Former Oklahoma U.S. Senator David Boren has long been known to be sympathetic to the creation of a new, centrist political party. Boren is retired from the U.S. Senate and is president of the University of Oklahoma. He is hosting a meeting on January 7 for other prominent individuals who seem to be in sympathy with his views, or the somewhat similar ideas of Unity08. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sam Nunn, Charles Robb, Chuck Hagel, John Danforth, and others say they will attend. See this story in the December 30 Washington Post.
Boren is hosting; but the article clearly names Michael Bloomberg as the one who scheduled the meeting. I find the whole thing quite interesting.
Boren still has fantasies of being President of the USA. His father, a U.S. Congressman in the 40s, raised him to believe he would grow up to be President. Unfortunately for Boren, in 1993 the gay press began to out him and accuse him of sexual harassment, so he had to duck and run (Texas Triangle, July 14, 1993). The next year he manipulated the OU regents into naming him boss of that school. He’s been using the OU campus all along to further his dream. If he can’t be President of the USA he’ll settle for a cabinet office, ambassadorship, or whatever he can get. What the bum deserves is to be fired from OU and put out to pasture.
This is a truly amazing story – even if I have been predicting since August of 1974 that it would happen eventually.
Phil Sawyer, Veteran:
Committee for a Constitutional Presidency/McCarthy ’76; Rep. John B. Anderson’s National Unity Party in 1983 and 1984; the Honorary H. Ross Perot’s United We Stand in 1992 through his Reform Party of 1995 abd 1996 and long after; etc.
This is a development that I have been looking for for a long time. If ever there was a time on our history that we need some statemanship that moves us towards the center, this is it. No one can question the defense credentials of a Sam Nunn, which should go a long way toward satisfying alot of republican leaners. The other invitees have reputations for being evenhanded across the aisle. I really hope this lives up to its potential. Third parties have had a great effect in our political history by forcing the 2 major parties to address them. I’ll be watching…and hoping.
Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald is less sanguine about this development. I find his take compelling.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/30/6064/
The interesting thing about the list is the lack of liberals on it. There are almost no Democrats, and almost all are conservatives. No Greens. This idea is apparently the Country Club Republicans’ response to the threat of Huckabee capturing the Republican nomination.
http://www.uniteformike.com – Join the grassroots efforts to Draft Mike Bloomberg for President!
“The interesting thing about the list is the lack of liberals on it.”
Well, duh, Richard! A movement whose focus is centrist is going to feature centrists! All of the Democrats are conservative for Democrats, and all of the Republicans are moderate for Republicans. The one liberal is Bloomberg, the former Dem and former Rep. No Greens (or Libertarians or Constitution Party people either), because members of those parties are vehemently not centrist.
Jim N., thanks for the Glenn Greenwald link. I’ve always found the argument for centrism to be weak since it’s founded upon……..well, nothing, basically. Apparently there are those who think that if you stake out a firm, principled position, you are a shrill, intolerant partisan. Greenwald’s point about “the middle” having moved “so far to the right that it’s no longer visible” is well taken. A deep look at the Bush administration, cabinet department by cabinet department, will clarify that.
I’m reminded of what the late Eugene McCarthy said about moderates or centrists in American politics. “The worst accidents,” he quipped, “always occur in the middle of the road.”
Or as Mr. Miyagi from “The Karate Kid” films put it, “Karate yes, ok…..karate no, ok…….karate maybe…..Daniel-san get squished like bug…..”
Funny, a meeting about partisan problems and the nonworking 2 party system but yet they invited no indepedents or third parties! And there lies the problem .
It is too early to be critical about this new effort. We need to watch what actually happens. Michael Bloomberg said on CNN last night that he was not going to run for president. He has been saying that for a couple of years now or so. It looks to me like another person may pick up the mantle. Would it not be interesting if that person was former Senator Gary Hart? That would really shake things up!
I am so pleased that David Boren is trying to do something about our broken and totally inefficient political system. It has become so rotten that I am not sure that anything or anyone can redeem the system.
The constant infighting in the House and Senate has totally blinded our republican and democratic representatives to the point that they really believe that the American public actually agree with whatever insanity they want to throw at us. The absolutely sad part of all of this is that we the people cannot do anything to change this sick and ineffective group in Washington. We cannot get rid of them because their numbers are too large. They are busy giving away our country and when they are not busy doing that they are busy destroying it politically and humanitarily without caring about the effect it has on its citizens and/or the world. We cannot vote them out because the choices we are given to vote for are just as bad as the ones we want to vote out. I really feel that my vote is useless and that I have no representation in the House or the Senate.
I do not have any control over how these people were even chosen to run for a political office. Where do these people come from? What slime did they just crawl out of to be considered as a candidate for anything. I certainly did not have any voice in how they were picked. Once they are in office it almost takes an act of God to get rid of them. I no longer have a country that takes care of its people. I no longer have a country that is run by honorable people. What has happened to my country? We need some extreme measures to be taken and some extreme changes need to be made.