8.14.2007

Nunn to Run as Independent?

We may be facing another 3-way race in 2008, if the article linked above is right.

Last week, former Democrat Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia said he is frustrated with the direction of the presidential race and in the direction of both parties. He also acknowledged talking with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others about an independent challenge to the major parties. “We’ve had conversations about frustration with the fact that the process is flawed,” Nunn said of Bloomberg. “I’ve told him … it may be time for some serious people to look at what I call a time-out and having people of good faith in the Democratic and Republican parties to come together and address the issues that the parties don’t seem to want to address.” He went onto say, “We have not discussed any kind of joint strategy,” Nunn added in an interview with The Associated Press. “I have just had conversations with him.”
He's no friend to the MoveOn-dominated Party of the Donkey:
In 1996, Sen. Nunn stepped down from the senate. Nunn was a centrist Democrat of the old school by weaving a coalition of black and rural voters, and was one of the last of his kind. Nunn tried to steer his party into the middle and was often frustrated. In his retirement remarks he described the Democratic Party as pursuing a ``brain-dead defense of the status quo.'' He praised the Republican revolution for seeking lower taxes and entitlement reform but also said the revolution was in danger of going to extremes.
And on the big issue of our time:
The biggest issue of the day is terrorism and national security. Where would Sen. Nunn stand on terrorism today? On June 14, 2007, Nunn spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations about the threats we face today. He said, “The greatest threat we face today -- catastrophic terrorism, a rise in the number of the nuclear weapons states, increasing danger of mistaken, accidental or unauthorized nuclear launch -- we can prevent only in cooperation with Moscow, Beijing and many other capitals.” He went on to say, “If al Qaeda had hit the Trade Towers with a small crude nuclear weapon instead of two airplanes, a fireball would have vaporized everything in the vicinity.” Nunn gets it and has talked around the world about the dangers of nuclear weapons and the role of US leadership, cooperation with allies and “urgent new actions” that need to be taken against terrorist groups that are “conceptually outside the bounds of a deterrent strategy.”
Sounds to me like he might actually have a chance. We shall see how it all plays out.