Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

Vidal’s quip is a cynical indictment of electoral ambition in American politics. It suggests that the very desire to seek the presidency signals traits—vanity, hunger for power, opportunism, or a willingness to flatter and manipulate—that should make a person unfit to hold such authority. The joke turns on a paradox: the office demands exceptional judgment and restraint, yet the campaign process rewards self-promotion and ruthless competitiveness. In Vidal’s broader worldview, the line also reflects suspicion that modern U.S. politics is less a civic calling than a careerist spectacle, where the selection mechanism filters out the most scrupulous and elevates those most adept at performance.