HAGEL Considering Independent Bid for the Presidency

[liberalpragmatist]

I doubt he would win this, but he might have a chance IF 1) Bush's approval rating is in the low 30s or high 20s and the Republican candidate is someone like Frist or Allen who is a total BushBot; 2) The Democratic nominee is uninspiring and continues to run to the right on the war; and 3) if Hagel runs on an antiwar message that resonates with a majority of the country.

Anyway, here it is, via Political Wire (http://www.politicalwire.com). Take this with a grain of salt, given that this is hearsay from some blogger:

http://www.anklebitingpundits.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2196

Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel is privately meeting with his top advisors and political contributors to discuss the prospects of an independent bid for the White House in 2008, a high level GOP source told me this morning.


According to the source, Hagel has already begun to posture himself as an independent, believing that by doing so he can tap into the perceived growing frustration voters feel toward both major political parties. Recent polls show widespread voter dissatisfaction with leaders of both the Republican and Democrat parties in Washington.

At issue is the concern among Hagel higher-ups that the Nebraska Senator will not be able to outshine Sen. John McCain in a GOP primary. Hagel and McCain are reported to be close friends and share a similar profile: both are Vietnam veterans and both enjoy reputations as “mavericks” in the Senate.

But McCain is an 800 lb gorilla; Hagel a mischievous lemur, at best.

So one idea being considered heavily by Hagel and his senior staff and top financial backers is for the senator to launch an independent bid for the presidency, thereby avoiding a rough-and-tumble, uphill climb with unpromising results.

Should Senator John McCain win the GOP primary, Hagel would likely endorse his friend (and maybe even angle for a #2 spot on an “all maverick” ticket.) If McCain were to lose and the GOP to nominate a right-winger, Hagel would try to tap into the disaffected McCain primary vote in a three-way general election.

[Wickerman]

1. more power to him

and doesn't he have some friends in one of the voter machine co.s? :evilgrin:

[Wabbajack]

2. I don't think he's that dumb

If the war keeps going this way an anti-war candidate might actually be able to win the puke nomination.

[safi0]

3. If he chooses to

Run as an Independent, he won't win unless he chooses a great VP. If he runs and runs on an anti-war, old-school Republican platform he would syphon off a lot of votes and we would likely see somewhat of a repeat of 1992 in terms of EV's. But, I think he could win if he chose a Democrat as his VP, someone like Russ Feingold. If they ran on an anti-war, stop the partisan bickering, take the country back from special interests platform

[Wabbajack]

5. Vice Presidents have no power

hence I don't think choosing someone from the other party would win a candidate many votes.

[safi0]

9. I think they would.

The vast majority of this country hates partisanship, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out, and if a ticket came forward that was genuinely bi-partisan, I think they could have a lot of success.

[Wabbajack]

17. It wouldn't be "bipartisan"

it would be the 3rd of 3 tickets with a chance to win, opposed to the other 2. Just like in 1992 and 1912.

[safi0]

25. A Hagel/Feingold

Ticket wouldn't be bipartisan?

[Wabbajack]

39. Nope

They'd both defacto expelled from their current parties and would be independents acting in opposition to both parties tickets. And Feingold would have the power to break senate ties and nothing else, big whoop.

[safi0]

42. Yeah right.

That's a bipartisan ticket, it would be portrayed as bipartisan in the media, and just about everyone would view them as bipartisan. Even though Zell was expelled from the Democratic party, he was still considered a Democratic Senator when he was camapigning for Bush.

[Wabbajack]

44. Zell, apple and oranges

You cannot refute this

1)VPs have no power anyway so it doesn't matter if the ticket is "bipartisan".

2)The "bipartisan" ticket would be running against both the other tickets making it the THIRD CHOICE a defacto third "party".

In any case I'll be voting DEMOCRATIC in 2008, will you?

