Washington – Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Wednesday that he will not run for president in 2008, saying he plans to “take a sabbatical from public life” and return to his Tennessee home and his professional roots as a doctor.
Long viewed as a potential front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Frist said now is not the time to run for higher office.
“In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close,” he said in a written statement. “I do not intend to run for president in 2008.”
Frist’s decision still leaves a broad field of potential Republican candidates in 2008, the first time a sitting president or vice president will not be vying for the nation’s highest office in more than half a century.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani are among the leading Republicans considering presidential bids. Meanwhile, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack are among the Democrats thought to be interested in running.
