Actually, other anatomical parts come to mind when I think about Virginia Republicans. And with Gilmore, particularly, I'm mindful of the effluvia from some of those parts.

And then, of course, there's the cheery prospect of a bloody encounter as Republicans fight it out!

Oh, my, what good times to be a Democrat in Virginia!

On't-day ell-tay the Epublicans-ray!

Incredible.  Gilmore only polls 20 behind Warner, and Davis polls 27 behind.  Wow.  I would've expected the opposite.

statewide. He was governor, after all, while Tom Davis has only been a congressman from one district...

But these numbers on Warner show that Davis won't do as much damage as expected in Northern Virginia.

Please explain to me how Tom Davis was going to make inroads to the Democrats and Independents in Northern Virginia and take votes away from Mark Warner?  I just dont buy it and can't figure it out. 

I was shocked to see another Rasmussen poll which shows Clinton leading both Rudy and Fred.  2008 in Virginia should be very interesting.

http://www.rasmussen...

Rudy could give Hillary a run for the money.  We DON'T want that match-up.  Rudy is competetive in big blue states.  I'd rather face Fred Thompson any day of the week.

with Rudy.  And wait until all the details of his, er, "messy" personal life come out.  Rudy's toast.

The Firefighters have it out for him. Could you imagine those guys going door to door. "Hello, I'm your local firefighter and I need you to vote for (dem nominee) so I can do my job properly."

Right now (and I know it is hard to believe after 2004) we are the party in power.  Are people are more energized.  We can beat Thompson because he won't attract moderate independents like Rudy would.

"OUR people are more energized."

I wonder if he can compete with Hillary. Everyone knows I don't think she should be our nominee. But I do think that she would have an easier time against Rudy than say...Thompson.

I for one would think that some enterprising, dirty trickster of a Dem would round up some money for ads of Rudy in drag (there are about six different times he has dressed up that way) Run those in a few peripheral south states like Arkansas and in the Florida panhandle in the general and suddenly a cheap action like that could be the thing that gets the section of the GOP actually cares about that sort of thing to stay home.

But then again, DanG may have a point because who ever knew those clowns to be consistent. i.e...David Vitter. 

Something else I have noticed is that her levels of support don't rise above what Democrats typically receive in Virginia anyway.  Gore and Kerry both made it to the mid 40s.  It may just be that Democratic voters have already decided they will vote Democratic regardless, Republican voters will not vote for her under any circumstance, and that the others are undecided.  It gives us a great starting point but I do have to wonder how much support she will be able to pick up.  My guess is that a large number of the undecided live in suburban areas.  Can Hillary rise above her base support in places like Henrico, Prince William, Loudon, Chesapeake, VA Beach etc is the question we should be asking.

If what we all know is true -- that is Mark Warner beats either Gilmore or Davis (I don't think Davis quite has the unbridled ego to run as Gilmore does) -- by such a huge margin I think Mark would have such incredible coat tails effect that he'd assure a Va. majority for the Dem Pres. nominee.

If Mark does run (I'd give at leat 100:1 odds that he will), so many people -- D, R or I -- would vote for a Dem. Pres. candidate just because they came to the polls to vote for Mark. Just think about that mfor a moment: roughly 50% of repugs would otherwise walk and not vote at all EXCEPT for Mark and many would then vote for the Dem. Pres. candidate as a protest vote because they are so distressed about their unacceptable Pres. choices. The point is that they will show up to vote for Mark and while they are there many may (will) actually think about what their party now stands for.

People who are really angry almost always stop lock-step party line voting and start to think for themselves. We all know the result of people actually thinking about and questioning their party line.

Back to the original point: The Mark Warner "up-ballot effect" will (not might) assure delivery of the Virginia Electoral College votes and they the presidency.

  T.C.

Downticket effect? Mark Warner would almost surely carry the NOVA VA-11 and VA-10, while likely carrying VA-4, VA-2 and VA-5. Once he announces, we also need to recruit very strong candidates for all these races, as this may be our best bets in taking any of these districts before redistricting.

In case you were wondering, I want Mark Warner to be Virginia's junior Senator.

  T.C.

See Ben's post, it says all that needs to be said.