Why Obama won't pick Sam Nunn as VP

It isn't surprising that Sam Nunn is rumored to be on Obama's short list for VP. He is a moderate-to-conservative Democrat with serious national security credibility, his Georgia background would help balance out the ticket, and he is one of the co-chairs of Nuclear Threat Initiative. Perhaps most importantly for Obama's candidacy, he could help reassure older white Democrats that Obama will look out for their interests, too, and not just those of the black and younger white voters who constitute his base.

However, I think it is very unlikely that Obama will pick Nunn as his running mate, for one major reason: the former Senator currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Chevron and General Electric.

One of the most controversial aspects of the Bush administration has been its close ties to major oil/energy companies and military contractors. During the primary and general election campaigns, Senator Obama has appealed to voters' frustration with this issue, repeatedly promising to take our government back from corporate interests. Picking a running mate who is currently serving on the boards of Chevron, the country's second-largest oil company, and GE, the country's 11th-largest recipient of defense contracts in 2007, would be nothing short of a monumental mistake.

If Obama chooses Nunn as his VP, the liberal commentators and bloggers who have been angered by Obama's alleged "run to the center" will be furious, and the fallout will dwarf the recent dust-up over FISA. And unlike the FISA situation, where many of his supporters (like me) gave him a break because the bill was the only compromise his party could muster after months of negotiations, choosing a VP who is a board member at Chevron and GE would alienate a huge swath of Obama's support. Personally, one of my major criticisms of the Bush administration during the last four years has been the excessive conflicts of interest, and it would be absolutely intellectually dishonest for me not to criticize Obama if he chose a VP with such close ties to big oil and big military contracting.

Finally, the McCain campaign and conservative commentators and bloggers would have a field day if Obama picked Nunn. From their perspective, it would confirm what they have believed (or at least claimed to believe) all along, which is that the controversies over Halliburton, Cheney's Energy Task Force, and Rice's connections to Chevron were all merely partisan politics. Every speech over the last two years in which Obama has criticized corporate influence in Washington would be mined for devastating "flip-flop" ads. We would probably even get one making fun of how Obama has told parents not to let their children drink too many sodas - because in addition to being on the Chevron and GE boards, Nunn's on Coca-Cola's!

I have no idea why most of the mainstream media coverage of Nunn as a potential VP pick has either deemphasized his participation on these boards, or ignored it completely. The cynic in me wonders if they're secretly hoping Obama picks Nunn, just so they can spend the next three months getting ratings with "What happened to Obama the reformer?", "Will Nunn be Obama's Cheney?", and maybe even "Should Obama throw Nunn under the bus?" headlines. All I can say is that I am hoping and praying that Obama's inner circle realizes how huge a mistake it would be to pick Nunn - and given the well-executed nature of the campaign so far, I would be shocked if he is named VP. That said, given his experience, he deserves to be considered for administration posts which do not directly involve energy policy or military contracts.