[safi0]

49. Be that as it

May but the ticket would still be portrayed as bipartisan. As far who I'll vote for, there's a 99.999999999% chance I'll vote Dem. in 08, but if the nominee. is something like a Clinton/Bayh ticket versus a Hagel/Feingold ticket, I'd have to think long and hard about voting for the latter.

[TankLV]

34. This sounds like all the disguting McCain threads from last year.

Nice try, but we won't buy what you are trying to sell.

Hagle's no friend of us.

[msongs]

24. Dick cheney HAS NO POWER?????? better tell him that soon nt

[TheFarseer]

10. Alot of interesting scenarios come to mind

I think he can almost give up on being the GOP nomination unless they ALL turn on bush, which I just can't see happening. If he runs independent, no way McCain will be his VP but still alot of interesting possibilities: Joe Biden, John Kerry, Bob Kerrey, Wes Clark, Lincoln Chaffey. If he ran anti-war and economic populism, I would certainly give him a long look especially being from his state. I think what will happen is he will run a campaign similar to McCain in 2000 - he'll make alot of noise but the RW slime machine will bury him and that will be the end of it.

[meow2u3]

12. He also has the voting machines

ES&S is (was) one of Hagel's holdings. That's how he got to the Senate in the first place. Just ask the guy he beat the last time, who commented, "You can't win if your opponent owns the voting machines."

[Raksha]

18. That's a good reason NOT to support Hagel...

...even if you agree with him about the Iraq war. My priority is still election reform, and I just can't get excited about anyone who was "voted" in by ES&S.

[3waygeek]

20. Remember that Hagel

used to own a voting-machine company -- he just might win the same way * did last November.:evilgrin:

[ElectroPrincess]

40. I've vote for Hagel above any other Republican

OR Republican Lite (Clinton, Biden, Lieberman, etc.).

I disagree on most of his stances, but I'd prefer seeing the knives coming than have a so called Democrat lodge them in our backs subsequent to winning office.

[Darkhawk32]

4. I almost guarantee you that if and when Hagel goes Indy, you'll see...

his voting record change dramatically, not having to suck the Repuke party line's ass.

Just look at Jeffords voting before AND after going indy.

Of course, this is assuming that he's still a Senator after 2008.

[safi0]

8. His term is untill 2010

But I think he could pull a Bob Dole and retire from the Senate

[Imagevision]

6. Now I know why he has spoken out against Bush Iraq policy!

[TankLV]

7. Good - he'll have the "perot effect" and the Dems will win this time.

It certainly wasn't all about Clinton the last time around.

Without Perot, Clinton would be just a former governor of Arkansas.

[fujiyama]

16. Dependin on the Dem nominee

Hagel could prove problamatic for Dems as well - more of a John Anderson character than Perot.

But a Hagel run would be very interesting to say the least. They would undoubtadly try to Swift Boat him (it seems like they have started already).

[KittyWampus]

26. That is factually incorrect. Clinton didn't need Perot to win. The numbers

prove otherwise. You've basically just regurgitated a rightwing talking point... though it is also favored by DU'er who love to hate "the DLC".

[TankLV]

35. I don't think so. I've read the numbers.

Clinton DIDN'T get a clear majority of the votes.

Without Perot, we would have had bush I part II.

But thanks for continuing to regurgitate the DLC talking points!

[KeepItReal]

11. Don't count out Hagel...I don't trust him, but he appears to have a plan

And don't forget he's got those e-voting ties...

[mmonk]

13. Great news

We have a better chance with another republican candidate if the democrat IS a democrat and not DINO.

[mrgorth]

14. Good for him.

[bemildred]

15. That will put the oligarchies tit in the wringer.

Anti-war political challenges on both the left and right.

[Clark2008]

19. Good. Let him syphon off votes from the Republican nominee.

eom

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

23. Even if he never makes it to the ballot

his presence as even a potential candidate will cause the nut-case wing of the Republican Party (which now constitutes about 85% of the voters in the Republican Primaries) to attack what's left of the liberals, moderates, and slightly-conservative independents. They'll be dead in 2008 before they ever get started.

