By the way, I think the next president will be either Mark Warner or John McCain. I bet on both of them at good odds so if either one wins I’m way ahead.
Winning the party nominations will be the hardest part for both of them. I don’t think Clinton has the nomination wrapped up by any means, however, and Warner has been coming on like gangbusters. People talk about him all the time. A year ago hardly anyone knew who he was. He’s no Clark either. Clark got in way late and had little organization or money. Experience is Warner’s supposed weakness, but he was governor only two years less than Bush.
The more unpopular Bush gets, the better McCain’s chances of overcoming his “RINO” image in the Republican party. If Bush suddenly resurrects himself then George Allen becomes a more credible threat, but I don’t see Bush making too much of a comeback. With Bush pulling radioactive approval ratings McCain might become the only viable candidate the Republicans have.
Again, working on the side of politics where it’s a business, there are a lot of candidates out there that rush into things, hire a couple of high priced consultants, won’t “stoop” to raising money, and end up spending millions on their retainers, thus crapping out. Patty Wetterling in MN06 is a prime example of this. She announced she would never run for MN06 again because she couldn’t win, ran for Senate, blew most of her cash on her yes-men’s advice, dropped out of the primary, realized that if she wanted to use the last of her money that she had to run in a federal race, and then entered the race for MN06. Pathetic.
Clark is similar, though less so. He could have made a good candidate with the right planning. But he jumped in awkwardly, didn’t know what people to hire or how to coordinate them, and ended up just flaming out.
Warner and McCain are both hard core planners, experienced politicians. As I said, Warner wasn’t just the Gov of Virginia. He’s been working in politics a LONG time. He was instrumental in getting the first and ONLY African American Governor elected (and guess what kids: it was in a RED state, not a blue state: so much for the more enlightened North). He ran in a hilarious Senate race against John Warner (when I worked in VA, many of the voters I talked to STILL didn’t even know the difference between the two men. I mean, amazing. They don’t get troubled by the fact that what they think as the same person is both their Governor and their Senator?)
Of course, guess what: my opinion doesn’t matter. All that really matters, if Warner is to get anywhere, is whether someone like Bricker is willing to say that Warner is an okay guy. Maybe Bricker would never vote for the guy as a Dem, but if Bricker at least wouldn’t mind SO much having him as President, then Warner is probably in the right place to win over the people he needs to win over.
The May 8 issue of NEWSWEEK (with “America’s Best High Schools” on the cover, pp. 33-34) has a generally positive article on Warner, about his “unannounced but unrelenting” campaign for the Presidency and how he’s trying to show Dems how to win the South… or at least make inroads there.
He doesn’t have the look to be president. He doesn’t have enough gray hair and his face is not wide enough. We haven’t had a narrow-faced, ruddy looking and brown-haired president since Jack Kennedy.
A potential president’s face needs to look old and young at the same time, if that makes any sense.
John Edwards was a one term Senator who was so disliked in his state that he could not win another statewide election.
I hope the Democrats are not dumb enough to nominate Hillary Clinton, because if they do, they will lose (unless Dick Cheney runs, and it still would be close), she wont do as well as John Kerry, she wont win one state in the South. Nominating Warner or General Clark (better together) would win an election. Or better yet, I would like to see another billionaire with some ideas like Ross Perot in '92 to shake up the process a little bit.
I’m a Republican, and Warner would get my vote over a so-so Republican candidate. He was a good governor (or at least not a BAD one) and seems to be very conservative for a Democrat.