Obama-Hagel Ticket? Tempting, but Forget It

Republican maverick Chuck Hagel is being bruted as a possible running mate for Barack Obama, and it's a tempting fantasy. He's a Vietnam vet with abundant foreign policy experience and a very public split with Bush on the Iraq war; having him on the ticket would also give serious cred to Obama's post-partisan message. But he “may be a more attractive candidate in theory than in reality,” Mike Madden writes on Salon.

"Where the whole fantasy breaks down is that, alas, Hagel does hew to traditional Republican causes," Madden laments.  "Chuck is, I would say, a movement conservative," says former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Hagel friend, who adds that he has trouble picturing Democrats backing a candidate "who's anti-choice, anti-civil rights for gays and anti-gun control." (More Chuck Hagel stories.)