Hagel for President?

Opinion Journal:

No, we don't mean this as an endorsement. The Journal doesn't endorse candidates, and on the big issues of the day we don't much agree with Chuck Hagel in any case. But with the Nebraska Republican loudly agitating for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, we think it's time the Senator tested his ideas somewhere other than the Sunday talk shows.

If Mr. Hagel thinks his foreign-policy vision is superior to President Bush's or to Senator John McCain's, he should stop booing from the gallery and get into the fight for the Republican Presidential nomination. The primaries are only a year away, and the GOP field awaits a genuine antiwar candidate. It's one thing to win the Beltway media primary, another to prevail among actual voters, as Mr. Bush has done twice.

We'd have thought Mr. Hagel would relish such a contest, especially given his remarks last month about his colleagues. Along with Democrat Joe Biden, the Senator co-sponsored a resolution condemning Mr. Bush's "surge" strategy for Baghdad. And while debating the resolution, the Nebraskan said that "I think all 100 Senators ought to be on the line on this. What do you believe? What are you willing to support? What do you think? Why were you elected? If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes. This is a tough business."

...

Whatever one thinks of these views, they are not unique or innovative. John Kerry campaigned on them in 2004, but maybe the country has since changed its mind enough to embrace them in 2008. If Mr. Hagel believes what he says, he'll stop insulting shoe salesmen by comparing them to Senators and get into the ring himself.
Hagel is no profile in courage, but a guy who seems to follow polls more than principal. But national polls do not reflect the sentiment of Republican primary voters and indeed tend to oversample Democrats anyway. I am not sure the guy could win a primary battle for his Senate seat in Nebraska right now. He was dead last in acceptable candidates in a recent conservative blogger poll where votes were cast before his betrayal on Iraq was widely known, I have seen none endorse his point of view since then,

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