WASHINGTON (CNN) – Republican John McCain seemed to suggest Wednesday that if he wins the White House he may only serve one term.
According to the Boston Globe, the 71 year-old candidate was asked whether he will have the ability to serve a full eight years as president, while campaigning in New Hampshire.
"If I said I was running for eight years, I'm not sure that would be a vote getter," McCain responded.
McCain often jokes about his age on the campaign trail - he would be the nation’s oldest first-term president - but the Arizona senator points to his energetic 95-year-old mother as evidence his age is a non-factor.
According to the Globe, McCain later clarified his statement, saying, "I think the decision as to whether to run for re-election has to do with the circumstances at the time. I really do. You shouldn't run for eight years. Because then you think you've got eight years to get these things done."
A McCain spokesman said the Arizona senator was not suggesting he would not seek a second term.
"He was simply stating that on his first day in the Oval Office he will be focused on the big problems the country faces – not on re-election strategy sessions," she said.
From CNN Politics
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"If I said I was running for eight years, I'm not sure that would be a vote getter," McCain responded.
The Boston Globe article is so fuct up! I just don't get how they extrapolate one from the other! McCain's reply doesn't sound like he is saying he wouldn't go for two terms, it just says to me, that he sees the point that at the age of 71 he is not going to try to use his lack of youth to be a point to use to get elected on.
I'm not worried about how old he is, just how qualified he is, and I believe John McCain is very qualified. His demeanor throughout the whole campaign so far has been one of a gentleman, and not an immature power hungry candidate.
The Boston Globe is obviously staying out too late partying, and just phoning it in, or they have an agenda here, one that doesn't serve the needs of America.
how will he get to be a president when nobody is voting for him anyway,fear monger,war monger!
This is a fabricated story. No candidate pledges to run for 8 years. He said like every candidate that he would make that decision during his first term. That is what every candidate does.
This story is bogus. McCain never said he would only run for one term. Please change the headline or else you don't care about accurate reporting.
McCain on his worst day is better than the other candidates on their best day.
Interesting. Do you think the implication is that he'd die in office, or that he wouldn't be reelected ?
Even 1 term would definately be too many.
Says Big Mac: "You shouldn't run for eight years. Because then you think you've got eight years to get these things done."
Indeed. Better you don't run at all.
Straight Talk once again from Senator McCain. Let's get the Senator in the White House first and then worry about 2 terms!!
Sorry, sir, but you're not going to get a chance to serve any. You had your chance in 2000 but your buddy, W, took that away from you.
Oh, by the way, I love that picture of McCain here, I just made it my desktop image!
Thank you CNN!
Would America and the rest of the world be in the mess it is today – if McCain would not have been BUSHwacked
in the GOP primaries in SC 2000?!
Another blatant example of what Rove will do to win (AND KEEP) the White House. Now that he has left early – have the Demwits ever stopped to consider why?? They are such easy pickins for the united GOP political attack machine.
I would vote for McCain if O'bambi gets the Democratic nod. ANOTHER NOVICE in the Oval Office – just what the country needs NOT
The people who say they are not looking at age are liars. That's right, I went there. McCain is 71 yrs old. If he became president he would be approaching 73yrs of age. By the time he made it through his first term he would be 77 yrs old. The 2004 male life expectancy was 75 years of age. McCain is too old, too militant and too stubborn, "my friends".
If anyone endured what McCain honorably endured during his Vietnam service, there would be no questions about his physical and mental toughness – now or in the future. The worst year in Washington is better than the best day in Hanoi.
not focusing on re-election strategy sessions... blah blah blah.
why do his handlers need to dance around his words? why does anyone have to feel they are running for an eight-year commitment?
MaCain doesn't get it about illegal immigration. We americans mean business. We don't want our country taken over by illegal immigrants. There are already too many of us without jobs. Think how it will be for our children. Vote for Mitt!!!!!!!!
McCunp go sit your old down. Youcould not flya jet fighter. And we know you won't be a good prez.
Ron Paul is older than McCain. Ron Paul is 72.
McCain's mother is 95 and still traveling around europe. His grandfather lived to 98.
McCain would be younger than Reagan was. During Reagan's tear down this wall he was 77.
McCain is six years younger than Reagan was.
McCain keeps very active and has great genes.
McCain is in better health than Bill Clinton, Giuliani, Thompson.
Romney doesn't get it about illegal immigration. He said it was a big mistake for congressmen to reject Bush's plan.
Romney wants citizenship for illegals. He flip flops for different audiences.
Romney called McCain's plan reasonable.
Romney is being hypocritical.
Aside from being too old and hard on the eyes, Mc Cane's a fear and war monger, soft on immigration, and has a well known temper that he admits himself. I don't think he's mentally sound.
This man thrives on war and will bring the draft back if given a chance.
If you want more of the same vote for Mc Cane!
He'll never get the first 4 years.
After his last run for the White House I seem to remember him saying that he wouldnt run for president again. Who can believe this guy? The straight talk express turned jay walk express will do anything for power. He has proved this over and over again. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me...
Anyone who has endured the horrors and stress of being a POW is a true patriot but is in no way psychologically fit to lead this country.
"John"
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Reagan was senile while in office.
Ron Paul won't be serving cheese dip at the GOP National Convention, much less getting the Republican nomination.
Bill Clinton isn't running for office. He's already served the Constitutionally-limited 2 terms.
