GIBSON: Public financing...
MCCAIN: Yes.
GIBSON: ... are you going to take it?
MCCAIN: Well, I certainly -- as you know, Senator Obama signed a piece of paper saying that he would take it if I would take it. I still want to take it. We haven't made a final decision if he doesn't take it, but I would hope that he would keep his word.
GIBSON: If he opts out, will you?
MCCAIN: I don't know. We'd have to look and see how much money -- not only how much money we could raise, but how much time you spend away from actually campaigning. That's the problem. The benefit of taking the public financing is that then you don't have to worry about the fundraising.
And so I haven't made a final decision. But, a little straight talk, we'd certainly lean towards it, but I would hope that Senator Obama would also keep his word.
GIBSON: Today, he's going to say that he's going to tell the Democratic National Committee not to accept any contributions from federal lobbyists or PACs, consistent with his policy in his campaign. Do you do the same?
MCCAIN: Yes, but I hadn't thought about it, but we certainly have -- he's taken lots and lots of money from people who have special interests in Washington. And so I'd have to look at it.
I hadn't thought about it much before, but I am proud to say we have the most stringent and transparent policy about lobbyists in our campaign than any campaign in history.
GIBSON: I asked you about your vice presidency. It just occurred the question -- do you have any thoughts you might be running against an Obama-Clinton ticket?
MCCAIN: I hadn't thought that much about it, but obviously it would be a formidable ticket. But I also think there's a lot of people out there that could make it a formidable ticket, as well. And I know that a lot of times, too, we place emphasis on the running mate and, at the end of the day, it's the top of the ticket that most Americans make their selection from.
GIBSON: There are reports that, when you first announced your campaign, that you were very close to taking a pledge that you'd be a one-term president if elected. Is that true?
MCCAIN: No. There's been many proposals made to me. As I was going through the announcement tour, somebody proposed it, but I didn't seriously consider it.
GIBSON: You're a very private man. And Karl Rove wrote a piece recently that said, if people really knew what had gone on when you were in captivity in Hanoi, that it would tell them a lot about your character that they don't otherwise know. Do you intend to talk about that much during the campaign?
MCCAIN: No, because I'm a flawed man. The great honor of my life was to have the privilege of serving in the company of heroes, of observing 1,000 acts of courage and compassion and love with men who were far, far better than I am.
GIBSON: But he talked about the generosity that you had exhibited and that he had knowledge of to other people who were imprisoned with you. Are those people we might hear from during the campaign? Or is this just a chapter that you're going to...
MCCAIN: Well, I'm proud to have the support of so many of the people that I was in prison camp with, yes, people like Colonel Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor winner, and others. I'm glad to have their support and their active participation.
I think what Karl Rove was talking about, to some degree, was I did have an opportunity to come home early from prison camp. And, obviously, in some ways, that was tempting. But at the end of the day, it was not something that I could have ever done.
GIBSON: Eight months ago, you were in a campaign that was broke...
MCCAIN: History.
GIBSON: You were written off by most people. I guess what I'm asking is, how badly, in your gut, do you want to win? Or was getting the nomination, coming back enough?
MCCAIN: I want to win, obviously. And I'm going to work 24/7 in order to try to become the president of the United States. It's very humbling to have the nomination of the party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
But I don't want it so badly that I would do something that later I would look back on as something that was less than the kind of conduct that I would want my children and family and friends to respect.
GIBSON: I've heard you say on a couple of occasions, "I'm very comfortable with myself, win or lose." But as you said that, I thought to myself, "Is it in him? Does he want this deep down in his gut?" Because that's what it takes.
MCCAIN: Well, I think, if you just mentioned in the last year, after we were written off, and I was carrying my own bags in Group C on Southwest Airlines, I think I showed that we -- I wasn't willing to give up. And I've had other challenges, in fact, greater challenges than this campaign in my life that I didn't give up. I think I can assure the American people of that.
GIBSON: Senator, it's good to talk to you.
MCCAIN: Thank you, Charlie.
END
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