Nunn Better

Several news stories about the Aspen Ideas Festival currently underway caught my eye the other day, in particular, two stories about the recent “Afternoon of Conversation” that concluded July 3^rd. Former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn was there along with Colin Powell, columnist Tom Friedman and journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. Nunn, it seems, received a great deal of media attention because he has been the subject of much conversation as a possible running mate for Barack Obama. Excerpts follow from a story written by Brent Gardner-Smith for the Aspen Daily News Online:

Under rapid-fire questioning from (Aspen Institute President) Walter Isaacson, Nunn, 69, said he did not vote on whether to invade Iraq, as he was no longer in the Senate, but that as a citizen, he was against the decision.

When asked what America should do in Iraq, Nunn said, in his thick, Georgia drawl, that we should continue to train the Iraqi army and police, protect the country’s borders, “do what we can to take care of Al-Qaeda,” and work towards reconciliation.

“But what we are not going to do is continue to be involved in an urban civil war between religions,” he said, adding that he would not put an absolute deadline on pulling out troops.

Both Powell and Nunn said that the American armed forces can no longer sustain the troop levels currently called for in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Nunn added that “manpower is going to dictate when we get out of Iraq more than any politician’s campaign promises.”

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Then there was Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter who reported on the Aspen meeting by saying, “The electrifying Obama can afford to share his ticket with a staid running mate.” Excerpts follow from his Newsweek Web Exclusive filed July 4th:

“The odds are very much against it and I don't expect to be offered it,” Nunn said July 3 at the Aspen Ideas Festival, looking a lot younger and more fit than, say, John McCain. That's a pitch-perfect version of the coy dodge expected of all serious candidates for the job.

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The main reason Nunn has a chance is that Obama has told his advisers that he won't choose anyone who lacks the stature to be perceived immediately as a plausible president. This makes any short list much shorter.

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In Nunn's case, out of the Senate doesn't mean out of the action. His record in the 12 years since he left is impressive. Nunn and Sen. Richard Lugar have, with little public attention, managed to reduce the greatest security threat in the world—loose nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union. The Nunn-Lugar initiative has been a huge success and a Nobel Prize is a distinct possibility.

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Nunn also makes it clear that he backs Obama's position on talking to Iran. “You can't have a dialogue when you have a pre-condition to beginning that dialogue,” he said in Aspen, sounding like a man who could dispense with John McCain's appeasement analogies with a wave of the hand.

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General elections are fought in the middle, which is exactly where Sam Nunn sits. They are fought over independents and moderate swing voters, who would like Nunn. Above all, he would help lift his party's presidential nominee over the threshold of credibility that, for all the positive polls for Democrats, still stands between Barack Hussein Obama and the presidency.

The talk about Nunn being on someone’s ticket goes around every four years, but Nunn has never been to the ball. This year, Obama may find Nunn better for the dance.