The Year of Switching Teams

2008 may be a banner year for players switching political teams in hopes for a victory in November. This is a regular occurrence in sports. Late last night, Brett Favre got traded from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets. While this has raised an eyebrow, and will definitely be a good story for a few days, most people will forget the details of the Favre saga by the end of the football season in February.

In our era of hyper-partisanship it is rare for people to jump from one political party to another one in an election year. That said, two of the top tier surrogates (and potential VP choices) are members from the other political party: Democrat/Independent Senator Joe Lieberman and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel.

Lieberman, the 2000 VP Democrat candidate, has had a long friendship with McCain. After their losses to George W. Bush, McCain flirted with the idea of becoming a Democrat and joining Lieberman and Jim Jeffords to form an Independent caucus. Republican Senator Hagel, who recently went to Iraq with Obama, has made several statements attacking McCain and praising the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The last notable bi-partisan national ticket was Abraham Lincoln – Andrew Johnson in 1864. Lincoln’s decision was a purely political one to bring the Union back together. Most presidential scholars rate this matching as one of the least productive in history. Practically every initiative started by Lincoln concerning Reconstruction was reversed by Johnson barely a year after Lincoln’s assassination. It was even reported that Johnson did not pay respects to Mary Lincoln after the death of her husband.

Will the pairing of a McCain-Lieberman or Obama-Hagel have more success in governing? Is there a policy for political trades from one party to another? How many future draft picks would the Republicans get if Hagel joined Obama? Perhaps it would work out something like this: Hagel to the Democrats for a Kennedy, a Casey (PA), and a pick to be named later. It would be great to watch and comment on something new and provocative in American politics…now, where did I put my draft board?