WASHINGTON (AFP) — John McCain's White House campaign manager refused to be pinned down Sunday on whether the 71-year-old Republican might commit to serve only one term as president if he is elected in November.
Rick Davis, interviewed on Fox News Sunday, was asked if the Arizona senator might pledge at next month's Republican convention to serve a single term and decline to run for re-election in four years' time.
"You're going to have to come to the Republican convention to find out what's going to happen there," Davis said ahead of the September 1-4 gathering in Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota.
Asked if he was ruling out the idea or not, the campaign manager said: "I'm not talking about it at all."
McCain will turn 72 on August 29, the day after his White House rival Barack Obama, 47, will be officially proclaimed the Democratic nominee. If he beats Obama, McCain would be the oldest president yet sworn in to a first term.
Pledging to run for only one term could deflect any concerns voters have about McCain's age, and might free him up to promise a politics-free White House for the next four years.
"Well, first of all, if you know John McCain, you know there's not going to be much politics in the White House anyway," Davis said, praising his candidate as a principled politician who has always put country before party.
"I mean, he doesn't grade any of his decisions either as a senator or in the future as president on what the political dynamic is," he said.
The Obama campaign has not explicitly made an issue of McCain's age. But the Republican's camp has been angered by what they see as snide remarks such as Obama's praise of McCain's "half-century of service" to the nation.
McCain is not averse to digs at his own expense, joking in April on the comedy show "Saturday Night Live" that voters should look to elect a president who is "very, very, very old."
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