Gary Hart on the 2008 race
Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 6:32 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats
From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
In 1972, presidential candidate
George McGovern and then-campaign manager
Gary Hart hatched a plan to use a quirky nomination contest in an oft-ignored Midwestern state as the platform to the Democratic nomination. In 1984, Hart –- as a candidate himself -– catapulted from single-digit poll numbers to a near-defeat of 'inevitable' candidate
Walter Mondale after a surprise showing in his old stomping grounds.
So who better to put the 2008 race in the Hawkeye state under the microscope than Hart himself? "It's wide open," he says of the Democratic contest, which many have compared to his own run for the nomination in 1984. Then, as now, voters were courted on one hand by an insurgent candidate accused of lacking substance, and by an established one popularly considered to be the "inevitable" nominee on the other.
Hart, the one-time contender whose boyish good looks and idealistic message of 1984 have been compared to those of a certain Illinois senator, stops short of drawing too many parallels between his '84 campaign and Obama's. "I had no money," he said in an interview Tuesday evening. "Senator Obama has 75 million dollars. I had a tiny, tiny fraction of that in my startup days. So he has a huge advantage in that respect."
But he hints that both contests share a similar theme. The oh-eight race "could shape up to be a transitional campaign," he said. "Whether Democrats want to stay with a better known candidate, Senator Clinton, or whether they want to break a bit with the past and choose a candidate who they feel may understand the new changing century better and not try to use past policies."
Asked if he agrees with widespread perceptions of Clinton's inevitable nomination (which parallel predictions about his opponent in 1984, Walter Mondale), Hart is quick to shake his head. He attributes Clinton's wide lead in national polls to mere name recognition, and he says that the American people haven't really started to consider the candidates in depth. "Most people don't even begin to think about a president until after the World Series."
Hart also cautioned against the perception that the nomination will come down to a matchup between the two current front-runners, saying that the New Hampshire and Iowa contests will test all the candidates.
Now a spokesman for American foreign policy reform and international assistance, Hart is a full-throated advocate of international coalitions like the IMF, the World Bank, and the U.N., as well as a sharp critic of American dependence on foreign oil. He says that this cycle's candidates have not adequately addressed their vision of America in the global age. "I certainly don't think they've done enough on the issue of ... giving a comprehensive overview of their understanding of the world and a pretty detailed statement of how they would try to position of the United States in that new world of the 21st century," he said. "That includes all the candidates."
He did go on to speak favorably about Obama's attention to global warming and energy independence, but added "these are just pieces of the puzzle." "What most voters want to see is someone whose mind and vision are large enough to grasp the total reality of our times," he said. "It's not somebody who kind of fixes a leak here and there."
Seasoned by years as a statesman and sobered by the legendary demise of his scandal-ridden campaign, Hart addresses global responsibility with senatorial gravitas. But the white-haired senator has lost neither his affection for the Oval Office nor his sense of humor. Before the interview, the senator appeared as the keynote speaker for a foreign relations forum sponsored by the Center for U.S. Global Engagement and Iowa-based U.S Center for Citizen Diplomacy. As he took the podium, he thanked the company president who delivered his introduction.
With a twinkling eye and a fond look, he mused, "Mr. President… What a nice title."
