If Chuck Hagel runs as an Independent, is that good or bad for Democrats?

[Pushed To The Left]

He is a conservative who is a strong opponent of the war. I think he could lure some paleo-conservatives and libertarian-conservatives away from whoever wins the Republican nomination. But I think he might take some Democratic anti-war votes away from us too, since the war is probably the number one political issue of the election. What do you think?

[rep the dems]

1. Probably bad.

A Democrat vs a Republican in 2008 will almost certainly get us the White House. A Dem vs a Repub vs an Independent shakes things up a bit.

[skipos]

2. Very good. Hagel feels that Ben Nelson votes too much like Kennedy (his words, not mine)

There is a delusion around here that Hagel is some kind of moderate just because he is now anti-war. Is voting record is awful, and there is nothing moderate about it.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Very bad. My family

who is predominately Dem love him, in a visceral way--I am afraid that will end up being the case for a lot of other Dems who only loosely identify with the party. My mom also likes Giuliani, by way of confession.

[oasis]

4. Bumper sticker: "Idiot Liberals for Hagel".

:spank:

[Colobo]

5. Bad for both

He would take votes from both parties...

[lisa58]

6. Good...

...he'll split the Republican vote.

[skipos]

7. Another thing there is no way he will run as an indy. He is very loyal to the GOP

and would never get in their way.

Question for you, if the people want anti-war candidates so badly, why are the GOP frontrunners all big fans of the War? Why is the Dem frontrunner an unapologetic IWR voter?

The war is important, I don't think there are as many single issue anti-war voters as some DUers would like to believe.

[BeyondGeography]

8. We can out-anti-war any Republican

so all he is left with is trickle down economics, paleo-social policies and bags under his eyes.

He hurts the Pubbies a ton more than he hurts us.

[thethinker]

12. yes, but . . .

are we smart enough to out-anti-war any republican? I think that depends on which candidate we end up with.

[skipos]

9. Barack Obama (D) 50%, Chuck Hagel (R) 34% (Rasmussen poll)

Granted Hagel doesn't have tons of name recognition, but I don't think Obama is a household name either.

[napi21]

10. It would be good because it would split the Pub votes!

I seriously doubt he would ever run as an indy, but even entering the race is a good thing.

Ihate his social views, but so far, Hagel is my choice for a Pub candidate. He's smart, speaks in complete sentences, and is applying logic to the mess in Iraq.

[thethinker]

11. If he runs . . .

I think he will run on the republican ticket. I think if he runs, he has a good chance of being the republican candidate. This war is very unpopular with republicans also. The polls are showing this.

I am not worried about democrats voting for Hagel. I am worried about the democrats ending up with a candidate that can beat him. If we run someone who is trying to "talk tough on terrorism" and doesn't take a strong anti-war stand, I think Hagel might well be the next president. He would be attractive to the independents and people who don't follow politics closely.

If we are still in Iraq when the election comes around, Iraq will be the issue.

[TwilightGardener]

13. I don't think he can win either way--

but he will do better than some might think--based largely on his image as "The Principled Republican". I do believe he would hurt Dems more than 'Pugs.

[liberal renegade]

14. Hillary and Hagel.....

[TwilightGardener]

15. If it came down to those two...Hagel would win. But it won't happen.

Our 'Pug friends will make sure of it.

[zulchzulu]

16. Hagel would tap more GOP votes than Democrats

If you look past the veneer of Hagel's Murtha-like war stance (he's not "anti-war"), he is very conservative on the usual hot button issues. Not many Democrats would vote for him once that realization comes to fruition as Election Day nears.

It does depend on who the GOP candidate is too. If it's Romney or Guiliani, there might be a lot of conservatives who's vote for Hagel because he's not a Mormon and is "pro-life". McCain might be able to keep the GOP under one tent, but he's not going to get the nomination.

I'd say that Hagel would shave off 10-15% of the conservative vote if he ran third party...

[NDP]

17. Good. He would draw the Conservatives from the Republican candidate.

I have always thought that if he ran as an Independent, the ticket would be Hagel/Biden.

[Joey Liberal]

18. Bad. He'll take away a LOT of Dem votes n/t

[saltpoint]

19. Good question. I'm still trying to figure out if it's good for us or bad if he

runs as a Republican.

That Chuck's keeping us on our toes until that damn announcement tomorrow.

The fundies on the Right might prefer Brownback or someone even worse than Brownback, not that Brownbac isn't bad enough already. But the Danforth Republicans might go with Hagel.

Good question. I'm at a loss to guess.

[Clarkie1]

20. I don't think it would hurt Dems...he's very extreme on many issues.

He is anti-choice, pro-guns, to name just a few.

[catgirl]

21. It would be great for the dems

Hagel is the most conservative of the GOP contenders.
He'll split the vote. The dem candidate wins.

[Dinger]

22. If hagel Runs, I Sure Hope Clark Does, But

I want Clark to run anyway.
:evilgrin:

[Generic Brad]

23. Bad

He is a former executive of ES&S. I have hard time trusting anyone who comes from the electronic voting machine industry.