It’s a great country, where anybody can grow up to be president... except me.

Goldwater’s quip is a piece of self-deprecating political humor that plays on the familiar civic boast that the United States is a meritocracy in which “anyone can become president.” By adding “except me,” he punctures the slogan and acknowledges—wryly—that electoral politics is contingent on timing, public mood, party dynamics, and personal image as much as on talent or principle. The line also gestures at Goldwater’s own experience as a polarizing figure: even in a system open in theory, particular candidates can become symbolically “unelectable” in practice. The joke thus doubles as a critique of political mythmaking and a candid admission of political limits.