The man Obama should pick as his running mate
People don’t vote for Vice-Presidents is one of those clichés that is actually true. After all, George Bush senior got elected in 1988 despite all the doubts about Dan Quayle and adding John Edwards to the ticket in 2004 did little for John Kerry even in Edwards’s home state of North Carolina. But this year might just be the exception that proves the rule if Obama picks Chuck Hagel.
Hagel is a Republican Senator from Nebraska and a Vietnam veteran. He was one of the first Republicans to turn against the Iraq war—in truth, he was always fairly sceptical about it but still voted to authorise the use of force—and has emerged as the most vociferous Republican critic of the Bush administration. Perhaps most appealing to Obama, though, is that he was a major McCain backer in 2000.
Picking Hagel would greatly enhance Obama’s ability to make both the key positive and negative arguments of his campaign. On the positive front, picking a Republican would demonstrate that Obama really is serious about all his post-partisan talk—something that his Senate record does not bear out. On the negative side, having one of McCain’s most ardent supporters from 2000 on the ticket would seem to substantiate Obama’s claim that the McCain of 2008 isn’t the McCain of 2000 who independents and the media fell in love with, that somehow he’s been corrupted by his association with George W. Bush.
Hagel would also insulate Obama about the charge that he is somehow un-American. As a Vietnam vet with two purple hearts, Hagel is a fairly effective surrogate on the patriotism front.
The argument against Hagel is that the party wouldn’t wear a Republican on the ticket. But my sense is that Obama could overcome any such opposition because the Democrats want to win really badly, Hagel is not a crusading social conservative and the prize of Obama—the most liberal member of the Senate according to National Journal—in the Oval Office is so great.