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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Jimmy Carter: An Obama-Clinton ticket would be ‘the worst mistake’ — Nunn would be the better veep choice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In today’s The Guardian, a British newspaper, former President Jimmy Carter warns Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama against choosing Hillary Clinton as a running mate.
Carter’s comments came during an interview in London last week. The former president’s spokeswoman, Deanna Congileo, confirmed this afternoon that the quotes were accurate.
According to the newspaper:
“I think it would be the worst mistake that could be made,” said Carter. “That would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates.” Carter, who formally endorsed the Illinois senator last night, cited opinion polls showing 50% of US voters with a negative view of Clinton.
In terms that might discomfort the Obama camp, he said: “If you take that 50% who just don’t want to vote for Clinton and add it to whatever element there might be who don’t think Obama is white enough or old enough or experienced enough or because he’s got a middle name that sounds Arab, you could have the worst of both worlds.”
Who does Carter prefer?
The former president said: “What he needs more than a southerner is a person who can compensate for his obvious potential defects, his youthfulness and his lack of long experience in military and international affairs.”
For that reason, Carter says he favours Sam Nunn, the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who hails from his own state of Georgia. “That would be my preference, but there are other senior Democrats who would have similar credentials to Sam Nunn,” he said.
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Deadline? What deadline?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s two remaining uncommitted superdelegates say they’ll ignore the Friday deadline set by national Democratic party chairman Howard Dean, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — who are urging ranking party members to quickly pick either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, and remove any doubt about the outcome of the Democratic primary contest.
My colleague Julia Malone in Washington just finished talking with Doug Moore, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Macon).
“No change. He’s not going to make a determination at Howard Dean’s request,” Moore said.
How about Pelosi’s request?
“He’s not going to be on anybody else’s timetable,” Moore said.
Richard Ray, president of the Georgia AFL-CIO, was more polite, but his message was the same. “I’ll take it under advisement,” Ray said. The union leader said he was likely to make a choice soon, but doubted it would come by Friday.
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Like your drivers ed teacher said: The right-of-way often belongs to he who takes it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dick Pettys at InsiderAdvantage has a piece focusing on Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams of Lyons, who is urging his fellow Republican senators to rally behind a single candidate for lieutenant governor in 2010.
That is, if as expected, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle runs for governor.
“My position is, we only need one guy from the Senate running for the position,” Williams told Pettys. “They need to come together and decide who that’s going to be so we don’t have a divided caucus.”
Several senators have expressed interest in making the leap. There’s Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson of Savannah, Chip Rogers of Woodstock, Mitch Seabaugh of Sharpsburg, and David Shafer of Duluth.
Internally, GOP senators are portraying Williams’ comments as a move to boost Johnson, the Senate president pro tem.
A few phone conversations with potential candidates — not all, but some — indicates that Williams will have little success with his effort. This despite the fact that Johnson does have a large treasury that would give him a significant advantage in a statewide race.
But several of the above have come down with a severe case of up-or-out fever, and aren’t likely to defer to the Senate’s ranking member. As one told us, and as Cagle proved in ‘06, this isn’t wait-your-turn situation.
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In the choice between Barack Obama and John McCain, a conflicted former (GOP) senator
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The “Cohen” part of the “Cohen-Nunn Dialogues,” which continued on Tuesday in Atlanta with a seminar on national service, belongs to former Maine senator William Cohen, a Republican.
He’s a former member, with Sam Nunn, of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And in 1996, he was named by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, as the nation’s 20th secretary of defense.
Presidentially, Cohen is one of the most conflicted Americans you’ve ever met. Asked if he’s made a choice in the 2008 race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, Cohen said he had not.
Primarily because he likes his job as a CNN commentator.
On the other hand:
“I was best man at John McCain’s wedding. And I’m still great friends with John.”
Then again, Cohen said:
“And I like Obama’s message. And I have, out of my five grandchildren, three of them are biracial. They live here in Atlanta. They are the Barack Obamas of the future. So I’ve got a lot of competing interests….My wife is an Obama supporter. She feels pretty strongly about that.”
But still:
“I wouldn’t be where I am without John McCain, either.”
Cohen told of how, as a novice senator, he was on a trip to China to meet with Premier Deng Xiaoping. McCain was the Navy officer acting as the liaison on the journey. “During that trip it was John McCain who said, you’ve got to get on the [Senate] Armed Services Committee,” Cohen said. Which led to the secretary of defense job, etc., etc.
