Though the Democratic race marches on, there’s already a debate about who Barack Obama could – and should – pick as a running mate.
While old favorites Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson have been suggested, people are chattering that Obama may ask adviser and former Senator Sam Nunn, who once chaired the Armed Services Committee, to be his vice-president.
Nunn, of course, pushed hard for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which bars out gays from serving in the military. That said, you can be sure the gays are none-too-pleased about the politico’s veep prospects. Take, for example, homo-journo Wayne Besen, who penned a column blasting Nunn:
When it comes to the idea of Sam as Veep, I’m having Nunn of it. Beyond his DADT disaster, the senator’s weakening of Clinton helped enable and propel the Gingrich revolution in 1994 – a huge setback for gay and lesbian equality…
It is crucial that Obama’s gay staff members make it clear to the candidate how unacceptable Nunn would be. The campaign shouldn’t even float his name unless it is attached to a runaway blimp drifting towards outer space.
Now, now – that’s a bit harsh. We don’t need to send him into space. There are plenty of places on earth we could send him, like Iraq.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Alan down in Florida
Sam Nunn comes from a state that Obama will carry anyway and offers absolutely nothing to the candidate. Obama, unless forced by the DNC to accept Hillary (there are worse fates) will select a woman from a swing state as his VP. Kansas and Missouri seem like likely sources.
kevin57
I disagree that Nunn adds nunnthing. Obama is considered a lightweight when it comes to defense “understanding” and “machismo.” Nunn would bring that to the ticket. That said, he would be a clear setback for gay legal advancement hopes.
ggreen
Who could forget Sam Nunn’s Time Magazine photo standing next to the bunks of seamen on that submarine? He said they were too close together to accommodate gays. Which really meant that the guys couldn’t sleep together comfortably in the same bunk. One would have to fellate the other while standing up. What an asshole he was and is.
Bob R
If he selects Sam Nunn or Tom Daschle as a running mate, I’ll stay home or vote Nader. I’m really not wild about Obama, but plan to vote for him unless he pulls a boner with one of these two DINO’s. There are better VP choices than either of these two and they’ll really add nothing to the ticket.
CHURCHILL-Y
No surprise that Obama would even have him in his list. Would make a great asset to his campaign though, being he’s already got the black bigoted vote on his pocket with the likes of Meeks on his campaign and probably on(if he gets in the White House) his administration.
http://www.obamameeksrecord.wordpress.com/
Now with Nunn he would destabilize some of the American evangelical vote. And before some of you start on the attack mode remember that DADT was Bill’s baby not senator Clinton’s. I know some with melanin dyslexia can grasp that.
NObama
Bill Perdue
What’s the big deal?
The Democratic Party, like the Republicans, is a swamp inhabited by lurking bigots. (Think of them as crocs or cottonmouths, don’t get too close and for all our sakes don’t feed them.) Obama and Clinton oppose same sex marriage. Bill Clinton boasted in paid political ads on right wing Southern christian radio stations of his support for DOMA.
The Democrats stripped the meat from ENDA and tossed the bones in the scrap heap. They dumped the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill. They’ve controlled Congress for two years yet they adamantly refused to repeal DADT and DOMA.
What difference does it make who their VP candidate is if the party as a whole is homophobic to the core? (I’m speaking of the leaders and owners of the Democrats and Republicans, not their supporters who include many decent, if clueless, people.)
Charley
I hope Obama will pick someone who wants change in this country and not just pick the same old, same old southern farts. I am so tired of hearing bubba politicians confess and hoping Jesus and their constituency will forgive them. All of them like Nunn have skeletons in the closet just rattling to come out.
M Shane
It silly to call DADT a disaster: as though it wasa well ment move. I’m getting sick of people protecting Clinton by claiming there was some kind of error.
There was no fucking error when you encourage people to lie and promise them less than nothing.
The scariest part about Nunn for anyone who knows ant western history post WW2 is that anyone on the Armed Forces Committee will head us farther into disasterous imperialism.
The end of this Country.as a republic.
Don’t be such silly queens . He’s disaster in the worst way.
M Shane
That woiuld be like asking Rumsfeld on board. Who can take that seriously
RPCV
Nunn should be at the top of the ticket; he was a brilliant senator. And, Obama should go back to the Senate so Hillary can bitch slap him for being so audacious as to think that a person of color should be elected president before a woman. Women were in this country before blacks were, and they had the right to vote first. But, all this is moot anyway – McCain ’08. Just a thought….
hells kitchen guy
Bill Perdue disappoints. Where’s the screed about how all of the military should DIE DIE DIE for being fascist bastards?
