The Boren identity:Ex-senator back in political realm
The Oklahoman Editorial
Thu January 3, 2008
YOU can take David Boren out of Washington. Can you take Washington out of Boren?
As president of the University of Oklahoma, Boren is part academician, part fundraiser, part athletic booster and part ... politician. The former U.S. senator — among the most popular politicians in state history — has a new mission that strays from his university duties.
He and another former Democratic senator are assembling a "bipartisan” group for a meeting in Norman to brainstorm on getting presidential candidates to "rise to the occasion” and focus on serious issues.
"Bipartisan” in the above sentence is in quotations because most of the folks invited to this soiree are either Democrats or moderate-to-liberal Republicans. They include one-time presidential aspirant Gary Hart and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who may run for president as an independent.
This isn't the first time Boren has drifted back into politics. In 1995 he rubbed shoulders with H. Ross Perot, who was about to launch his second run for the presidency as an independent; Boren was even talked up to be Perot's running mate. In 1996, Boren was a major spokesman for the campaign to defeat a state question that would have limited property tax increases.
Boren and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., are key figures in the upcoming summit in Norman on restoring sense to presidential politics. Seems like a worthy endeavor, and it's a coup for OU to host such a prominent event.
Boren and Nunn say the next president must engineer "a unity of effort” that crosses party lines. It's hard to ignore the political polarization of the Bill Clinton years and the George W. Bush presidency.
Whether the dignitaries who come to Norman will find a way out of polarization is worth watching. Whether the next president will have any interest in acting on the ideas is the burning question.
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