March 12, 2007

Is Chuck Hagel the Republican's life-saver?

Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska was expected to announce his bid for the presidency today but deferred his decision until some point in the future.

With John "Give War a Chance" McCain and Rudy Giuliani's pro-choice and refusal to discriminate against gays both leaving factions of the Republican unhappy, Hagel may be just what the doctor ordered, socially conservative enough to placate the Christian pooh-bahs and their obedient flocks, yet a veteran who broke with the White House on the war before it was "cool" to do so.

If Hagel does get his party's nomination, I think he'd be a tougher opponent to beat than either McCain or Giuliani of Romney, at least at this point. Though it appears very likely that Hagel will indeed announce at some point, I'd be relieved if he decided against a run.

What do you think?

1 Comments:

At 3/14/2007 11:10 PM, Blogger The Inside Dope said...

I can't resist pointing out as a response to your parting question ... that George W sure didn't. He had zero national experience.

Not sure if that point helps or hurts Obama, but I'm certain that Obama is light years more informed and thoughtful about national and international matters than the miserable failure in the White House.

In many ways, the presidential race this time around is going to be even more interesting that those of the past decades, and the Republican race is fascinating in particular.

It may prove that someone like Thompson or someone who's not yet announced could capture it. A very interesting field in a party that's fractured eight ways to Sunday by Bush's incompetence and the competing factions within the party.

It's the Republicans first dose of what it's like to be in the Democratic party. ha!

 

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