Looks like Chuck Hagel wants to ensure Democrats win the presidency in '08.
Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel on Sunday hinted at the possibility of running for the White House as an independent, saying a credible third party ticket would be beneficial to the country.
"I am not happy with the Republican Party today," Hagel said, adding that the party is not what it was when he joined. "It’s been hijacked by a group of single-minded, almost isolationist insulationists, power-projectors..."
The senator, who has most notably strayed from his party and President Bush on the Iraq war, said he would make up his mind about whether to run by the end of the summer.
If Hagel were to run as an independent, it would split off some marginal Republicans and hand the election to the Democrats. I never bought the argument that it was Ross Perot who handed Clinton his plurality in '92 and '96, but it certainly didn't help. In the polarized atmosphere we are now living in, a third party candidate would toss the election to the Democrats.
|