"It Had Become My Ambition To Be President"
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
August 19, 2008 11:17pm CST
Do you know who said that? I guess I should back up a bit first; John McCain said this during his remarks to a VFW yesterday:
"Behind all of these claims and positions by Senator Obama lies the ambition to be president."
After saying the above so recently, who'd think the same person had also WRITTEN the following in his own political memoir about why he ran for President in 2000:
"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."
What I'd like to discuss is, is an ambition to be President a good thing for a nominee to have, a bad thing, or a good thing if McCain has it but not so much if Obama does? There is no doubt that these are McCain's words in both cases. I'm having a rather hard time making sense of them.
Annie
3 people like this
3 responses
@calcynic (433)
• United States
20 Aug 08
I hope to hell all the candidates possess the ambition to be president. It doesn't have to be a dirty word. Ambition, ego, control issues...these are things that anyone seeking the most powerful elected office in the world have to have. This ain't a race for dog-catcher. It's just another in a pile of McCain brainfarts. As I said in another post,"If you've got nothin to say...don't say it!"
3 people like this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
20 Aug 08
Absolutely! Just like the idea that some people think the President is supposed to be someone "just like me"; I'm not putting myself down, but I'm not so vain as to think the President is ever going to be just like me! I hope our President is a little bit smarter than the average American, a little more confident, a little more capable of learning, a better diplomat, a little...BETTER than the rest of us. Having been captured and held as a POW doesn't necessarily make someone any of these things. I'm going to get it for this, but I don't care! His plane got shot down and he was taken prisoner, as were how many others? I respect and appreciate his service to our country but every person who served out country isn't automatically qualified to lead it and everyone who hasn't served in the military isn't automatically unqualified.
A President should certainly be sharp enough not to attack someone for something he's admitted to be "guilty " of himself.
Annie
3 people like this
@calcynic (433)
• United States
20 Aug 08
In the middle of my second stint in Nam, I got hit. Our truck hit a mine and I was the only survivor. My left arm was shredded and my shoulder was blown out of the joint. Night was falling and it was 5 miles back to DaNang Airbase. Somehow, I crawled parallel to the trail, stopping and barely breathing when VC patrols would come by. It was a harrowing night, but I made it to the AirForce gate before I passed out and I woke up in post op recovery. I was pretty clever and resourceful that night...I survived. I got hit and didn't get caught...can I be President?
3 people like this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
20 Aug 08
Yes you can! I can say with complete seriousness, if you were running head to head against McCain I'd vote for you, my friend! I'm very, very sorry for your injuries and the loss of your friends, and I appreciate your service to our country.
Annie
3 people like this
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
20 Aug 08
I think that it would really depend on why they want to be president. If they have the abbition to become president simply because there is nothing else to do with their lives, if they want to become president because it is the most powerful position in the US government, then no I don't think it is a good ambition.
I keep hearing everyone bashing Obama because he wants to make changes and I really do not understand this at all. I mean seriously McCain has not said he wanted to change the state that America is in now, does that mean he thinks that there is nothing wrong with it and it is great to continue Bush's policies? Look at unemployment in this country, the rates are not very good, and does everyone know that once a person gives up on looking for a job they are no longer considered "unemployed"? Look at the country's debt, is that a good thing? How about all the people loosing their homes, is that good? I was reading a discussion yesterday by a bunch of conservatives and they were laughing because Obama said (and I'll paraphrase) We live in the greatest country in the world. Help me change it. This to me means-we use to live in the land of opportunity but somewhere along the line it has become broken, lets work together to fix it.
I do not agree with McCain that Obama has ambition to be president, I believe that Obama has the ambition to change this country to make it better. He has spent his adult life trying to make a difference, he is not looking for power in the White House, it isn't an ego trip that he is on, he wants the United States to be better than it currently is.
On another note, did you go back to the other discussion where I sort of had a meltdown about Roe vs. Wade? LOL I couldn't resist going back.
3 people like this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
21 Aug 08
I would say to state that a candidate having an ambition to be president is a good thing. He then would make sure that he has in his mind what he would do. It would be better if he said it himself, rather than someone else saying it for him. So McCain admitted, and he made sure that his conduct was all right. Obama did not admit it I assume that he was sort of thrust into the candidacy before he was some know what the results will be. In 2000 maybe McCain had not formatted his game plan. So now McCain has.
1 person likes this
