McCain to NH vets: Won't run for president again

Posted: 9:03 AM
By: ABC15.com staff, wire reports

NASHUA, N.H. - If John McCain hadn't made it clear before, he's leaving no doubt that the presidency is a dream gone by.

Addressing a veterans rally for a Republican Senate candidate in Nashua on Saturday, the Arizona senator was reminiscing about his presidential campaigns in New Hampshire, where he won the Republican primaries in 2000 and 2008.

He told the audience of 200 that "this may surprise you, but I will not be running for president again." He promised, though, that he will do everything in his power to make sure New Hampshire maintains its first-in-the-nation presidential primary status.

The Republican will be 76 in 2012, the next presidential election.

Ayotte brought in McCain to show voters she and the two-time New Hampshire presidential primary winner share the same anti-government spending philosophy.

It was McCain's second trip to the state to campaign for Kelly Ayotte. He helped raise money for her in March and appeared with her at a town-hall style event in Nashua.

McCain's image as a maverick, independent-thinking Republican helped him win New Hampshire's GOP presidential primary in 2000 and again in 2008 when his campaign had faltered just months earlier. The 2008 Republican presidential nominee lost to Barack Obama in the general election.

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