foreign nationals and pseudo contractors as well as shift profits from government contracts overseas to avoid corporate and individual US taxes as well as to fraudulently bid on Small Business Contracts while already reaping millions and billions of dollars of revenue for existing government contracts. McCain should never be allowed to become the anti-Robin Hood robbing from the poor to provide for the disadvantaged rich folks like himself.

[c0mm0n_sense]

The youngest of Barack Obama%u2019s half siblings has told of his shame about living in a shack and existing on a dollar a month whilst his brother plans to become the most powerful man in the world.
With the Democratic Convention in Denver just days away, Italian Vanity Fair magazine tracked George Hussein Onyango Obama to a 6ft by 9ft wooden shed in Kenya.
The difference in the men''s lifestyles could not be more dramatic. Mr Obama, 47, travels the world with an army of bodyguards, whilst his brother defends himself with his own bare hands on the rough streets of Haruma, a Nairobi shanty town.
%u201CIf anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed,%u201D George told the magazine.
"No-one knows who I am. I live here on less than a dollar a month.
"I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist."
George, at 25 the youngest of Obama%u2019s father%u2019s seven children, has met his famous big brother just twice.
He was just five when Mr Obama visited Kenya for the first time in 1988 and made a special trip out to his mother Jael%u2019s shanty home.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1047399/Barack-Obamas-half-brother-discovered-Kenya-living-dollar-month.html

[dasfarg]

Sources say the international bankers and financiers will install Al Gore as the Prez (bumping Obama out) and billionaire NYC Mayor Bloomberg the VP for either party. Both will continue the agenda to privatize the US government, programs, infrastructure and jobs for big $$$ profits as the economy tanks and currency goes down. Gore has about 100 superdelegates in his back pocket to prevent anyone candidate to get the number needed to be nominated. That is the plan for him to step in and appear above the fray and take advantage of popular discontent, confusion and chaos at the convention.....

[dasfarg]

Sources say the international bankers and financiers will install Al Gore as the Prez (bumping Obama out) and billionaire NYC Mayor Bloomberg the VP for either party. Both will continue the agenda to privatize the US government, programs, infrastructure and jobs for big $$$ profits as the economy tanks and currency goes down. Gore has about 100 superdelegates in his back pocket to prevent anyone candidate to get the number needed to be nominated. That is the plan for him to step in and appear above the fray and take advantage of popular discontent, confusion and chaos at the convention.....

[c0mm0n_sense]

The youngest of Barack Obama%u2019s half siblings has told of his shame about living in a shack and existing on a dollar a month whilst his brother plans to become the most powerful man in the world.

With the Democratic Convention in Denver just days away, Italian Vanity Fair magazine tracked George Hussein Onyango Obama to a 6ft by 9ft wooden shed in Kenya.

The difference in the men''s lifestyles could not be more dramatic. Mr Obama, 47, travels the world with an army of bodyguards, whilst his brother defends himself with his own bare hands on the rough streets of Haruma, a Nairobi shanty town.

%u201CIf anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed,%u201D George told the magazine.

"No-one knows who I am. I live here on less than a dollar a month.

"I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist."

George, at 25 the youngest of Obama%u2019s father%u2019s seven children, has met his famous big brother just twice.

He was just five when Mr Obama visited Kenya for the first time in 1988 and made a special trip out to his mother Jael%u2019s shanty home.

[deacon20081]

McCain is too old for puppet strings he''ll look like he''s had botox and a face lift. Big OIl has their hands in his pockets and they aren''t jiggling his spare change. One minute of him in the White House is to many.

[peajmac]

McCain obviously can''t pledge a single term--it would only serve to remind people just how very old this man really is. In reality, he''ll be lucky to survive mentally intact to November. And caren3333--the idea of only serving one term came from McCain himself--keep up please.

[javalation]

"reforming Social Security and Medicare", isn''t that a euphemism for reduce benefits, since he''s already pledged to not raise taxes?

How could anybody consider voting for this elitist who''s so far out of touch that he thinks one earning less that $5,000,000 a year is middle class and has so many houses that he doesn''t even know how many it is. His economic plan is to help the rich and big oil. The rest of us don''t matter to him.

