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DEL.ICIO.USYour daily dose of Nunn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michael Crowley of the New Republic has weighed in with a substantive piece on the prospect of Sam Nunn as Barack Obama’s choice of a running mate in November.
His verdict? A wise choice that’s politically unlikely to happen:
[Nunn] is the Washington establishment’s archetype of a vice president: undeniably qualified, yet low-key and uninterested in personal glory. He is, in many ways, what Dick Cheney promised to be before it grew evident that Cheney had lost his marbles.
This is probably the most thorough assessment of Nunn out there by the national press. Crowley makes two points I haven’t seen elsewhere:
— On Nunn and the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy:
Nunn would guarantee Obama one unfortunate thing: a backlash from gay and lesbian activists, who are already refreshing bitter memories about the lead role Nunn played in quashing Bill Clinton’s 1993 attempt to allow gays to serve openly in the military. …. But Nunn conveyed less of a sense of personal morality than an obligation, as Armed Services Committee chairman, to represent the military’s views.
— On the former Georgia senator’s age:
Few things would mollify the embittered Clinton machine more than an Obama running mate who isn’t an instant threat to Hillary’s future presidential ambitions.
Comments
By Grateful Flea
June 11, 2008 11:36 PM | Link to this
It’s going to be Hillary. It has 2B. Together, the democrats get 16 years in the white house.
And things’ll be different, you’ll see, other countries will say, there goes Uncle Sam he really changed and brought justice to all americans and peace to the world!!!
By Rarl Kove
June 11, 2008 11:49 PM | Link to this
Obama will not pick Hillary. The Clinton’s would never make it throught the vetting process. Obama would require that they open all their financial records, and Bill will not release the records for his Library/Massage Parlor. I bet he picks Sen. Joe Biden, the dumbest man in the Senate.
By DaninMacon
June 12, 2008 12:18 AM | Link to this
Hey Rarl, didn’t Biden call Obama the first “clean and articulate” African American to run for President. If a Republican had said that, there would be heck to pay. You may be right, there had been a lot of Biden talk lately.
By Grateful Flea
June 12, 2008 7:24 AM | Link to this
I miss Hillary. When she cried that time, her voice so clear and remarkably feminine as she explained why it was personal with her, those pauses, that inflection, and her intimations were great moments, the greatest of the campaign. This woman makes you believe that America can get justice for it’s citizens.
Because it’s about justice. We live in the tyranny of Cheney. Cheney is the face of the Saudis. The Iraq War is a product of foreign owned defense contractors, the vast majority of which are Saudi owned.
Faulty intelligence is a good excuse for war only if Cheney hadn’t himself manufactured that intel. Then you have to question the judgement of someone who would believe weakdick intel and commit to a unending war. Based on what? What if all the intel was true? So we go to unending war? That’s like scuttling the titanic simply because a passenger ordered a scotch on the rocks. Icebergs! We may as well just sink this ship with all that ice in that glass of scotch. (“It’s bourbon, sir”)
That’s the big classified bombshell here. Cheney invented this stuff and then blamed, like Hitler believing in his own torch parades given by Hitler in Hitler’s honor, (“gee, I’m really popular”), Cheney now points to the faulty intel that he himself sponsored.
Cheney is our Stalin and our Hitler. He is our Sh!tler.
By The Snark
June 12, 2008 7:41 PM | Link to this
Grateful Flea: You better hope the Vice-President doesn’t see your comments. You might end up at Guantanamo. Criticism of the government is treason. Sieg Heil!
By Bitter EX democrackkk
June 12, 2008 8:22 PM | Link to this
STRIVE to be SMARTER than a democrackkk!
By Churchill
June 12, 2008 8:25 PM | Link to this
If that was the case, Snark, then all you libs would be in jail.
By Abe
June 12, 2008 9:37 PM | Link to this
Having jettisoned logic, thoughtful argument, cogent analysis, and reasonable discourse, the Liberal went right to the familiar, well-worn Hitler card.
And he lived miserably ever after.
By Wackolibhack
June 12, 2008 9:53 PM | Link to this
It is Bush’s fault that liberals are insensitive to Jews and play the Hitler card. Bush made the Democratic party antisemitic. I hate Bush!!!
By Wackolibhack
June 12, 2008 11:47 PM | Link to this
I am the walrus I am the churchill i am the danin macon ca choo choo ca choo choo i am the racist i am the class warrior i am the fake christian ca choo choo ewwwee i hate barbara bush and the old mule she rode in on long live george boy down with jeb he ain’t born-again
By ducdebrabant
June 16, 2008 8:33 AM | Link to this
Jonathan Capehart has an equally thoughtful piece in The Washington Post about why Obama should do no such thing:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008 061002527.html
There’s no sign that Nunn’s disgust with gays and lesbians has abated, and his “reconsideration” of DADT is nothing of the sort. It’s simply the barest statement he could make in order to suggest his mind is now open. He’s willing to see hearings held — hopefully held by somebody as hostile to gay people as Sam Nunn himself.
He didn’t mind undermining a President of his own party on an issue Clinton ran and won on. A Vice President who publicly differed with Obama on gays and lesbians, or who even threatened to, would be catastrophic for an important Democratic constituency.
And despite Nunn’s efforts, gays and lesbians still matter a bit in the Democratic Party — not as much as Donnie McClurkin’s homophobic fans mattered to Obama in North Carolina, but some.