Bill Perdue
I’m an antiwar activist and supporter of the GLBT left. Only a dedicated idiot like HKG would think that he’d be believed saying that we want to see GI’s killed. On the contrary it’s the antiwar movement that will save them when we compel the government to immediately and totally withdraw from the Middle East and cut the US purse strings that pay for ethnic cleansing and apartheid against Palestinians. (Rev. Jeremiah Wright was right about that one; the inexcusable barbarism of the terrorist attacks on 9-11 is directly traceable to Bush’s incendiary notice that he was abandoning Palestinians to the tender mercies of the zionists.)
The real enemies of GI’s are Bush, the Clintons and their political supporters and the inept military brass who put them in danger. War supporters in Congress are often called chickenshit war hawks because, while they support the war, they seem unwilling to enlist. (Check out Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ for some revealing interviews with congress members about why their children aren’t in the Armed Forces.) GI’s are beginning to organize against the war and the civilian side of the movement should give them all the support we can.
HKG is a warhawk, a self described Bush/Hill lapdog who adores Hillary Clinton because she too advocates mass murder against Iranians to defend zionism. HKG want to kill all Iranians, not the ayatollahs and their reactionary supporters. A short while ago our little wannabe mass murderer, HKG, commenting in Queerty said “Well, let’s keep this in mind when Bill Purdue, the Prof VP and the rest of them start screaming about American imperialism. I say, go bush – nuke the bastards.†(HKG was pissed that we dared to oppose the Clinton/Bush genocide in Iraq and its extension into Iran.) After several people expressed their horror he repeated himself “Yeah, I’m a Bush/Hill supporter. Whatever. Bomb ‘em. Bomb ‘em. They’re beyond redemption at this point. they’re a hateful mass of religious fanatics whose only purpose on this earth is to spread hatred, ignorance and intolerance.â€
If HKG just took the right meds he wouldn’t get so confused all the time. He’d remember that he’s the wannabe mass murderer, not the rest of us. And maybe he could finally get it; the religious fanatics who practice hatred and intolerance are the zionists AND the ayatollahs. That at least is the opinion of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a genuine hero of the fight against apartheid in South Africa and a stand up defender of GLBT rights.
Charley
I hate those dye jobs where they just get the top of the head greenish/red shit brown and leave the temples gray. No, it does not look “distinguished”, especially on a bigoted hick from Georgia.
underbear1
Draft Nunn for VP seems exactly like draft Alan Keyes for president, (which was Keye’s own website.)
No one gives Nunn a second thought, except fossils,(myself included) who recall him stopping full open inclusion of gay/lesbians in the military.
Obama would lose EVERY queer vote getting within 5 states of old hateful Nunn.
underbear1
no 10 RPCV,
What you DON’T KNOW is a lot, twinkie.
Black men voted BEFORE women.
hisurfer
I don’t think ‘balancing’ the ticket works half as well as synergy. Look at Clinton/Gore. Now look at Kerry/Edwards or Gore/Lieberman. The latter two couldn’t function as a team if they were handcuffed together and forced to flee cross-country from the mafia.
My money is on Richardson for VP. He is still a bit clueless on queer issues, but not so bad that we can’t swing him around.
Bill Perdue
Don’t expect truth or facts from people who dwell on ‘race’ and skin color like RPCV (who’s a homophobe to boot) or Churchill-Y. Racism is a form of mental illness and those who adopt that particular lifestyle disease are delusional.
They don’t live in the real world. They get off making hurtful comments and pretending that they’re ‘someone’ – they’re actually pathetic wanna be bully boys who cower behind aliases. They need psychiatric supervision. A decent country would see to that they got it.
Charley
Richardson has Hispanic power. Senator Clellan is another potenital candiate, no legs, shot off in Viet Nam. How veteran friendly and anti-war can you get. He is also gay friendly.
R.T.
I’d be interested in what you have to say about my post about Nunn here:
http://www.thebawdycloister.com/cloister/2008/06/my-second-pick.html
I basically argue that inasmuch as Obama isn’t the greatest champion of gay rights, we shouldn’t expect his VP to be one either. I’m trying to be pragmatic without betraying my values–always difficult when it comes to elections.