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DEL.ICIO.USRunning mate or not, Sam Nunn’s made his way back to the spotlight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One afternoon last week, Barack Obama gathered his new circle of national security experts into a conference room at The Liasion — an apt name for a Washington hotel if ever there was one.
In characteristic, low-key fashion, former senator Sam Nunn of Georgia avoided the TV lights and journalistic nagging. He participated by telephone.
Much has been made of 69-year-old Nunn’s presence on the presumptive Democratic nominee’s list of running mates — a fact confirmed by the Obama campaign. The prospect has roiled the blogosphere more than any other possibility save Hillary Clinton.
The odds are against an Obama/Nunn ticket. But any debate misses the point. What’s certain is that we’re witnessing the return of a formidable Southern presence to the inner circles of public policy-making — after a decade of, if not exile, then a self-imposed withdrawal from the spotlight.
Nunn retired in 1996 as one of the most influential voices in Washington on the topic of national defense. “When he left the Senate, he wanted to do other things,” said Arnold Punaro, who was Nunn’s chief of staff on the Armed Services Committee.
Nunn didn’t slow down, but his focus narrowed. He began, with Ted Turner, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a private group that tackles the important problem of “loose nukes” and other mass threats. He remains chairman of a prestigious think-tank on strategic affairs. The former senator still hobnobs with the likes of Henry Kissinger and George Shultz.
But Nunn dropped out of the average Georgian’s daily frame of reference. And his deep differences with the Bush administration over its conduct of the war in Iraq forced his profile even lower.
The ex-senator’s re-emergence began in early 2007, with an op-ed piece in Wall Street Journal that carried the bylines of Democrats Nunn and former defense secretary William Perry, and Republican secretaries of state Kissinger and Shultz. The bipartisan quartet called for “a world free of nuclear weapons.’’
The next month, an article in the New York Times Magazine detailed Nunn’s private efforts to keep nukes out of the hands of terrorists in a post-9/11 world.
The article, entitled “The Stuff Sam Nunn’s Nightmares Are Made Of,” earned Obama’s attention. The Democratic candidate mentioned it a few weeks later, at a D.C. fund-raiser.
“Sam Nunn is to the nuclear proliferation issue what Al Gore is to the global climate change issue,” Ed Kilgore, another former Nunn staffer and a prominent Democratic blogger, wrote last week.
The objections to Nunn as a vice presidential candidate are several. The Democratic left, and gays in particular, remember him as one of the authors of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prevents homosexuals from openly serving in the military. (Nunn recently said the policy deserves to be revisited.) More cold-blooded strategists say Nunn’s age could muddy a generational contrast between Obama and Republican John McCain.
But Kilgore, in an interview, said he’s noticed a consistent theme in the on-line discussions of Democrats: “I’m just stunned that people who hate the idea of [Nunn] on the ticket also say he ought to play a role in the Obama Administration.”
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Comments
By Analchord
June 22, 2008 4:48 PM | Link to this
Sam Nunn agrees with me that Bush/Cheney sold the USA down the river. The conservatives have the bill of sale. The democrats have the Bill of Rights.
Obama 08: America takes over.
By Captain Reality
June 22, 2008 6:22 PM | Link to this
“The answer my friend is blowing in the wind”
By Zathras
June 22, 2008 9:52 PM | Link to this
No, Nunn is not going on the ticket. Outside of Georgia and the Washington Beltway, very few voters even know who he is. And if Georgia — the only state Nunn might help carry in the election this fall — is close, Obama will be winning easily elsewhere in the country.
Yes, the reason the Democratic “netroots” don’t want Nunn on the ticket is several steps beyond stupid — sure, he might have made a nuclear war less likely, but he’s not good on homosexual conduct, so we don’t want to be seen with him. A President Obama, though, would need all the help on national security issues he can get. He’d be foolish not to find an important role for Nunn.
By Former Perry Supporter
June 23, 2008 7:43 AM | Link to this
It is unfortunate that at the end of a distinguished career, Nunn would allow himself to be discredited by association with a socialist left-wing Obama.
This brings tarnish to a man many of us have previously supported. His name on the ballot would never have made me even think about voting for Obama. The fact that Nunn would even let this idea persist reduces the regard many of us have had for Nunn.
The Democrats have left us behind. They have nominated the most liberal candidate in modern history. This is McGovern all over again and this Democrat will be honored to vote for John McCain.
By SpaceyG
June 23, 2008 8:15 AM | Link to this
One dude on a conference call = a “formidable Southern presence?” On what planet?
By Copyleft
June 23, 2008 8:18 AM | Link to this
Ever notice how many “former Democrats” are eager to explain why they’re voting against Obama—and yet, can never come up with a good reason to vote FOR McLame?
And have you ever noticed that every single Democratic candidate, in every election, turns out to be “the most liberal in history”? Why, it’s almost like the right wants to use “liberal” as a smear or something!
But I guess that’s just silly.
By Alan Ulman
June 23, 2008 9:29 AM | Link to this
I support Sam Nunn for Vice President for three reasons. First, Sam Nunn has experience, judgement and character that would enable him to offer the best possible service as President, if that were to become necessary. Second, he already serves as a valued, loyal and discreet advisor to candidate Barack Obama, a strong indication of how he would do this for President Obama. Third, his world view and policy expertise are particularly valuable in our current state.
By Will Jones
June 23, 2008 9:52 AM | Link to this
Copyleft sez “And have you ever noticed that every single Democratic candidate, in every election, turns out to be “the most liberal in history”?
Why, it’s almost like the right wants to use “liberal” as a smear or something!”
A “machine for enslaving mankind” generates “America’s enemies list.”
Chris Matthews’ show with Pat Buchanan and Mike Barnicle made it quite clear last Monday.
“They” are organized and know exactly what they are doing and how.
They are schooled to tell us who our enemies are when their Babylon/Anti-Christ was the only enemy Our Founders recognized.
The Masonic movement which originated America once knew it as Whig-conscious patriots, but no more.
We need a new Black/White alliance restoring Whig Utopian idealism to which all new Americans can come to learn The Mottoes and Truth of American Exceptionalism.
www.theamericanfundament.blogspot.com
By Aaron Burr V. Mexico
June 23, 2008 10:59 AM | Link to this
And in other news, shares of TinFoilHabedashers rose 4 points today on the news of increased sales.
Rumor has it that the Gnomes of Zurish had aquired them by spending five gigabucks through the CIA>Mafia>Shriners>Post Office route. There are many that are concerned that this far from the center, they are ripe to be stolen by another conspiracy, but other analysts say that in the grand scheme of things, this should not matter for the economy at large.
By Will Jones
June 23, 2008 11:35 AM | Link to this
The anonymous Roman Catholic wishes to “marginalize” the truth? America’s Founder taught us Rome is the “real Anti-Christ,” and signed the document.
Thomas Jefferson, and the Founders called it “conspiracy.” Those who deny conspiracy are servants of it.
Death for treason.
www.theamericanfundament.blogspot.com
By I'll vote for Sam Nunn
June 23, 2008 2:02 PM | Link to this
Not only does Sam Nunn have the national security expertise, but he is also very fiscally responsible. In the late 90’s, he was the co-chair of the Concord Coalition along with Warren Rudman (Republican of New Hampshire). I hear that he is still very active on the Board of Directors for the Concord Coalition as a fiscal watchdog.