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.