US Senator McCain moves closer to White House bid

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - US Senator John McCain has moved one step closer to a 2008 presidential run, announcing that he has formed a committee to explore the option.

"I've always said I would decide early next year, and I'm going to sit down with my family over the (Christmas) holiday and make that decision," McCain said, adding that the exploratory committee would ensure that "we are doing the things organizationally and legally that need to be done to prepare for it."

"We will not make a final decision until I sit down with my family but we will be prepared," he said.

The Arizona lawmaker and Vietnam war veteran was a contender for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination, but lost to George W. Bush, who went on to win the White House, and reelection in 2004.

His decision to form an exploratory committee came less than a week after Republicans lost both houses of Congress to the Democrats in legislative elections.

An October 28 CNN poll gave McCain 27 percent support for the Republican nomination, just behind former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, with 29 percent.

Meanwhile, one prominent Democrat has announced he would not seek his party's nomination.

Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, who has staked out a liberal stance on most issues, has reportedly decided not to run, after months of weighing a possible bid for the presidency.

"I never got to that point where I'd rather be running around the country, running for president, than being a senator from Wisconsin," Feingold, 53, said in an interview published Sunday in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He conceded that his position on the far left among US senators made a long shot in any bid for the Democratic nomination.

"It would have required the craziest combination of things in the history of American politics to make it work," Feingold told the daily.