Thursday, October 12, 2006

Politics: My frontrunner pulls out

Democrat Mark R. Warner, the former governor of Virginia, has decided not to run for president in 2008, fearing the impact of a drawn-out campaign on his family. "I want to have a real life," he said.

Warner scheduled a late morning news conference in Richmond to make the announcement. In a written statement, he said he made the decision after celebrating his father's 81st birthday and taking his oldest daughter, Madison, on a college tour.

"I know these moments are never going to come again," Warner said. "This weekend made clear what I'd been thinking about for many weeks -- that while politically this appears to be the right time for me to take the plunge, at this point I want to have a real life.

"And while the chance may never come again, I shouldn't move forward unless I'm willing to put everything else in my life on the back burner," he said.
I admit I'd be very interested to see if this "want to have a real life" explanation is really Warner's #1 motivation. But if so, can't blame the guy for being a decent human being.

Bill Richardson and Evan Bayh are still in the pipeline, and Bayh is CERTAINLY running. Daniel at KyDem would be out of a job if Bayh withdrew, so I think he'd make Bayh run at knife-point if necessary.

But then that'd see us with possibly a Jew-vs-Mormon election. Much better than the Hillary-McCain battle forecasted.

I'm not ready for presidential elections yet.

2 comments:

Pepper said...

Nice to know that I'm not the only one who had Warner as a personal favorite.

Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of Bayh. On the other hand, a McCain-Feingold contest would confuse the hell out of campaign donors. :)

Rob said...

Most national pundits have said the BIG winner of Warner's dropping out is Sen Bayh.

Bayh was competing with Warner for the same group of people... and now with Warner out, Bayh is the big dog with that group. Bayh and his staff are undoubtably burning up the phone lines calling Warner's major backers to line them up.

PoliticalDerby.com said it best... "Who benefits the most? That’s a no-brainer, and I have one word for you, Evan Bayh. ProFlowers.com. Time to send Warner some chocolates, a few nice Mylar balloons and one of those giant thank you cards. The center of track has just become a heckuvalot less crowded."