No, he did not. The reason to write a C compiler / interpreter in Lisp is that so you can then write an Lisp system on top of C and show off your 'uber-haxor skillz'.
The question isn't what compiler you would want to start off with. Its what programming language (one SINGLE programming language) would you want to use if restricted to use only it.
Not so easy as the distinction between programming language and ways to interpret data is often rather soft. Would xml already count as programming language? If not, how about using Lisp only to load configuration data and maybe to exchange data between running applications? An advanced data format is not really different anymore from a programming language. Or should I no longer use s-expressions if I chose something else than lisp? What about makefiles or bash-scripts? Am I no longer allowed to use my editor if it's not programmable in my favorite language?
It's just a hypothetical question, so there's some room for interpretation :-) So I really thought more of it as "with which language would I start out".
In my case C++ would have a good chance for that (maybe I better change my nickname on ycombinator after getting out with this...). It's one of the few languages which does not confront me with any barriers between me and the system and I like that. I might take longer than with other languages for a lot of tasks, but I know that if something can be done with the computer then I can do it with C++. Also I have lot of experience with it (for example in implementing small parsers) and experience is certainly always an important factor.
But the most important factor would be the tasks I would expect to face from now on. Lets say I expect to work on some more games or similar virtual worlds. I already know c++ works for that (for me) so I would chose it. If I would expect to do server-side programming then it would be another language.
Turing completeness is a pretty good indicator. According to that, XML is not a programming language.
And since both C++ and Lisp are Turing equivalent you can implement each using the other.
Given that, if we're allowed to build other languages on top of our chosen language, then I too would choose a low level language like C or C++ (at this point I think assembly is too low level for most things)
