‘I’m at the Top of My Game’

Speaking of never giving in, it's the title of your book and it comes from Winston Churchill. I take it you are a great admirer of his?
Churchill never gave in, to anything. He was fiercely determined. Talking about a famous war battle, he called it an exhilarating experience to be shot at and missed. He was an inspirational political figure who lost an election just after World War II, an ironic political fate for one of the greatest men of all time.

How does it feel to be called a cancer survivor? Do you think of yourself now in such terms?
Yes, I do. Although I must say it's a little eerie to call yourself a survivor, because the implication is that you might not have survived.

Will you be running for re-election in 2010 at the ripe young age of 80?
Sure. I'm at the top of my game. Why stop now? I have no plans to slow down. I was on Jon Stewart's show the other day selling my book, and he started off by saying, "How old are you, Senator?" I said, "I forget. But I looked at my birth certificate recently and thought, "Why should I let a little thing like that bother me? It happened so long ago."

So in other words John McCain isn't such an old guy after all, eh?
As the late Strom Thurmond and I would say, he's just a fledgling.

© 2008