Go Chuck!

[MoonRiver]

21. He wouldn't win, of course. But maybe he's mad enough about Iraq

that he just wants to take down the neocons. Even if that means a Dem gets elected. Maybe?

[TexasLawyer]

45. Maybe his voting machine companies will help him win.

[MoonRiver]

48. The battle of the voting machines.

ES&S v Diebold et al. I always knew it would come down to Repuke on Repuke.

[durutti]

22. God I hope not.

Terrible way to squelch an opportunity for the Left.

[Chicago Democrat]

27. Perot elected Clinton...

maybe a leftie would win versus two shades of black.

[bemildred]

28. He damn sure did (the first time).

The second time they ran Dole against him (to stop Newt).
If they'd had a right wing mass movement in 2000, we'd be talking about President Gore today.

[liberalpragmatist]

30. Common misconception

Polls showed that Perot voters split evenly between Bush and Clinton had Perot not been in the race. And during the months when Perot exited the race, Clinton still had a hefty lead.

Actually, I tend to think that a Hagel anti-war candidacy would probably hurt Democrats more, because it would draw largely from the center-left base. Republican BushBots would be more likely to vote Repub than Independent.

[bemildred]

31. The campaign without Pee-rot would have been completely different.

Looking at the final numbers and saying he was irrelevant is naive.
It's like saying Eugene Mc Carthy didn't matter in the 1968 election.

[agincourt]

29. The Republican party needs to be split in two,

Between normal people and Grover Norquist/Ann Coulter centipedes. It's our only hope because of lack of effective opposition.

[LittleClarkie]

32. I could just about stomach a vote for him

if he's going to go independant, and if I can't stomach our Dem (Biden, anyone?)

Maybe. I'm just sayin'.

[TankLV]

33. Don't care how he disguises his crap - I'm still not falling for it.

Once a repuke, always a repuke.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

36. This could be scary & a red herring...

Remember that Mr Hagel was the CEO of ES&S (one of those companies that counts our votes). We've always known that the Repubs can't give up power in 2008 - the investigations would land most of them in prison and with With Bush's poll numbers SOOO LOW a Dem will be a shoo in. They can't mess with the vote tallies when it's a landslide!!!

But if they can run a pretty strong "Independent" candidate like Hagel, then votes can be siphoned from the Dem that much easier.... Hell I can see the headlines already "Democrats liked the moderate message of Hagel more than Kerry/Biden/Clinton/OBama/Durbin and turned out in record numbers for him". We're gonna get screwed again!!

These guys are just like Bin Laden, they plan way ahead of time and are patient. Hagel & Co. see the handwriting on the wall - A DEVASTATING DEFEAT OF ANY REPUBLICAN IN 2008, they would be hard pressed to explain away the exit polls as in 2004. So - plan B.


THIS IS A FRIGHTENING DEVELOPMENT:crazy:

[Cocoa]

43. speaking of red herrings

Hagel was not CEO of ES&S.

To your credit, at least you didn't say Diebold as many people do when talking about Hagel. :eyes:

edit and apology: your facts were correct, I was talking out of my ass. Sorry.

http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

Hagel’s ties to ES&S go beyond his financial stake. He served as its chairman when it was named AIS from the early ‘90s until March of 1995. He also was an investor in AIS Investors Inc. until the beginning of 1995, McCarthy said.

[TexasLawyer]

46. OMG!

that IS scary!

[gokar]

47. OMG...the CEO of black box inc. running for president....Nightmares here

we come!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Writer]

37. Now here's my question:

Hagel is considering an INDEPENDENT run for the White House. He's apparently uncomfortable with his party.

1) Would he ever switch parties?

2) Would we ever welcome what would be a "conservative Democrat?"

[genius]

38. He owns the voting machines

[ElectroPrincess]

41. Yeah, but I love standing by and watching these groups ...

destroy each other instead of Liberal Democrats. :popcorn: