From Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan:[Obama] needs a boring white man. Because he’s an interesting black man. He needs a sober, experienced, older establishment player who will be respected by the press, the first responders of the political game. They’ll set the tone in which the choice is celebrated, or not. He needs someone like Sam Nunn. Or, actually, Sam Nunn.For those who don't remember Mr. Nunn, he was a Democratic U.S. Senator who represented Georgia from 1972 to 1997. As chairman of that body's Armed Services Committee, and as a key player in the effort to prevent the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Sen. Nunn would bring a certain foreign policy gravitas to the ticket. And former President Jimmy Carter (a fellow Georgian) has said Nunn would be an excellent VP nominee.
Personally, I think Obama could do better. During the 90s Nunn was notoriously homophobic. He fired two staffers in the 1980s for being gay, and was one of the architects of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
Before putting Nunn on his "short list" of potential vice-presidents, Obama should sit down with him to gauge if Nunn still harbors such anti-gay sentiment. We have all been witness to individuals who transitioned from complete homophobes to PFLAG members; and while I'm not suggesting Nunn needs to have made that sort of turn around, if there's even an iota of a chance that he would deny perfectly qualified people jobs in an Obama administration based on their sexual orientation, then any talk of a Nunn vice-presidency should be squashed immediately.
If Obama wants to take Peggy Noonan's suggestion that he pick an old, gray white man then I have a better idea: Nunn's successor, Max Cleland.
