In early December, Warner gave the keynote speech at a banquet sponsored by the South Carolina Democrats at the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston. To hear the crowd that night, you?d think he?d won the primary two years early.Former Sen. Fritz Hollings said Democrats ?have a real winner here,? and former Gov. Jim Hodges said Warner was ?going to be one heck of a president.? A National Journal survey of 100 top Democratic insiders put Warner second behind only Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., as the Democrats? likely presidential nominee.
He's got a long way to go, but looks like he's got some advantages:
New Hampshire is an iconoclastic state that relishes rebuking Iowa?s first-in-the-nation choice, and Warner might want to gamble on Dover rather than Des Moines. But his big opportunity will be South Carolina, where he has three advantages.He has native credibility as a Southerner. State insiders like him. And he?s a former governor.
As a governor, Warner will be unencumbered by the floor votes that may haunt Sen. Clinton and the other senators running. And ?former? merely affords him the time to raise money and travel ? the same luxury which aided Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Ronald Reagan four years later. (His political action committee reports $2.4 million on hand.)
Of course, that last "luxury" may be overstated. You can also be a sitting Senator with ongoing duties to your home state and spend a lot of time raising money and traveling to South Carolina too!