Plainspoken Nebraska Republican David Kramer of Omaha says a loss in this year’s presidential election would be good for his party — but bad for the country.

“I believe there’s legitimate criticism of our governance over the last eight years that will make this election more difficult for us,” Kramer said during a weekend telephone interview from Minnesota.

“We deserved to lose control of the Congress” two years ago, he said.

“As a purely partisan Republican, I believe our party would be better off losing this presidential election than winning it,” Kramer said.

“It would have a cathartic effect on the party that would enable us to evaluate what we believe in, what makes us Republicans.

“It would get us back to core values,” he said. 

But, Kramer quickly added, he believes electing Barack Obama as president to serve with what is almost certain to be a growing Democratic majority in Congress would be “disastrous for us as nation.”

Bottom line: “For me as a partisan, I’m very conflicted. As an American, I am not.”

Kramer, former Republican state chairman and 2006 Senate candidate, is in Minneapolis-St. Paul this week serving as a Nebraska delegate to the GOP national convention.

Although he’s a fiscal conservative aligned with traditional Republican  values, Kramer is not a typical delegate.

His mother was born in Panama, and his dad was a union guy. 

For three years, Kramer lived in Africa.

Kramer supports comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to earned legal status for illegal immigrants already settled here.

And he stands counter to his party in opposing the state initiative that would wipe out affirmative action programs at the University of Nebraska.

“We as a nation ought to be doing everything we can to assure equality of opportunity for all of our citizens (without) mandating equality of results,” he said.

Kramer says he “absolutely feel(s) some personal affinity” with Obama, whose parentage is also racially mixed.

“I think there are lots of things we ought to be celebrating about his nomination” by the Democratic Party, Kramer said.  Obama became the first African American presidential nominee last week.

But there’s also reason to celebrate John McCain’s decision to choose a woman, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as his vice presidential running mate, Kramer said.

Despite some affinity with the Democratic nominee, Kramer said, “I don’t believe the nation can afford to have four or eight years of Barack Obama’s leadership.”

Working with a Democratic Congress, Obama would commit the nation to policies and programs that would “take us a decade or more to recover from, economically and otherwise,” Kramer said.

The Democratic tandem of Obama and Joe Biden is “a liberal’s liberal ticket,” he said.

McCain was not Kramer’s first choice as the Republican nominee. He supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Most of the delegates who will nominate McCain on Wednesday “looked somewhere else first,” Kramer said.

“But, in the climate we are in today politically, we as a party have managed to nominate the one candidate who can win in the fall despite ourselves.”

It’s a hugely favorable Democratic environment, Kramer said, yet McCain is running nearly even with Obama in public opinion polls.

“We’ve nominated a candidate  who the conservative, and even moderate, Democrats who might have a question about Obama’s experience and readiness to lead can look to as a guy they could support without a great deal of trepidation,” Kramer said.

In terms of policy, it’s “a choice between moderation and extremism,” he said. 

Although the selection of Palin, an unknown newcomer, may move the debate away from questions about Obama’s experience, Kramer said, it could serve to focus voter attention on issues.

“I think the question then becomes whether we want a president who wants to move this country significantly farther left on social issues and economic issues and benefit issues or do we want a president who will keep the country more middle-of-the road.

“This country remains basically a center-right country,” Kramer said.

Kramer said he watched most of last week’s Democratic national convention on TV.

“On balance, I thought it was a pretty good convention,” he said, achieving the goal of unifying the party.

“In that sense,” he said, “it did what it needed to do.”

And this week, in St. Paul, Republicans will launch McCain with a show of unity.

Kramer expects a tight race virtually to the end.

“The people who will make a difference will tune in the last 10 days of October and the first four days of November,” he said.

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