Mark Warner has announced that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2008. He says it has nothing to do with his prospects of winning, but that he had to make a decision because a lot of people had their lives on hold. I met Warner back in the spring and I was very impressed with him. I didn’t like his foreign policy and I am not generally a fan of DLC-style Democrats. But Warner is a good man and an attractive candidate. He will make a very good Vice-Presidential selection for whomever does win the nomination. If it’s Hillary, I predict she will select Warner.
The immediate beneficiary of Warner’s decision could be John Edwards, because he is the other southern candidate. But I actually think it benefits all the other centrists, like Biden, Vilsack, Bayh, and Clinton. The first three are such longshots that I think the real beneficiary is Clinton.
It also hurts Feingold, who needs as many DLC candidates in the race as he can get. The more they split the fundraisers and votes, the better for him. I’ll be interested to see the results of the next netroots poll. I suspect a lot of votes will be going to Clark and Edwards. Some people will never allow themselves to believe that a single, divorced, Jew can win the nomimation and then the election. They’re wrong, of course. Feingold can win because he is so articulate and he runs such good campaigns. That is more important than biography. If biography mattered so much a frat-boy, cheerleading, dry-drunk, faux-Christian, AWOL, failed businessman would not be our President today.
IMO, the democratic party is the biggest winner. Warner was the most conservative of the leading candidates; I really want someone from the “democratic wing” of the party instead.
good riddance. Hope he finds himself a nice cozy lobbying job.
other than Feinstein, can you support any of the other likely candidates?
no, I don’t vote for Republicans, fake Republicans, former Republicans or corporate vote whores. The gigolo from MA is the last one of those to ever get my vote. I’m done with them. If Feingold isn’t the nominee I’ll be writing him in or voting Green.
What about John Edwards?
I’d vote for Elizabeth.
Why even bother at all, then? To me, sure, one can vote for the Greens or some third party – but reality dictates that the only way anything that liberals and progressives stand for will get passed is if Democrats are elected.
We can say no. We can make them lose, and make them keep losing until they change or are replaced by people who will really represent working, right-minded people, women, minorities, workers.
I understand that you’re happy being a good trained puppy, eagerly leaping to your master’s voice, scratching at the door to be let out. Following their orders in return for promises of future treats. Have fun staying on your leash.
It’s hard for me to have any modicum of respect for a person like you when you throw out idiotic bullshit like this. Acting like a 10 year-old doesn’t get you very far, either.
damn …
how will I live w/o your respect?
LOL! It’ll be tough, Madman, but you’ll do it!
Madman, I don’t necessarily agree with the electoral approach you advocate, but I do think it has enough merit to stand on its own without personal invective.
My (probably unwanted) $.02.
you’re probably right, but frankly I’m sick of broken records like psi and Delaware Dem and DHinMI and Armando and Meteor Blades and all of the rest of the operatives and fellow travelers who keep advocating the same failed course of action, over and over and over again.
Who is he to tell me, or anybody else, how we’re supposed to not “waste” our vote? I’m sure he likes to bitch about how Nader “lost” the 2000 election, as though the worthless campaign that Gore and Holy Joe ran had NOTHING to do with it.
I wasted my vote on Kerry, who obviously didn’t give enough of a damn about people’s votes to fight for them when they were suppressed. I’m not doing it again. We won’t have any hope for change until the Democratic Party as it is currently constituted is destroyed and replaced w/ real fighters, not hacks.
They’re probably sick of you too 😉
I don’t agree with telling anyone they wasted their vote.
Reasonable people can disagree over the best way to effect change. I think that what you suggest requires a groundswell of public support that I don’t see happening unless things get really bad here, or unless we can otherwise get through to the ignorant masses. And I’m not sure I want to see the collateral damage in the short term that comes if things do get that bad.
On the other hand, simply dismissing your approach as unrealistic confines us to an already broken system and, as you say, reinforces bad behavior.
I don’t think there is a universal answer. I think locally it is easier to take your approach, and it is my hope that will give us better candidates and choices further down the road.
As for 2008, I agree with you that Feingold is heads and tails above anyone else. I have recently been impressed by John Edwards though, and would be satisfied if he got the nod.
my problem w/ Edwards is this …
… he changes what he advocates, what he’s willing to fight for, seemingly without any grounding in values. His strongest selling point was the “Two Americas” thing, and as soon as he was on the ticket it disappeared. I get the sense that it is as much a gimmick as it is a conviction. That’s the impression he leaves me with. Perhaps out of the sea of centrists he’s the least objectionable, but that’s not saying much.
Be careful with that analysis. Remember when Lieberman was selected? He jettisoned all his talk of privatizing social security and affirmative action.
It didn’t mean he didn’t still believe in those things, it meant that he was Al Gore’s running mate and Al Gore didn’t want to run on those issues.
Edwards ran his campaign the way he wanted to. Kerry ran his campaign the way he wanted to.
Did you see the diary over at the orange place last night where he was answering questions? I was very impressed with his answers.
If I get time tonight I think I will condense it down into a real q+a format and put it in diary form here. Here’s the link to the dKos diary (warning : there are about 1000 comments to filter through).
I will keep an eye out for your diary. DK is filtered here at work, and I seldom check in there more than once a week anymore, so I would have likely missed it.
I tried to catch Elizabeth whenever they showed one of her town halls on CSPAN. Boy, is she sharp. I wish she was running.
I’d vote for her in heartbeat.
Ditto.
Edwards is just a good speaker, nothing more. Almost borders on opportunist. (or however you spell it.)
I think that what you suggest requires a groundswell of public support that I don’t see happening unless things get really bad here, or unless we can otherwise get through to the ignorant masses. And I’m not sure I want to see the collateral damage in the short term that comes if things do get that bad.
I think about and like this all the time! If I only had a crystal ball and/or unlimited time here on earth, then I could wait and wait for change! It does seem like the Dem game plan for the last 20 years is not working in terms of producing progressive ideals, so will still going along with such a plan ever change things. If so, then I agree with your above statement. If not, however, then I think letting things get worse without giving aid and cover to the conservatives might help bring real change someday sooner!
i have to join Madman here. It’s Feingold or no one at this point but i’d love to see other decent choices.
I do understand Psifighter as I was once where he was as a student trying to get Nixon out. But Democrats then stood for things and stood hard. There’s just no defending them anymore as almsost all of them now would be considered Republicans 20 years ago… both teams now play on the Republican side of the football field, the goal posts are now in the Republican end zone and the 50 yard line so it’s always a win-win for them. Guess who has been shoved off the playing field?
On top of that didn’t Psifighter post a diary to say he wouldn’t be around after Labor Day as he had huge amounts of school and activities yet his presence here seems not to have diminished in the least… maybe i just saw too many GBCW diaries at dkos but it raises the antennae.
so, who do you support in the upcoming elections.
What’s your top ten for the house?
Yeah, we can see that by how many times they actually stood up to gwb, instead of caving when it came time for a vote!
And I am also sick of people complaining about those who vote 3rd party. I voted for Nader in 2000, and Gore still won MI! Remember Florida and Bush v. Gore?
LOL! Sushi, maybe?
If it’s Hillary, I predict she will select Warner.
If it’s Hillary, the Republican VP pick is the one that’s going to end up mattering.
how so?
I guess I was wrong… I really thought that he was going to be a contender in the primary, or at least the Anti-Hilary. Wasn’t sure if I wanted him to be, but I thought he was likely to be the next Pres.
Well now no one can say that I have never admitted I was wrong.