I was watching Matthews last night and they were throwing up possibilities and Hagel came out as a favorite. I have always respected and Like Hagel and think it would be a DYNAMITE combination.
I agree. I was disappointed when Hagel decided not to run this year, because he would have made a terrific candidate. I can, however, think of two reasons why he wouldn't join Obama's ticket:
1) He decided not to run because he didn't want to put his family through a campaign. Now, maybe that translates to "I don't think I can beat Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuiliani" (remember those guys?), but he might have meant it, too.
2) Hagel's dissatisfaction with the Bush administration has to do with their abandonment of traditional conservatism by increasing government spending, going into an unnecessary war, and engaging in a shameless power grab for the executive branch. He might be against the war, but I don't know if he would want to work in an Obama administration; he might not fit in with the current "guns and Jesus" crowd running the Repubican Party, but that's because he's an old-school conservative.
Dennis
Posts: 1620 | Location: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Sat April 28 2007
Dennis, I agree that Hagel's old school conservatism doesn't jive well with Obama's domestic policy proposals.
But my sense is that Hagel would be willing to go silent on these issues if he got a shot at the VP slot. And according to Steve Clemons, Hagel has hinted that he'd eagerly accept the Veep slot on an Obama-Hagel ticket.
The New York Times had a great profile of Hagel a few years back, The Heartland Dissident. This part about him & his brother's military service really stood out:
quote:
When his number came up at the draft board in January 1967, he went willingly. And when, after training, he received orders to go to Germany, he requested a transfer to Vietnam. He hadn't been touched by anti-war protests. Where he came from, the feeling was that if there was a war on, that's where a young American soldier belonged. In that reflex, which many would still call patriotic, he briefly found a purpose.
It's unclear to the two brothers today how they wound up in the same infantry squad. Tom, drafted as soon as he finished high school, went initially to a reconnaissance unit up north, where he saw heavy fighting. He put in for a transfer, hoping to get closer to his brother, who was serving in the south. Soon they were on patrol together in canopied jungle near the Cambodian border. Over a period of about four weeks, each got a chance to save the other's life. When the first incident occurred, on March 28, 1968, their squad leader had just taken them off point and moved them to the middle of the column. One of the soldiers who replaced them hit a trip wire, setting off a mine that had been placed in a tree so that it would detonate at face level. Bodies, body parts and shrapnel were blasted back into the ranks as the squad was crossing a stream. Tom picked himself up and looked for his brother. What he saw, he says, was a "geyser" of blood gushing from Chuck's chest. Tom, then only 19, stanched the bleeding and bandaged the wound, only then noticing that he'd been hit himself in the arm. By the time the medevac choppers had taken off the dead and critically wounded, the Hagel boys were deemed well enough to continue on, which meant going off the booby-trapped trail and hacking through thick undergrowth.
Twenty-five days later, it was Chuck's turn to rescue Tom, when their troop carrier hit a hand-detonated mine as it emerged from a village in the delta. Tom had been in the turret behind a .50-caliber machine gun. He was unconscious, not obviously alive, when his brother got to him. The blast had blown out Chuck's eardrums and severely burned his left side, but knowing the carrier might soon explode, he worked feverishly to pull Tom from the wreckage, then threw his body on top of Tom's as Vietcong fighters in ambush sprayed the area with gunfire.
Originally posted by We need Tom Tupa: I doubt Obama wants to highlight fiscal restraint or Vietnam service in this election. But who knows?
I'm not sure how Vietnam service could be relevant this time around, unless people would take points off for an eight year-old being too cowardly to sign up. Or maybe he evaded the draft through some phony "elementary school student" deferment.
Dennis
Posts: 1620 | Location: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Sat April 28 2007
well whatever happens, if this does happen it will only add to his idea of bipartisanship. IF they do team up the republicans are not going to be real happy.
Originally posted by sevknowsbetter: well whatever happens, if this does happen it will only add to his idea of bipartisanship. IF they do team up the republicans are not going to be real happy.
LOL Hagel's not exactly bi partisan. Now if he picked Rick Santorum.....
WSS
Posts: 5322 | Location: Norton Ohio USA | Registered: Mon September 15 2003
