Notes From The Rest Of The Campaign…
Virtually all the coverage is focused on John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. So, what else is going on in Presidential Election land? Some notes…
- Politically irrelevant (and justifiably so) candidate, Daniel Imperato draws the ire of a librarian. Apparently, Imperato has been placing press releases framed as news stories in foreign news release services that are subsequently getting pick up by Google News and Yahoo News and making their way into readers mailboxes. Some headlines from Imperato’s stealth stories (I do not suggest reading them):
- Imperato on the Road to Recovery after Surgery - An article about Imperato’s “major eye surgery”
- Some guy’s been fasting for 3 weeks in hopes of persuading Nader to drop his bid for the presidency. Thus far, this effort has been unsuccessful and will likely remain so, especially given that in the recent Zogby poll, Nader’s polling between 5-6% nationally (caveat emptor: it’s Zobgy). Also, Nader’s picked a running mate - Matt Gonzalez.
- Libertarian George Phillies leads his rivals in individual contributions, which will no doubt be one of his arguments at the Libertarian Party’s Convention (they choose their nominee at the convention). At a recent Libertarian candidates debate, Phillies argued that he had the strongest organization (or one of the strongest organizations) of all the candidates (video of the debate available here). For what it’s worth, Phillies’ claim is probably true. Of all the Libertarian candidates, he’s certainly the most active based on my experience/research/reading.
- In a bold move demonstrating what can only be characterized as confidence, Democratic contender Mike Gravel (yes he’s still in the race despite what you may have heard) has expressed support for Green party hopeful Jesse Johnson. I guess this means the pain train is headed for one of Johnson’s Green Party nomination rivals, Cynthia McKinney?
- Behind, Behind The Scenes: Sam Nunn’s been mentioned as a potential running mate for Mike Bloomberg, when talk of a Bloomberg run was in vogue (but that’s soo yesterday) and there was also talk of him running as an independent a while back. Last month, an article Newsweek named Nunn as a suggested Secretary of State for Obama. Recently, George Will upped the ante by suggesting that Obama pick Nunn as his running mate. Historical note: Nunn was also mentioned as a potential running mate for Kerry in 2004. It’s highly unlikely that Nunn would make Obama’s short list, even with Nunn’s respect as an independent person. Moreover, even if Nunn was on that VP list, it’s also unlikely that he’d accept. But, at least George Will is trying, right?
Former Senator Sam Nunn Considers Third Party Run For President
August 20, 2007 | Permalink | 10 Comments
Speaking to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, a Democrat, indicated that he’s interested in running for President as an independent:
“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.’”
Recognizing the challenges that he would face as a third party candidate, Nunn hopes that a run for president would at least offer him the ability to shape/influence foreign policy as well as gain attention for his cause of reducing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
Concerned about the future, growing international frustrations with the United States and the Iraq War, Nunn said:
“[The Iraq War is] A fiasco, which we’ve basically mishandled in all directions. We’ll get over it, because we’re a strong country, and we’re indispensable in the sense that we’re the [world] leader. But right now, it’s going to take at least 10 years to rebuild U.S. credibility.”
“Nor has the Bush administration been able to create the necessary climate to make it easy for the world’s Muslim population to isolate jihadist terrorists.”
“We’re in a race between cooperation and catastrophe. And to get cooperation you have to have a vision, and you have to listen. And we’re not perceived as having a vision in this country, and we’re not perceived as listening.”
Nunn served as a Senator from Georgia for 24 years. During his time he was a fairly conservative Democrat, who was able to cross party lines on a range of issues from social 
to national security. He’s incredibly well respected in the field of national security, so much so that he was often discussed as a possible running mate for John Kerry during the 2004 campaign. His previous ability to cross party lines, his credibility on the major issues of our time and the presence of Unity08 (and/or Bloomberg’s billions) certainly leave open the possibility that Nunn could be more than just a blip on the political radar screen. Earlier this month, Nunn confirmed meeting with Mike Bloomberg, which he described as follows:
“We’ve had conversations about frustration with the fact that the process is flawed. 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.”
At this point, it’s not clear that Nunn will even be running. All we know is that: 1) he does not intend to make his decision until winter 2008, at the earliest; 2) he will absolutely not accept the VP slot on a Republican or Democratic ticket; 3) there’s definitely an independent minded undercurrent in the political waters that is still largely overlooked by just about everyone and could end up being very influential in the 2008 election.
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