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Kyl expresses doubt about McCain's chances
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TUCSON - Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona expressed some doubt to a newspaper reporter that his seatmate, John McCain, will be elected president.
Following an interview last week with the Arizona Daily Star editorial board, Kyl wondered if McCain would join Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrats Mo Udall and Bruce Babbitt as Arizonans who tried and failed to win the White House.
"Unfortunately, I think John McCain might be added to that long list of Arizonans who ran for president but were never elected," Kyl told the Star. "Maybe, we'll be able to say Arizona's the only state where your child can't grow up to be president. Let's hope that doesn't happen."
Kyl told the Associated Press on Sunday that he takes issue with the Star's article, saying it "totally misrepresented" his position.
"I had previously said I refuse to accept the premise that John McCain will lose, but when the reporter said, 'Well, assume that he loses, then do you think someone from Arizona could be elected?'" Kyl told the AP. "And I simply made the joke that Mo Udall and Bruce Babbitt and John McCain have all made, saying that since Barry Goldwater and the three of them have all ran for president and none of them have made it, then unfortunately maybe John McCain would say that Arizona's the only state in which mothers couldn't tell their kids that they could grow up to be president."
Kyl said McCain obviously isn't ahead in the polls right now, "but neither was Ronald Reagan or George Bush the first time they ran at this point."
"It's perfectly possible for John McCain to win this race, and I believe that he has a very good chance of doing so," he said.
Asked if McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is ready and qualified to be president, Kyl told the Star that she's "as ready as Barack Obama, and she's not running for president.
"She doesn't have to be ready on day one, because John McCain is, let's assume, going to be in office for a while," Kyl said.
But in time, Palin would be ready, he said.
"God forbid something should happen to John McCain," Kyl said, "By the time she is required to be president, my answer to the question is: Yes, I think she will be ready to be president if she's called upon to be president."
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