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Opinion: Another presidential waffler, plus Ron Paul

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Last winter, Chuck Hagel said he’d decide on his political future in the next couple of months. For the Nebraska senator, time must have stood still.

On Sunday’s ‘Meet the Press,’ Hagel was asked about his plans today. ‘Well,’ he told David Gregory, ‘I’ll make that decision in the next couple of months.’ (For video, go here. For a transcript, go here.) ‘I’ve got to decide whether I want to ask the people of Nebraska to consider giving me a third term in the Senate. I also have said, and I said this when I first ran for the Senate, after I got elected in 1996, that 12 years, two terms, may be enough, and that’s another option.’

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Hagel, an ardent critic of the Iraq war who’s rumored to have discussed an independent White House run with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, added, ‘And then if there might be a place for me along the presidential road somewhere to try to have some influence and change the course of this country, then I’ll look at that. But that decision needs to be made soon, and I’ll make it soon.’

Hagel seemed somewhat more certain about staying a Republican. ‘Well, I have no intention of changing parties, and that doesn’t mean, by the way, that I don’t think an independent does not have ...

... some renewed possibilities next year.’

Pressed further, he said no one could predict what the world would look like in six or seven months but added, ‘Right now, I have no plans to change parties; I have no plans to seek the presidency as an independent candidate.’ Ah, the reporter in us wonders, but what about the vice presidency?

New York tabloids are entranced by the possibility of Hagel signing up as Bloomberg’s running mate for one simple reason: They’ve already dubbed it the ‘Bagel’ ticket.

Over on ABC’s ‘This Week With George Stephanopoulos’ there was an interesting exchange with Texas Rep. Ron Paul about the GOP contest. George asked Paul what success was to him:

‘To win,’ replied Paul.

‘That’s not going to happen,’ the show’s host replied.

‘You want to bet your -- every cent in your pocket to that?’

‘Yes,’ said George.

No political expert gives Paul any chance of winning right now. But he has his fervent followers. A sizable crowd of supporters gathered outside ABC in Washington during the interview Friday. And they tend to invest much time on the Internet praising their man or protesting criticism of him for his black-and-white isolationist ideas, like someone shooting out of several windows of a house to give the impression of greater strength. Let’s see if they find the Comment section below.

Still, Paul was in a good mood. He has more money in the bank now than John McCain, whom those same political experts had as the obvious Republican frontrunner not so many months ago. ‘I think,’ Paul said, ‘some of the candidates are on the downslope; we’re on the upslope. So can you imagine what it will be like if we do as well in the next quarter, and quadruple our income and our numbers?’

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No, but can you imagine what the Paul web surfers will do with that?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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