The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel runs an article today comparing 2008 Democratic Presidential hopefuls Sen. Russ Feingold and former VA Governor Mark Warner. It's a good in-depth read on both candidates.
Feingold is a Senate liberal who opposes the war, wants to censure the president and thinks Democrats need a "backbone."Warner is a former Virginia governor, "big time capitalist" and avowed centrist who preaches consensus, good management and "results."
But in their contrasting styles, backgrounds and rhetoric, they typify some of the choices Democrats will face when they select their 2008 nominee."I believe the sensible center is wide open," Warner said in a 40-minute interview during his visit to Milwaukee April 8, where he met privately with party givers, labor leaders and elected officials and gave the keynote speech at an annual state Democratic fundraiser.
"The country needs somebody that's going to form a consensus that's broader than the current very polarized (climate), particularly the advocates in both parties really out-and-out hating each other," said Warner, 51, one of nearly a dozen Democrats who may seek the presidency.
Both Warner and Feingold are unknown to most voters outside their own states. Both have created an early stir among activists. And both have invited contrasts with the dominant figure in the Democrat field, Sen. Hillary Clinton. One magazine cover last fall labeled Feingold "the Hillary slayer." Another last month called Warner the "anti-Hillary."
Update: Today a seperate article reports that yesterday, from a campaign stop in Iowa, Mark Warner called for Donald Rumsfeld to resign.
Kris Amundson, April 24th, 2006, 9:09 am #
This puts me in mind of a time when Gov. Warner was new in the job. He was facing droughts in one part of the state, floods in another. There were fires, a huge traffic crash that closed the Beltway, and then a hurricane. His response, “Well, at least we haven’t had locusts. Yet.â€Keep your sense of humor, and get well.
This is that certain something that Mark Warner has that no other candidate on the national level even approaches. Even John McCain who survived torture as a POW in Viet Nam doesn't shine like Warner towards a better America.
I've been embroiled in a battle with various members of the DLC for supporting policies that I think have destroyed the American manufacturing base and sold our future to foreign investors (china) in order to profit a tiny aristocratic class at the very top of the economic ladder. I think that even though Warner is a DLC guy, he's the only one who will be able to reverse this. Feingold is a more pro-labor dude, but Warner has the gravitas and the star power to bring these groups together.
We have the DLC and we have labor, whatever the solution to this monumental disaster, destroying one or the other won't save America. We need to include the great things we have and transcend the problems. That's the brighter future for America that progressivism can yeild, and it's the indefatigible spirit of Mark Warner that will lead the way there.
P.S. - Waldo's really sick. I hope he gets better soon.