JFK speechwriter likes Hagel for VP

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BY DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star

Ted Sorensen said Thursday he continues to believe Sen. Chuck Hagel would be a good choice for Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate.

“It would make sense for a national unity ticket,” Sorensen said during a breakfast interview over raisin bran and fruit.

If the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee selected Nebraska’s Republican senator, Sorensen said, Obama could reach across the party divide as he seeks to unify the country.

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Ted Sorensen

And in choosing Hagel, Obama would buttress the Democratic ticket with a vice presidential nominee who brings strong foreign policy credentials, Sorensen said.

“I often have mentioned the name of Hagel (as being) consistent with the approach of reaching across race, region, religion and party,” said the former Lincolnite who served as President Kennedy’s chief adviser and speechwriter.

In any event, Sorensen said, a presidential nominee shouldn’t make the decision about a running mate “until the last possible moment” when the best assessment can be made about strengths, weaknesses and political gaps.

Sorensen brought up Hagel’s name on his own during the hour-long conversation at the Chase Suites Hotel in Lincoln.

Later, he addressed a fund-raising luncheon in Omaha for Democratic Senate nominee Scott Kleeb.

Sorensen, who lives in New York City, is in Nebraska for three days of events. He signed several hundred copies of his new autobiography, “Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History,” at Lee Booksellers in Lincoln Wednesday night.

During the interview, Sorensen said he believes Obama will be elected president this November and then enter a year of great opportunity that he should approach with some caution.

“I think he may bring in a Congress supportive of the president’s programs in ways that no Congress has been for a long time,” Sorensen said.

“The first year is the honeymoon year (filled) with public support.”

In this case, it also would mark a change of administration “so welcomed by the leaders of the world,” Sorensen said.

“But I believe the amber light should blink during those first 100 days. That’s where President Kennedy stumbled at the Bay of Pigs.”

After winning the White House, a new president and his team “think they can walk on water,” Sorensen said. “They think they have the magic touch.

“I advise caution, prudence, proceeding with care during the first 100 days.”

Impressed with Obama from the first time he met him in 2006, Sorensen supported the Illinois senator during his long battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Obama studied “a balance sheet” Sorensen had prepared to help him decide whether to enter the presidential race, then phoned him to talk about it.

During the campaign, Sorensen introduced Obama or spoke on his behalf in a number of states, including New Hampshire, South Carolina, New York, Missouri and Iowa.

“I’m not in the inner circle,” Sorensen said.  

“And contrary to some reports, I’m not writing speeches for him.”

However, Adam Frankel, the young assistant who helped Sorensen research and complete his autobiography, now is writing speeches for Obama.

“He knows my approach, my style,” Sorensen said, “so if there’s a whiff of Sorensen or Kennedy in Obama’s speeches that would be the explanation.”

“Hope and history have merged twice in my lifetime,” Sorensen said, recalling the words of Irish poet Seamus Heaney.

Heaney had suggested that would be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, Sorensen said.  

But Obama makes it twice, Sorensen said.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.