If elected, McCain would be going on 76 years old at the point when he’d start a re-election campaign in earnest. He might well decide, at that point, that he doesn’t have another run in him. He may even suspect now that that’ll be the case.

But the political realities are that one simply does not announce that at the outset. For one thing, it’s conceivable that McCain will feel quite energetic four years from now and want to run again. Having run on a one-term pledge would be awkward at that point. More importantly, he’d be an instant lame duck. That’s the case, anyway, for second term presidents. But one doesn’t want to start out that way.

Indeed, if one Googles John McCain one term lame duck, one gets 37,000 results. Among them, this answer from a Republican primary forum way back in January:

”No, because I think then you’re the lame duck, you’re quacking on Inauguration Day,” he said. ”But look, I would point out that when Ronald Reagan won the Cold War, he was in his second term older than me. I think that’s pretty good, isn’t it? Look, I’ve got the vigor. I’ve been – everybody has seen me here on the campaign trail. We work 16, 18 hours a day.”

I think McCain’s decision to reject a one term pledge is a good one!

As for Romney, I know that he understands the genius of American capitalism and limited government. He also knows we must defeat our enemies. Both strengths stand in clear contrast to those of the candidate(s) for president on the left.