| Friday, November 11, 2005 |
| They're bullish on Warner! |
 Forget John Kerry and whoever else might be running in the Democratic primary in 2008. Hillary Clinton's real competition may be Mark Warner. Warner emerged as a media-annointed "big winner" in Tuesday's Virginia election, because in the end, his endorsement of Tim Kaine mattered where the president's endorsement of Kilgore didn't (btw, Giuliani's endorsement of Doug Forrester in New Jersey didn't either...)
Warner's strengths: he was a very popular Democratic governor of a red state, he's not so liberal (his "conservative positions on the death penalty, gun control, immigration, the economy and abortion" are deemed "Republican lite" by the snidely and leftly), he's very, very rich (and presumably has rich friends who could donate money to his campaign) and perhaps most importantly, he's not tainted in any way by the Iraq war (he wasn't in Congress and so didn't have to vote for or against it.) Needless to say, the neocons are clamoring to know where he stands on their beloved invasion, but so far, no one knows. (What seems clear is that between his positions on domestic issues and Hillary's on the war, Cindy Sheehan will loathe them both, which, of course, helps them both...)
The best scenario for Hillary would be that Warner runs a good primary campaign, but because of her far superior name recognition (she doesn't even need to use her last name), he winds up settling for a spot as her veep (he's young, 51, and so could be in line for the top job before he turns 60). Worst case: the media falls madly in love with Warner the way they have with John McCain, and he wins it all...
Update: In the intersting trivia department -- Warner co-founded Nextel, and no, he's not related to Va. Sen. John Warner (though he did run against him for Senate once, in a Warner vs. Warner druge match that the elder Warner won.) Source: Wikipedia, of course.
Tags: politics, News, elections, Democrats, Hillary,Warner, 2008, |
posted by JReid @ 11:21 AM   |
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