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Sunday, May 18, 2008
Sam Nunn on Barack Obama and the vice presidency
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week, the Democratic world was abuzz with the news that former North Carolina senator John Edwards, a former contender himself, had endorsed Barack Obama in the never-ending race for the presidency.
The development was important only within the confines of the Democratic primary. Edwards will be of little use to Obama in a fall campaign, when Republicans highlight the commander-in-chief credentials of John McCain.
Obama received the endorsement of the white, Southern male who mattered weeks earlier, when former U.S. senator Sam Nunn of Georgia quietly announced that he would serve as an advisor on national security.
Even before he’s secured the Democratic nomination, Republicans have declared Obama’s greenhorn status in international affairs to be a ripe target. Nunn voted against the first Persian Gulf war in 1991 and has been a harsh critic of President Bush’s handling of the current conflict in Iraq.
Come October, Nunn could serve as an important reference on Obama’s resume.
The Georgian’s backing has also stirred talk that the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who keeps an office on the edge of the Georgia Tech campus, would make a fine running mate for Obama.
Nunn says you should treat such speculation with extreme skepticism. More on that in a bit.
But first consider how Nunn, a conservative Democrat, came to settle on Obama, who is not.
For the past year, the former senator had been one of the behind-the-scenes figures exploring a non-partisan bid for the presidency.
Only five months ago, Nunn and former Senate colleague David Boren summoned a group of centrist Democrats and Republicans to Oklahoma City, where — with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg among them — they decried the crass polarization of political debate, and the lack of any forum that required presidential candidates to address issues in depth.
Say what you will about it, the two party-system abhors a vacuum. Nunn’s complaints that middle America had been shut out of the dialogue coincided with the rise of McCain and Obama, both of whom appeal to independents.
“I suspect we were riding the wave much more than we were causing it,” Nunn said in an interview last week. As the air wooshed out of a third-party movement, the former senator began looking at the presidential candidates still in the race.
Nunn’s top priority is the restoration of the United States’s credibility in the world. You can’t imagine, he said, how much damage the war in Iraq has done.
What must be regained, the senator said, is a non-partisan approach to foreign policy. McCain doesn’t represent change. Hillary Clinton, Nunn said, would find the task difficult — a president who polarizes at home would find it hard to create a unified foreign policy abroad.
Nunn said he’s talked with Obama. But he was also swayed by the good reports about the candidate from Republicans — including the staff of U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lugar has served as Nunn’s partner in a 17-year program to corral the world’s “loose nukes.”
“Lugar’s staff tell me [Obama] is genuine, he’s sincere, he’s very capable and not only is he a fast learner, but he’s got real depth,” Nunn said.
“Even when he’s heading to the left, he always wants to find out what the other position is. I think that’s enormously important. We’ve been heading down an ideological split in this country — it’s been annoying for a long time. It’s gotten dangerous now.”
“Even though I would love for him to have more experience, I think he’s the most likely to listen, he’s the most likely to be non-ideological,” Nunn said. “There are very few people in politics now who let the facts have a bearing on their conclusions.”
As for that vice presidential stuff.
It’s not just “highly improbable” that Obama would make the offer. “I think that it’s also highly improbable that I want to go back into government,” Nunn said.
And think about it. Nunn will be 70 this fall. He’s trim, he’s fit. Intellectually, he’s not about to slip into a rut. But John McCain is 71, and his age has already become an issue. As a running mate, Nunn would muddy any discussion.
“People are looking for younger leadership and change. And that’s an important factor that Obama needs to consider. And I would tell him that if he asked me,” Nunn said.
If you want proof of Nunn’s disinterest in the position, consider that vice presidential candidates aren’t permitted their own agendas.
Nunn has been hosting a series of “dialogues” — available on the Internet — on terrorism and national security with former U.S. defense secretary William Cohen.
Another one will be held in Atlanta early next month. It will concide with a national convention of volunteers, hosted by the Points of Light & Hands On Network, an organization headed by Michelle Nunn, the former senator’s daughter.
Nunn the father will make a pitch for a new national service program. Not a draft, but incentives — federal grants for college — given to young people who volunteer for the military or border duty, or who do civilian service as teachers, hospital workers or the like.
The grants would take the place of the current college loan system, which Nunn says has trapped many students in a cycle of debt. The former senator expects to be pounded by both right and left.
Photo credit: Bloomberg News
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Aaron Gould Sheinin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aaron Gould Sheinin is blogging the 2008 political conventions. Aaron has covered politics in Georgia and South Carolina for more than 10 years.
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Linder carried from Capitol Hill restaurant
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Washington Post has an account of U.S. Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) being carried from a Capitol Hill restaurant on Thursday night.
This was posted the following day on one of the newspaper’s political blogs, called The Sleuth:
It wasn’t his most graceful exit, we’ll put it that way. Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) was carried out of Bullfeathers, a Capitol Hill bar and restaurant, Thursday evening, feet dragging on the pavement, as congressional aides enjoying happy hour looked on in amazement.
Two Capitol Hill Police cars and a fire truck were called to the scene. ”They had to hold up him up by the seat of his pants and his arms were draped around their shoulders,” says one source, a congressional aide, who asked not to be identified.
Another Sleuth informant who was sitting at the bar says the bartender told him “some older guy fainted from the heat or something.”
Linder’s spokesman, Derick Corbett, says the 65-year-old congressman didn’t faint but he did fall and hurt his knee pretty badly. Linder is scheduled to undergo an MRI medical test on Monday.
“John has a bad knee,” Corbett tells us. “He put his foot down the wrong way, and his knee gave out.” Corbett wasn’t there but he says the congressman told him, “It hurt, and it hurt bad.”
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Sam Olens thinking about a run for governor?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Marietta Daily Journal carried this tidbit in its Saturday editions:
Cobb Commission Chair Sam Olens is thinking of tossing his hat in the race for governor, now that U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has decided not to run for the job….
“I do not feel the need to start an exploratory committee until after the November election. We need to focus on (the upcoming) elections and governance for now. But the calls (for him to run) have been very encouraging,” he wrote in an e-mail….
Olens has been increasingly vocal on the state Capitol’s failure to address transportation and other issues related to growth. And it’s known that the business community, somewhat disillusioned with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, has been shopping around.
You have to wonder what Bill Byrne is thinking. Byrne was Olens’ predecessor in the Cobb chairmanship job, and ran for governor in 2002 — but was bested by Sonny Perdue in the Republican primary.
Now, if Cagle does run for governor in 2010, who replaces him? Word at this weekend’s state GOP convention in Columbus was that state Sens. Mitch Seabaugh of Sharpsburg and David Shafer of Duluth are kicking the tires.
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