Washington, D.C.
Democratic presidential contender John Kerry has repeatedly and personally asked Sen. John McCain, a maverick Republican, to be his running mate, newspapers reported this week. “It was always artfully phrased,” a source who talked to Kerry said. “He’d say, ‘I don’t want to formally ask because I don’t want to be formally rejected, but having said that, would you do it?’” McCain flatly refused. A recent CBS News poll gave a Kerry-McCain ticket a 14 percent lead over Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. McCain is friends with Kerry, a fellow Vietnam veteran, and he has a testy relationship with President Bush. But McCain has said repeatedly that he has no desire to be vice president, and that he plans to vote for Bush.
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