{"id":12610,"date":"2007-08-21T09:40:59","date_gmt":"2007-08-21T13:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/12610.html"},"modified":"2007-08-21T09:40:59","modified_gmt":"2007-08-21T13:40:59","slug":"what-are-unity08s-chances-nunn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/what-are-unity08s-chances-nunn\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Unity08’s chances? Nunn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apparently, former Sen. Sam Nunn, a conservative Democrat from Georgia who voluntarily left politics more than a decade ago, is eyeing a return to the national stage. Maybe he’s hoping to join a Democratic president’s cabinet? Perhaps he thinks he can position himself as a credible running mate? No, Nunn is apparently chatting with Unity08<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It’s a possibility, not a probability,” said Nunn, now the head of a nonprofit organization out to reduce the threat posed by nuclear, biological and chemical weaponry. “My own thinking is, it may be a time for the country to say, ‘Timeout. The two-party system has served us well, historically, but it’s not serving us now.'”<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old former senator, still considered one of the foremost experts on national security, confirmed that he’s discussed a presidential run as part of several conversations with Michael Bloomberg, the New York mayor.<\/p>\n

More important, Nunn said he’s been in touch with Unity ’08, a group with a goal of fielding a bipartisan or independent ticket for president. Initial talks began with Hamilton Jordan, a co-founder of Unity ’08 and former chief of staff to President Jimmy Carter.<\/p>\n

Doug Bailey, a Republican strategist and another co-founder, said Nunn was given “a more detailed briefing” from the group this summer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Assuming Nunn is serious about this — and given his style, I doubt he’d be talking about this publicly if he weren’t serious — it has the potential to at least raise a few eyebrows. I can’t imagine a scenario in which Nunn seriously competes for the presidency, which would make his campaign a bit of a fool’s errand, but there’s one point in particular that we should keep in mind: if Nunn moves forward with this, the media will swoon.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter of Nunn has no support, or if Unity08 is a publicity stunt gone awry, or if his rationale for running is shallow. What matters is David Broder and those who share his mindset will praise Nunn’s campaign as the greatest political development of the modern era. He’s thumbing his nose at the major parties! He’s a conservative Dem who’s “tough” on defense! He’s running as an exercise in patriotism!<\/p>\n

It will be shameless and nauseating. Count on it.
\n
\nAs for the substance of a Nunn campaign, I’m mystified by the rationale.<\/p>\n

[T]he Georgia Democrat, who made his name nationally as a defense-minded hawk, has watched what’s happened to the country, and he’s more than a bit ticked — at the “fiasco” in Iraq, a federal budget spinning out of control, the lack of an honest energy policy, and a presidential contest that, he says, seems designed to thwart serious discussion of the looming crises…. Though he has said little publicly, his frustration over Iraq — he opposed the first Gulf War in ’91 — can barely be contained. “A fiasco, which we’ve basically mishandled in all directions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, Nunn is bothered by the Bush presidency and the administration’s many failures. Join the club, Sam. Indeed, that description of Nunn’s frustrations could have just as easily been attributed to any of the major Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

As publius noted<\/a>, “Given that all of the problems Nunn identified can be traced quite directly to Republican political control over the past 8 years, you might think Nunn would try to reclaim his Senate seat. No such luck.”<\/p>\n

Indeed, Nunn already agrees with Democrats on everything he finds important, including his signature policy issue: nuclear disarmament<\/a>. So why bother? To run on a third-party ticket just for the sake of doing so? It’s hardly befitting an “elder statesman.”<\/p>\n

If Nunn really wants progress on the issues he cares about, he has an obvious course: help elect a president of his own party, challenge Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) in Georgia next year, or both.<\/p>\n

It might be disappointing to the Broders of the world, but it’s more likely to make a difference.<\/p>\n

Post Script<\/i>: And for what it’s worth, I continue to believe Unity08 is a solution in search of a problem. It’s comprised of establishment types who are railing against the establishment, creating a party based on practically nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently, former Sen. Sam Nunn, a conservative Democrat from Georgia who voluntarily left politics more than a decade ago, is eyeing a return to the national stage. Maybe he’s hoping to join a Democratic president’s cabinet? Perhaps he thinks he can position himself as a credible running mate? No, Nunn is apparently chatting with Unity08. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}