Rudy Giuliani has a non-aggressive form of prostate cancer and a recent bout with flu.
Fred Thompson has a highly treatable form of cancer (lymphoma) that was diagnosed in 2004, has since been in remission, and which he voluntarily admitted. Thompson is also probably a couple of months away from dropping out of the race.
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Past sickness isn't enough to claim someone is in poor health and won't be around for the next 5 years. I like McCain well enough too, but I'm pretty sure a cure hasn't been invented yet for old age or death.
KEITH JAMES LOUTTIT January 2, 2008 2:59 pm ET
Oh, by the way, I love that picture of McCain here, I just made it my desktop image!
I'm gonna save it to my hard drive and Photoshop a balloon coming off McCain's mouth, saying "Pull my finger!"
FACE IT FOLKS! If McCain gets the nomination, the country would be too exhausted to think they'd want to go through another major election year (with no Incumbent running) in 4 short years.
McCain's a great guy and all, but 71 is too old for a starting President. He'd be better in a cabinet position.
America needs McCain to take two terms but he can get the job done in one term. I rest my case.
McCain is the only republican that can win against Hillary.
Romney gets crushed by over 20 points.
A vote for Romney is a vote for Hillary.
McCain is leading by 8 percent over Hillary in Ohio and by 9 percent in Wisconsin.
McCain is the only electable republican. Romney buying this nomination would set back the republican party a generation. He is the John Kerry of Republicans.
Make it easy. Keep him out of office from the start. Support Romney.
Maybe we should consider putting someone who is a wise elder in office instead of someone who looks good on TV. Reagan worked out pretty well.
Liked him in 2000, but can't vote for someone who sucked up to Bush so much during the last 6 years.
Duncan Sounds like you have that sucking thing figured out.
Support Romney and get a Democrat back into the White House.
At his age he isn't a good bet for the first time at anything. Give it up john ,your bed is ready at the old folks home.
John get your mother to straighten them out!!!
A vote for McCain is a vote for war!
Ron Paul to end the war!
They said she is only 95 and in good health. Better than being 30 and stupid. Most jobs apts. can't ask age.
Don't kid yourself folks, Mitt' the guy to look into. He's the best total package candidate. Most of you who bash him are either Dem's or fake-Christians ( check your bible, real Christians do not judge others).
I am not sure this guy can serve 4 months! If elected, he would be the 1st President we would send to the nursing home.
Once again the CNN Ticker presents a non-story and, in an unsettling trend, yet another misleading story.
Romney? Yeah, I want the guy who invented universal Capone Care (get them insured by pointing a gun to their head and making them buy insurance) and gave the idea to that shrew Hillary Clinton to be pres. He and Hillary are the same in my book, two plastic machine politicians saying anything they can and waffling on whatever they have to like it's just another hurdle to the White House. No thanks. Edwards? A pretty-boy class-hate-monger pitching Karl Marx's politics in Bill Clinton's packaging. Sorry, but attack-dogging corporations is irreconcileable with retaining and creating jobs for middle class Americans. Throwing red tape and lawsuits at businesses is just going to make them buy more machines to do the work, and chinese workers to man the machines. Ron Paul? Excuse me, did we try isolationism at the beginning of the last century and discover it didn't work? Now he wants to use it as the cornerstone of our foreign policy for the next century.
I want a real choice in the next election, one that doesn't burn me to a cinder when one side or the other wins. That's a McCain vs. Obama election. Obama has vision and optimism, and at least he weighs it against pragmatism and forms his own opinions (as opposed to being blindly led by interest groups). And as for McCain, he's not afraid to stick his neck out for something unpopular and take a whack or two if he feels that's in the best interest of the country. That IS what this is all about in the end folks, what's going to be best for us. When all the campaign platitudes and promises are done who is in it to do something for us, and who's just in it to win two terms and leave. I'm just not convinced that Clinton, Edwards or Romney are in this for anything other than personal egrandisement, and that our best interests will not be lost along the way. In Ron Paul's case it is in the service of an ideology he did not develop, nor has he fully understood the consequences of adherence too. Character counts, and no matter which side wins we're all stuck with the same president for the next four years. Once you get done sorting out who's the most electable, most ideologically correct, blah blah blah, ask yourself, which of these men is putting my interests in that office ahead of his own?
The ONLY reason the weak McCain campaign is making a rebound is due to hard-nose tactics by the left-leaning media who is propping him up artificially. They are hell-bent on throwing a wrench in Romney's progress, because of 4 years of conservatism in the bluest state in the Union. Many suckers are taking the bait, and are temporarily forgetting how tenuous and lackluster John McCain's campaign has been. Remember his foreign policy gaffe, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran? If the Republican voters vote for him it would be a return to the old Republican Merit System, just like it was with Bob Dole. Remember? And I do believe the Clinton Machine slaughtered him too.
REGAIN YOUR WITS NEW HAMPSHIRE, VOTE FOR MITT!
independent in PA,,,,,,,,,, Your comment was so compeling and well stated with every attention to detail , I feel the need to tell you I have just changed my vote based on what you have said,,,,,,, I WILL NOT VOTE FOR Mc Cane,,,, but I might vote for McCAIN !!!!,,,,,
John McCain...the only Republican worth voting for.
Support John McCain, the best candidate, Republican or Democrat. Even if he served one term, as he said America's problems must be fixed in the first four years, we don't have eight years.