Lindsey Graham Is for Real
When Senator Lindsey Graham first began to flirt with the idea of running for president a few months ago, most people assumed it was a joke. "Lindsey has a sense of humor," his fellow South Carolina Republican, Senator Tim Scott, told Bloomberg. But in the ensuing months, as Graham has set about doing the things presidential aspirants do—traveling to early-state cattle calls, forming an exploratory committee—the suspicion that he is staging an elaborate political prank has faded, replaced by the dawning, incredulous realization that he's serious about this. On Monday, he confirmed it: "I'm running," he said on CBS This Morning, adding that he would make a formal announcement on June 1.
It's easy to list the reasons Graham—who is 59 and in his third Senate term—can't win the GOP nomination. He's reviled by his party's base as a Republican in Name Only for his sometime moderation, including vocal advocacy for immigration reform and climate legislation. Tea Partiers have dubbed him “Flimsy Lindsey” and “Grahamnesty.” To many on the right, he's the epitome of the odious Washington Republican—that breed that haunts talk-show green rooms, mingles with the chattering classes, and fetishizes bipartisan compromise for its own sake. Graham is also a confirmed bachelor who's been known to put his sister's family on his campaign literature. He's not particularly tall or distinguished-looking, and he dresses like a small-town car dealer.
Yet Graham believes he has a point to make. "I'm running because I think the world is falling apart and I've been more right than wrong on foreign policy," he said Monday, adding, "It’s my ability in my own mind to be a good commander-in-chief and to make Washington work." In the same interview, Graham, who is known, along with his buddy John McCain, as one of the Senate's biggest proponents of military intervention, was asked the Republican question du jour: Would he, knowing what we know now, have invaded Iraq? He replied, "Would I have launched a ground invasion? Probably not.” But Saddam Hussein had to go, he added, and "at the end of the day, he is gone. And I’m worried about an attack on our homeland.” ...
http://news.yahoo.com/lindsey-graham-real-100700941.html
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