"I didn’t decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . In truth, I’d had the ambition for a long time."
- John McCain, in his 2002 biography Worth the Fighting For
Wow.
If I could make that text as big as our national debt is going to be, I'd be sorely tempted. It deserves a flashing neon sign, in warning light red.
That's a stunning admission on so many levels. Not only does it say "I, John McCain, didn't care about my political ideals," or "I, John McCain, did not necessarily want to serve the people of this great nation" or "I, John McCain, did not want to serve out of a love of country" it also says, "I, John McCain, did not think I would be around long enough to run for president again."
This is, essentially, John McCain in 2002 saying he didn't think he would live long enough (or perhaps live well enough) to have the chance (or even just the vitality) to run for president in 2008.
What do you say to someone who's running for president in 2008 that admitted in 2002 that he was only doing it out of sheer personal ambition?
What do you say to someone who's running for president in 2002 that also seems to admit in 2002 that he didn't think he'd be able to run in 2008? That's the only reason an ambitious politician would ever admit that he's merely an ambitious politician, and didn't care about anything but winning an election.
Never mind that it puts his pick of Sarah Palin in a much more disturbing light.
While this is the much-railed against short diary, and I have alluded to this in similarly named comments, I think this bears more prominence in our analysis and discussion of this campaign. There it is, in black and white, printed in hundreds of thousands of copies of his autobiography. Will the media pick this up? Can we get them to? Shouldn't someone ask McCain about this, given that he's claimed that Barack Obama would rather lose a war than an election? According to the statement above, John McCain would rather anything than lose an election.
I can only interpret his words and actions taken together like this: John McCain wants to win the top elected office in the country before he dies. After that, he doesn't really care what happens.
Bonus fun fact!
Amazon.com sales ranking for Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope: #88
Amazon.com sales ranking for John McCain's Worth the Fighting For: #12,305