Frankly, I’m not sure why he was in the Republican party.
Politico reports that he is most upset about Clinton’s support for the Iraq War:
Chafee has been a prominent critic of the war in Iraq and was the only Republican senator to vote against authorizing it. He describes the war as his primary motivation for challenging Hillary Clinton, telling POLITICO last week, “Anybody who voted for the Iraq war should not be president and certainly anybody who voted for the Iraq war should not lead the Democratic Party into an election.”
He has also criticized Clinton for being too close to Wall Street, but has said he agrees with her on many domestic issues.
Adam Toobin at HuffPo burnishes Lincoln’s liberal credentials:
Today, he is not a Republican, nor is he entirely focused on the Iraq War. He was a national leader on marriage equality in the U.S. Senate, anticipating both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s “evolutions” on the issue, and he pushed Democrats and Republicans in Rhode Island to successfully end the state’s discriminatory marriage practice in 2013.
Toobin likes him:
… the vast majority of us can agree that the presidential election in 2016 is one of the most vital in the nation’s history. Our domestic difficulties are matched only by our international challenges. Lincoln Chafee has a record of making the right decision at the hardest times. We see this in his record and his values. And with an ever-more extreme Republican field headed by the likes of Jeb, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, only the Democrats are in a place to choose a president, not a partisan.
A Realistic Record
After winning his first statewide race for US Senate in 2000 as a Republican, Lincoln Chafee voted against the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, opposed the Medicare Part D expansion and encouraged the reinstatement of the Clinton-era tax rate on the nation’s highest earners in 2006. He was one of the few politicians in Washington who predicted how these huge cuts and added entitlements would bloat the deficit. All politicians stand to gain from lower taxes, but Chafee was unwilling to commit future generations to paying for Bush’s political patronage. Of course, these policies were fundamentally wrong for the country, but it’s essential to know that whoever our president is, they will not sign away tax cuts or entitlement expansions, because it is easier or more politically convenient than vetoing and taking a stand.
Ted Nesi at Chafee’s home state CBS affiliate ran an entry on him of interest:
Lincoln Chafee is not going to be the 2016 Democratic nominee for president, even if for some reason Hillary Clinton isn’t, either. But on paper his résumé is a perfectly respectable one for a presidential aspirant: a former U.S. senator who spoke out on world affairs, a former governor of a blue state, a former Republican who can demonstrate the zeal of the convert for his new party. (The fact that he couldn’t win a second full term as senator or governor, of course, is an issue.) Chafee the candidate will probably get invited to participate in debates against Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and whoever else makes the race – garnering him plenty of publicity and free TV time to expound on his worldview. Remember Mike Gravel stealing the show in 2007? Why couldn’t Chafee play that role this time? It will raise his profile once the race is over, too.
I would definitely be interested in hearing more from him; he seems to be more willing to think ahead rather than just react.
