Could Nunn's Gay Rights Record be an Asset to Obama?
,The New York Times has posted a fairly comprehensive guide to the Veepstakes. They may have put this on their site a while back, but today is the first time I saw it, and I think part of their assessment of Sam Nunn is worth discussing:
Mr. Nunn was known for the most part as a conservative Democrat, and he led a high-profile fight against Bill Clinton’s effort to allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military. Mr. Obama would certainly encounter some heat from his supporters if he turned to Mr. Nunn.
The Times is hardly the first outlet to raise the issue of Nunn’s record on gays in the military and it’s hardly a stretch to say this record doesn’t sit well with gay rights activists and much of the party’s base. But this is looking at the issue the wrong way.
On the whole, Nunn’s resistance to gays in the military – 15 years ago, it ought to be noted – would be a plus for an Obama-led ticket, not a minus. Obama, unlike John McCain, doesn’t really have a problem with his base in this election. Yes, a smattering of Hillary diehards will hold out until the very end, but Obama’s real challenge is to offer reassurance to voters in the center and slightly to the right of the center of the political spectrum – the folks who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Al Gore or John Kerry.
If these voters were to sense that Obama has made a V.P. choice that upsets his party’s most liberal voters, they will think better of him for it, not worse. Not only would he be demonstrating independence from the left, he’d also be establishing common cultural ground with moderately conservative Americans, who had many of the same reservations about gays in the military than Nunn had 15 years ago. And like Nunn – who seems to be evolving on the topic – many of them have been slowly rethinking their own attitudes. Choosing Nunn, and enduring the outcry of the left, would make Obama much more palatable to these voters.
And it’s not like the left will stay mad forever – especially if Nunn continues to walk away from his hard-line position of 15 years ago. When it comes to the base, Obama is in a much better position than any Democratic nominee in recent memory. To the left, he remains a once-in-a-generation candidate. They will forgive and understand the compromises he makes en route to the White House.
This is an outrageous post. You are promoting a gay-basher. Would you promote David Duke for Obama's VP?
Also I think the base is very pissed off with Obama, he shouldn't go out of his way to test the base or else he might be in for a rude awakening.
it would be hard to vote for Obama with Nunn on the ticket. I'm backing him now, but I'm sure many folks feel this way.
Sam Nunn on the ticket is a deal breaker for me, without a doubt.
Sam Nunn will definately help in winning some red states. There is no such thing as the perfect Vice Presidential Candidate. The star must be the President.
I am sure that Sam Nunn will support Senator Obama's initiatives and can offer a different type of perspective on it, in drawing the conservative support. Some in the Gay-Lesbian community see Sam Nunn as the anti-Gay, but not all. Nominating him is part of the overall process of winning the conservatives or at least the moderates.
Sam Nunn is part of an older generation that comes from the Senior Citizen age group. Sure, his strategy then was poorly judged, but times have changed since the early 1990s. Back then, the thought of a major Presidential Candidate was only an idea, and not reality. America has changed since then, and I am sure that Sam Nunn has too.
We also have to remember that there are millions of conservative Americans and moderate Americans in the South and the Mid-west who are not friendly towards Gays and Lesbians. Sam Nunn is an overall good choice out of the field of candidates. With him, we have an opportunity to win some conservatives who are willing to listen.
Thanks for the concern, Trollnacki. I'll be sure to tell Obama to do things to piss off the base and all his volunteers to reach that mythical moderate independent vote.
What, George Wallace isn't available?
Sam Nunn is an unreconstructed bigot whose very existence flies in the face of Obama's message of unity. He not only supported "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but was an aggressive, unrepetent stoker of antigay prejudices at the time and fired more than one staffer when he found out they were gay. Only the most supremely naive would be fooled by Nunn's opportunistic (and pathetic) suggestion that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" be reviewed -- not overturned, mind you -- reviewed.
Most of these posts are stupid. I doubt seriously that Nunn is a gay hater. He's an older guy and it is hard for people of an earlier generation to embrace what we know is right today. I support gays openly serving in military, but I know there are issues involving cohesivness and morale. I think that's the position Nunn took, that he didn't want to risk hurting the military by forcing a great social change on them like that. But we are 15 years past that and even some older people, Nunn included, may be evolving in this area.
I wish we could all be pure and pristine on all the issues fromt he get go, but that's not the reality of life.
I do think Obama's base is solid; he is a once in a generation candidate. Picking Nunn would make him look like he's a secure, mature, pragmatic guy. I'm much more liberal than Nunn, but his presence on the ticket would make me more likely to vote for Obama. It would demonstrate a sense of gravitas that should make more conservative people give him a serious consideration, and maybe he and Nunn can bring them along toward our way of thinking.