[mediaspy_nv]

ABOUT THOSE POLLS...
Mainstream Media journalism is biased according to the special interests of the political and corporate sponsors attached to that particular media source. News reports are carefully groomed and edited to comply with those special interests. Our government has become the biggest political influence on the media, with strong funding and sponsorship ties.

Media bias can be and is used to alter the reality of the world around us, covertly shaping our opinions and decisions to fit into the status quo. Propaganda, cover-ups, skewed facts, manipulated polls %u2013 powerful tools used by corporate media to control and deceive the American public.

Today these machinations are working at a feverish pitch, focused on steering the presidential election to an outcome that will favor the corporate media, its special interests and the government forces controlling it.

[labrat9999]

News Flash! McSame will NOT accept a 4 year term..said he will ONLY accept 5 years. I mean, well, ahh, isn''t everything counted in groups of five, ahh, umm, I have 5 houses, I was a member of the Keating 5, people with 5 Million dollars are middle class in my books, ahhh, umm, I have 5 fingers.

[awenshok]

He may not know how many, but he''s sure three are on the Arizona-Pakistan border.

[walt1944-2009]

"THRIFTY" John McBush McCain has indicated that he has no plans to serve only one term when he is elected/appointed/annointed as Great Emperor of the USSA!

Despite the facts that McCain does not know who is fighting who in Iraq, where Afghanistan is, that both Yugoslavia and Chechoslavakia no longer exist, and even how many houses he (and/or his wife) own, McCain intends on staying in the White House for as long as the Great Emperor Bush II has, if not longer, even if he must be embalmed in Geritol!

When asked that maybe his age would be a factor since it is becoming apparent that he is having trouble remembering how to tie his $500 shoe laces, McCain stated that his daily regimen of Geritol, almonds, and blueberries, has made his mind as sharp as the ex-Attorney General''s, Alberto (The Great Gonzo!) Gonzales.

He immediately launched into his memories of his days as a POW at the "Hanoi Hilton" stating that he was "tortured" 24/7 (and learned to LOVE IT!), fed mashed beetles and rotten uncooked rice (which are now standard meals in the USSA military thanks to KBR), given daily electric shocks (now provided to the USSA military free-of-charge by KBR!), and dreamt of how much money (from lobbyists, special interest groups, "donations" from BIG OIL, etc!) he would make when he went back home and became a US Senator who couldn''t remember how many luxury homes he had!!!!!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!
sig heil, DADDY WARBUCKS, McCain!!!!!!!

[misha128-2009]

News sources had it as a consideration for simultaneous announcement with his prospective VP choice Joe Lieberman. Just think the McCain/Lieberman ticket
You have
Pro-Life and Pro-Choice,
Republican, Independent and Democrat
Tax Cuts and Tax & Spend
100 years in Iraq and McCain''s ventriloquist
Southern Baptist and Jewish
West and East

Sounds like a perfect fit for McCain''s campaign strategy -- promise everyone everything they want to hear.

[briannorwood]

No single-term pledge for John McCain?

I say, no single term for John McCain!

[realpatriot1]

McCain has intimated on several occasions in the past month that he would serve only 1 term.

Although this constitutes another Mcflip-flop it''s the wiest course of action. A President coming into office on the promise of serving only 1 term is an automatic lame duck who will accomplish nothing.

But then we all know he won''t make it 8 years.

[caren3333]

Mugabe admires his "soul brother" Obama and his "progressive" socialist philosophy. See this article in which Mugabe praises Obama.

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i37624

[caren3333]

This story is just stupid. Looks like CBS continues to only recruit high school dropouts as journalists. Why would McCain just serve 4 years? He is capable of leading this country for 8 years in a balanced and reasonable way much more than the socialist pothead Barack Hussein/Mugabe Obama.

[jb20084]

If McCain won''t deal with some of the media now by disconnecting them from phone calls or just ignoring them when when he doesn''t like their question or comment, then how is he supposed to be more transparent to the American people? Just more lies!!