McCain Should Keep His Senate Seat - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
McCain Should Keep His Senate Seat
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On Wednesday, I reported that on a blogger conference call, John McCain said while it was his intention to remain in the Senate, he would wait until after he wraps up the nomination to decide whether to leave his seat to focus on the presidential race full time. In other words, he left the door open to giving it up. Since Drudge has now decided it’s news by linking to this story, I assume it’ll generate more buzz, so I thought I’d offer a quick comment.

As exciting as the possibility of having a Sen. John Shadegg is, I think it would be a huge mistake for McCain to abandon his seat. Though it may free up time to run for president, it would reinforce the age issue by communicating the impression that he’s a man in the twilight of his career. Especially if he’s up against Barack Obama, the last thing he needs is a series of headlines with the words, “MCCAIN RETIRES” in them. The obvious parallell to this is Bob Dole, who delivered a beautiful speech in leaving the Senate that was widely praised (“I will seek the presidency with nothing to fall back on but the judgment of the people and nowhere to go but the White House or home”), but the “one last mission” concept didn’t work out too well for him that November. McCain would be much better off keeping the seat so he could communicate that he is still young and vigorous, in spite of his age.

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