McCain thrills local GOP with decision

Local Republicans were fired up Thursday by Sen. John McCain’s decision to seek the presidency.

McCain pre-announced his second run for the presidency on “Late Show With David Letterman” on Wednesday night, saying he’ll officially announce his candidacy in early April after a trip to Iraq.

“The last time we were on this program, I’m sure that you remember everything very clearly that we say, but you asked me if I would come back on this show if I was going to announce...I am announcing that I will be a candidate for president of the United States,” McCain told Letterman.

Patti O’Berry, chairman of Legislative District 30 and president of the Green Valley Republican Woman’s Club, has been anticipating the announcement.

“We knew McCain was going to be running—he’s Arizona’s man,” O’Berry said. “There’s room for all types of Republicans, but he’s going to be a very formidable candidate.”

Pete Davis, a local Republican activist and former chairman for Legislative District 30, agrees with O’Berry.

“He is our favorite son and we all owe him a debt of gratitude for his service—and we wish him well for his presidential bid,” Davis said.

McCain—who is considered the foremost authority on the Iraq War in the Senate—has supported the war from the start and backed the president’s recent decision to send an additional 21,500 troops overseas.

“Americans are very frustrated, and they have a right to be. We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives,” McCain told Letterman.

Campaigns and controversy go hand in hand and this one started off with a bang with as Democrats were already demanding Thursday that McCain apologize for using the word “wasted”—as Sen. Barack Obama did when he recently made the same observation about the loss of more than 3,100 soldiers.

“I should have used the word “sacrificed”, as I have in the past,” McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, said in a statement. “No one appreciates and honors more than I do the selfless patriotism of American servicemen and women in the Iraq War.”

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona has served with McCain for the last 12 years in the Senate. In a piece posted on nationalreviewonline.com Thursday, Kyl states, “The defining issue for any candidate who seeks the presidency next year will be that person’s vision for conducting the war against terrorists and our mission in Iraq; there is no one stronger on this issue, or with more credibility than John McCain.”

When McCain officially announces, he will face a myriad of much-talked about candidates, including former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

The four-term senator ran and lost a harsh race for the president against George W. Bush in 2000. If McCain, 70, wins this time around, he would be the oldest president ever sworn into office for a first term.

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