UNITY08, CENTER STAGE

The most interesting part of a campaign by Unity08, a new group formed to elect a bipartisan ticket to the White House in 2008, is that it would test whether Americans really want an alternative to the ever-narrower concerns of the two major parties. The group can succeed in several ways.

Unity08 was formed by Democrats such as Hamilton Jordan of the Carter administration, Doug Bailey, an adviser to President Ford, and former Gov. Angus King, an independent who said in a conference call the other day, “I am doing this because I have never been more worried about the country than I am now.” He blamed the partisan nature of the parties for obscuring the crucial issues – terrorism, climate change, health care – and instead focusing on important but smaller emotional issues – gun control, abortion and gay marriage.

If the group is successful it will help elect a Republican and a Democrat to the White House in 2008 by gathering bipartisan teams or teams of independents and holding an Internet election in early 2008. At a minimum, the group’s web site says, it hopes to “effect major change and reform in the 2008 national elections by influencing the major parties to adopt the core features of our national agenda.”

Voters, by a large majority, say they are fed up with the current political system, but voters also give Congress pathetically low marks and then re-elect the same politicians to it cycle after cycle. If Unity08 were able to field serious candidates with some money behind them, it would show whether voters prefer the current system or would choose one of greater cooperation on issues of mutual concern.

The only way for Unity08 to lose is if the public is indifferent to it. If its ticket attracts public interest and outmaneuvers the parties, it would force the national politicians from opposing parties to cooperate more often. If it attracts public interest and is squashed by the parties – a possibility – it would expose the parties’ cynicism, increasing the chances of the public rejecting them.

Unity08 looks like an honest and earnest attempt to improve the political climate and help Washington address crucial issues. Though it still has plenty of unanswered questions about how it would conduct its Internet primary vote, how it might appear on all 50 ballots in the general election and what sort of candidates it would attract, it is a welcome step to the center in a political system drawing ever-farther toward the edges.