McCain Faces Uncertain Future After Election Rout

[SuperTrouper]

PHOENIX, Arizona (AFP) – After a lifetime spent staring down adversity and triumphing against the odds, John McCain has rightly earned the reputation as the king of the comebacks.

But the defeated Republican presidential candidate and Arizona senator may find it hard to rebuild his political career after Tuesday's heavy election loss to Barack Obama, analysts say.

McCain, 72, now faces an uncertain future as the shell-shocked Republicans attempt to regroup with an eye on mid-term elections in 2010 and the next White House race in four years' time.

While aides to McCain have suggested he could return to the Senate and become a Republican elder statesman in the mould of Democratic lion Edward Kennedy, opinion is split over how influential he may be.

"If he was younger and likely to run for the presidency again the party could rally around him and he could be influential," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

"But that's not going to happen. His problem is that he doesn't have anywhere to go. And a lot of people are going to be angry, and will probably blame his campaign for the scale of the defeat."

McCain emerging as a Kennedy-style figure of the right was unlikely, Zelizer said. "After running against Jimmy Carter, Kennedy had a clearly defined role as the voice of American liberalism. He stood for a coherent and easily recognizable set of ideals," he told AFP.

"John McCain doesn't really represent anything and in a sense that was part of the problem of his campaign."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081105/pl_afp/usvotemccainfuture

[Chloroplast]

1. Too late; he should have thought about his legacy months ago.

[izquierdista]

2. Back to Arizona

It's where a lot of dried-out old hose-bags go to die. The heat just dessicates them further until they all look like the Crypt Keeper.

[marybourg]

3. I'll try not to take that personally

My hair's not long and yellow yet.

[izquierdista]

5. Leave before it's too late!

I don't know how rational, thinking people can live in places like Arizona, or Oklahoma, or Georgia. I suppose they do like I did when I lived in South Carolina; shut up, don't pay attention to people and don't let them bother you.

[symbolman]

6. Cindy McCain!

seperated at birth? The similarities are incredible, never noticed until someone made a graphic with their faces superimposed :)

[TrogL]

4. Retire, (have somebody ghost-) write his memoirs

[Geoff R. Casavant]

7. He's up for re-election in the Senate in 2010

I expect he will retire.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. Janet Napolitano is already winning in a hypothetical 2010 matchup, too