Hagel 2008
Press the Flesh: HAGEL'S NON-CAMPAIGN FOR 2008
Interesting little take on Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel's spin for the White House in 2008. On the surface, this would seem to muddy the waters for the GOP moderates: Giuliani, Pataki, McCain, and Hagel (... and Arnold?) each having a prayer for votes. Split the moderate vote and each would be left with a pittance of votes that would make JoeMentum look like a Juggernaut by comparison.
Set that aside for the moment. As Michael Crowley elaborates, Chuck Hagel isn't really doing much to win over primary season opinion leaders ... but let me suggest he may be after something just as important: Media Attention.
Say what you will about that brand of pol who always seems to turn up on the Sunday Talkshow Circuit - Lieberman and McCain are just as guilty of running up their Q-ratings as any other culprit. But the route those individuals sought was the one that was best suited for airing a challenging thesis to their party's mainstreams. It may always be the case ... at least for the foreseeable future. McCain was able to take his media offering and launch a briefly credible challenge to George Bush in 2000. Lieberman's spotlight vanished before the votes came in. Its not that the media primaries make one a great candidate, but they at least offer a fairer hearing of challenges to orthodoxy than, say ... the State Party Conventions, the AFL-CIO halls, or the Chamber of Commerce breakfasts.
Hagel seems, by my guess, to be headed down this path. Good enough.
I've been reading up on Hagel since he's come out with something of a challenge to the neoconservative foreign policy gaggle. His peice in Foreign Affairs is one that I think few may find fault with from either side of the aisle (save for the two criticisms of "not militaristic enough" or "not isolationist enough"). Beyond that, I recommend checking out several of his speeches:
Witness a Republican Senator riffing on MIT's Michael Porter with a dose of Robert Reich thrown in for good measure.
That's a hefty reading assignment, so I'll just leave it be for now. But if the full extent of Chuck Hagel's quest for more attention is to get a brighter spotlight on the ideas expressed in these speeches, then all I can say is "Attention Granted."