Take a week off Galloway. You have outdone yourself in your post on 2 of my favorites Dems, Nunn & Obama (& I'll add I've been liking Dodd as of late)
Jim Galloway of the AJC's Political Insider not only does an excellent job of covering the Republican Convention in Columbus this weekend, but returns home and without skipping a beat on Sunday evening pens a classic background story on former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn and how he came to endorse and become an advisor to Obama on national security. It reads in part:
[C]onsider 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.”
[C]onsider 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.”
posted by Sid Cottingham | 11:59 AM
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