Others think McCain is just a self-serving media whore:
Is McCain eyeing another presidential run?
WASHINGTON — What is John McCain running for?
The silver-haired Arizona Republican senator, former Vietnam War POW and unsuccessful 2000 GOP presidential candidate has been seen so often on television and quoted so heavily in the newspapers in recent weeks that one might suspect he is angling for another White House run.
He's been making the rounds of the TV talk shows discussing everything from aviation security to war strategy, youth service to economic stimulus, and anything else anyone asks him about.
McCain, these days, seems never to have met a camera or tape recorder he didn't like.
Last week, with much publicity, he launched a proposal with Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh to expand the AmeriCorps youth volunteer service program from 50,000 to 250,000 by 2010.
And he even was seen on national television sitting next to New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani Sunday night in Phoenix when the Diamondbacks won Game 7 of the World Series. The week before, he ventured to Yankee Stadium to join Giuliani in his field box for Game 5. Both games drew TV audiences in the tens of millions.
Up on Capitol Hill, it's becoming a running joke among reporters that whenever a news conference is called, there's a better than even chance that McCain will show up.
Not that they mind. Reporters like nothing better than a politician willing to talk on the record, regardless of the subject. And McCain likes to talk. He became a media darling during his presidential run by jawboning at length with the press corps whenever the chance arose aboard his "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus.
But, in recent weeks, that talk has taken on a decidedly negative tone against fellow Republicans in the House who voted for an aviation security bill that would put the federal government in charge of airport security, but keep the baggage screeners private employees.
McCain voted for the Senate bill that would federalize the entire airport security work force. But rather than argue for his position, McCain, an ardent advocate of campaign finance reform, implied that House Republicans want to keep the screeners private because they have been bought off by donations from the private companies that hire the screeners.
This miffed many House Republicans, some of whom asked why McCain didn't charge that Democrats who support a major expansion of the federal work force are in the pockets of the public employee unions.
A Wall Street Journal editorial Wednesday accused McCain of "grandstanding."
Some Republicans also thought McCain was doing a bit of grandstanding at White House and Pentagon expense the week before last. In an interview with The Hill newspaper, he cautioned the Bush administration against "painting too optimistic a scenario" for the war against terrorism, and compared it to upbeat predictions that never came true during the Vietnam War.
He said the Vietnam-era climate of cynicism "was brought on, to some degree, by that very same kind of, not misinformation, but certainly interpretation of information, which wasn't always accurate."
McCain's cafefully couched remarks came at a time when media were criticizing the administration's refusal to admit the war in Afghanistan had not bogged down, and acted to bolster the media argument. The White House was not amused, especially since McCain's war experience give him automatic credibility on such issues.
So we come back to the question, What is McCain running for?
Maybe nothing. Perhaps he just likes the media spotlight and wants to be an active participant in the big debates on the issues he is committed. to. And perhaps he is perfectly content as the senior senator from Arizona.
But then again, perhaps he's laying the groundwork for another presidential run in 2004, a run that can become viable only if President Bush flops over the next three years.
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