Democrats abuzz about Southerner (VA Warner)

[question everything]

(edited to clarify the subject line)

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Democrats abuzz about Southerner

Virginia Gov. Mark Warner raised taxes by $1.4 billion, eliminated state's budget deficit and has 74% approval rating.

By SCOTT SHEPARD
Cox News Service

CHARLESTON, W.VA. – Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia explains his presidential aspirations in a way that is clearly understood in the red rural states Democrats have to start winning if they ever hope to occupy the White House any time soon.

"I'm kicking the tires on it," this one-time NASCAR sponsor says, when asked if his increasingly frequent travels outside the Old Dominion should be viewed as testing his chances to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

And why not? The 50-year-old businessman has held only one public office in his political career, but after three years as governor of Virginia, he has an approval rating of 74 percent. Not bad for a Democrat in one of the reddest of the "red states," in the color-coded political shorthand of network television.

As a result, some Democrats are wondering if Warner can spin the same kind of political magic across the rest of the South in a presidential campaign in 2008 that he has conjured in Virginia. Some 1,400 of them turned out for the West Virginia Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner here Saturday night to hear Warner speak and see for themselves.

More..
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/08/28/sections/news/focus_government/article_652299.php

[niallmac]

1. He has to pass my litmus test first

wave a recent poll past his nose. If he follows it like a beagle puppy then he's not my man.
If he uses it as a chew toy the boy has potential in my book which has sold not one copy.
This is my new DOGma.