Boston Globe: Some call Georgian a good fit for Obama
Ex-Sen. Nunn an ally with defense expertise
By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff / June 16, 2008
WASHINGTON - When a newly elected Senator Barack Obama was staking out issues to champion in Congress, he sent word that he would like to meet with a former senator he had admired from afar: Sam Nunn of Georgia. Nunn, who during a 24-year Senate career earned a reputation as the Democratic Party's foremost defense advocate while amassing a moderate voting record, met Obama at his office in February 2005. There, the two talked for hours about the issue on which Nunn has spent much of the last two decades: preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
The liberal freshman from Illinois and the national security specialist from rural Georgia immediately hit it off, according to interviews with confidants of the two men. Nunn, whose somewhat colorless demeanor hides a passion for defense policy, was clearly impressed with Obama's command of the subject, and Obama has called on Nunn since to discuss arms control legislation and other matters, the confidants said.
For two decades, Nunn has been floated as a potential vice presidential candidate by virtue of his national security credentials and conservative Southern roots. And each time he has dismissed such talk out of hand, while the party's nominees opted for more liberal choices from states more likely to go Democratic in November. But this year, the personal and intellectual affinity between the presumptive Democratic nominee and the 69-year-old elder statesman - who abandoned a policy of not backing candidates in Democratic primaries when he endorsed Obama in April - makes him a real possibility as Obama's running mate, according to interviews with current and former government officials who know both men....
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But others stress the potential drawbacks to an Obama-Nunn ticket. Nunn, who will turn 70 before Election Day, could undercut assertions that an Obama administration would bring a youthful vibrancy in stark contrast to his 71-year-old Republican opponent John McCain. Nunn himself cited a lack of "zest and enthusiasm" for politics when retiring from the Senate in 1997. Putting Nunn on the ticket could also take some of the sheen from Obama's image of change.
Meanwhile, his past stance against gays serving openly in the military would probably alienate some elements of the Democratic Party....
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/16/some_call_georgian_a_good_fit_for_obama/?page=full
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