Politics | Chuck Hagel Obama-Hagel Ticket? Tempting, but Forget It Rumored running-mate possibility more promising in theory than in practice By Nick McMaster Posted Jun 17, 2008 2:49 PM CDT Copied In this photo provided by CBS, Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.., talks to the media after appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation" in Washington, Sunday, Dec.. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/CBS Face the Nation, Karin Cooper) Republican maverick Chuck Hagel is being bruted as a possible running mate for Barack Obama, and it's a tempting fantasy. He's a Vietnam vet with abundant foreign policy experience and a very public split with Bush on the Iraq war; having him on the ticket would also give serious cred to Obama's post-partisan message. But he “may be a more attractive candidate in theory than in reality,” Mike Madden writes on Salon. "Where the whole fantasy breaks down is that, alas, Hagel does hew to traditional Republican causes," Madden laments. "Chuck is, I would say, a movement conservative," says former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Hagel friend, who adds that he has trouble picturing Democrats backing a candidate "who's anti-choice, anti-civil rights for gays and anti-gun control." Read These Next New York Times ranks the best movies of the 21st century. Actor Sam Rockwell gets residuals from movie he wasn't in. A man has been deported for kicking an airport customs beagle. White House rolls with Trump's 'daddy' nickname. Report an error