POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: A bid for political unity

WASHINGTON --A handful of political veterans envision a new look to presidential politics in 2008 -- a bipartisan ticket.

"I never recall our politics being as bitter and partisan and polarized as now," independent Angus King, the former governor of Maine, said Tuesday. "Presidential elections are about the middle, but the current atmosphere turns elections into Armageddon."

Called Unity08, the group is trying to come up with an alternative presidential ticket headed by either a Democrat, Republican or independent. The ticket would be chosen online at a Unity08 convention in the first half of 2008.

Joining King are Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon, former aides to President Carter, and Doug Bailey, a former staffer on President Ford's 1976 campaign. The group plans to build an online community of millions of registered voters who would participate in the online convention. Recruitment has begun on college campuses.

The idea stems from conversations last year about the partisan divide in politics and where the country is headed.

"If we keep on the same path for eight or 10 years, I don't know what kind of country our children will have to grow up in," Jordan said.

The founders of the group say that candidates of the two main parties focus increasingly on issues of narrow interest to their base voters. The online involvement of millions will be critical to Unity08, headquartered in Denver, Colo.

"When the parties pick their nominees, they are picked by a few hundred thousand voters in Iowa, a few hundred thousand in New Hampshire, and a few hundred thousand in South Carolina," Bailey said.

The Unity08 online convention "would involve the people in the picking of finalists for president," he said.

"For young people, this is their world," Bailey said. "We are now into a whole new set of technologies. How can we make them serve our democracy?"