Posted on 02/04/2005 8:19:58 AM PST by areafiftyone
Washington - Talking at length about his political plans and the future of his party, Sen. Russ Feingold said he would consider running for president in 2008 if there is enough encouragement and interest from Democrats and if he thinks he has a real shot at winning the nomination.
Feingold, who plans to step up his national travel and speaking, said his goal for now is to influence the direction of the party and help it rebound from its losses.
He can't gauge the odds of making a White House bid, he said.
"I'm trying to be one of God knows how many Democrats who are going to get out there and try to help turn this thing around," said Feingold, the third-term senator from Wisconsin who has sent a variety of signals that he would like to raise his national profile. He spent three days last week making appearances in Florida.
"If at some point people say, 'Hey, we think you ought to run for president' (and) it's a serious thing, I'm going to listen. I would only run if I honestly believed that I was the guy that really could win, that I was the person who was the best candidate to run," said Feingold, who sat down Wednesday at a reporter's request to talk about the Democratic Party and the 2008 presidential contest.
"I'm not interested in getting out there just for the sake of saying, 'This would be a fun thing to try.' It's a far too serious thing for that," said Feingold, best known nationally for the 2002 campaign law that he authored with Arizona Republican John McCain. "And who knows? If get out there and I'm not the right guy, I might just cause problems. So maybe I'll end up being just somebody helping somebody else. But I want to help."
Feingold is in the process of setting up what is known as a leadership PAC, or political action committee, a common vehicle for potential national candidates to make campaign donations and fund travel.
In the aftermath of his re-election, he has maintained a campaign staff of five in Wisconsin, including two fund-raisers. He ended 2004 with about $460,000 left over in campaign money.
Feingold spent last Friday through Sunday in Florida, making appearances in Daytona Beach, Melbourne, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, and holding one fund-raising event.
Feingold said his double-digit victory in a swing state, despite Republican fire over his opposition to key Bush policies such as the Iraq war, the USA Patriot Act and the No Child Left Behind education law, "gives me a little bit of a forum to say, 'Look, Democrats ought to be proud of their views, and stand tall to defend them.'
"That makes me think more about what we could do nationally if we had more of that kind of approach . . . I'm interested in sort of a spirited Democratic Party that would be not afraid to disagree."
In the case of the 2001 anti-terrorism Patriot Act, Feingold was the only senator to vote no, although many Democrats who voted for it, including 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry, later joined criticism of the law.
With the first contests for the party nomination three years away, there's a lengthy list of Democrats in the "might run" category. Some have national names and donor networks: Kerry, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, vice presidential candidate John Edwards.
But for those with lower profiles, early groundwork needs to be laid just to keep the option of running open. Before the 2004 election, Feingold gave some thought to seeking the nomination and went on a limited college speaking tour. But he also faced re-election himself. He said later that the chances of him running for president were never better than 1-in-100.
Feingold said it's a more serious question for him this time around. "If I didn't go anywhere, if I didn't talk at all about these issues . . . I don't know why anybody would take me as somebody they'd even want to look at," he said.
"My motive in doing this is not to sort of have people go, 'Oh, gee, we'd like him to run for president.' But I do admit that if I ever did want to run, you'd have to probably do more things than frankly I'm planning on doing," he said.
The Wisconsin Democrat is known for staking out staunch liberal positions on some issues and for crossing party lines on others. But in the interview, he suggested that the Democratic Party's prospects for victory in 2008 would have less to do with tacking to the left or to the center, what region its nominee comes from or whether the candidate is from inside or outside Washington than with choosing somebody who can "connect" with voters.
He mentioned President Bush, former President Bill Clinton and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as three politicians with different backgrounds and politics who shared that ability. He also acknowledged that the Democrats' past two nominees, Kerry and Al Gore, were perceived as lacking that touch.
"It's the person people can relate to, the person that makes them feel comfortable, seems to be sincere, maybe has some of the straight-type qualities of McCain," Feingold said.
"That's the kind of person I want to be our nominee. Whether or not I would ever fit that bill I think is a very open question," said the senator, although he said, "I hope that's my strength."
Saying Democrats have a tendency to "talk about wonky lists of issues instead of the real pain that families are feeling," Feingold cited the 1994 Republican Contract with America as an example of effective communication. "I didn't agree with them, but they had this nice direct way of talking about how the average person really feels about their government. And about common-sense solutions . . . It was a way of talking about things that made you feel that they had actually listened to people first."
Feingold said he thought it was critical to concede no region of the country, a point that has been widely made by the Democrats vying to fill the party's vacant national chairmanship.
"What the party should do is make a commitment to go and connect with Democrats and to listen to people in all 50 states, to make this a project of Democrats all across the country, to not take for granted Democrats in Alabama, don't take for granted Democrats in northern Florida," he said.
After traveling to Alabama on a post-election golf trip, Feingold wrote an article for the liberal Web site Salon about his visit to the city of Greenville, portraying it as a downtrodden community where people were voting Republican against their economic interests.
His description angered some Alabamians and prompted the mayor to invite him back for a second look. Feingold plans to return in March.
"I'm going to listen," he said of the trip, describing it as the sort of "dialogue" that Democrats need to have beyond their core areas of support.
"What better place to start for a guy from Wisconsin? . . . People don't usually put Alabama and Wisconsin as identical states."
"Under Right Circumstances" = that every sane American die of a heart attack.
As Hillary's VP maybe.
LOL! EXACTLY!
There they go, talking religion again.
As long as democrats keep expressing these backward, out of touch with reality views, they will never get elected.
I think with his stinky speech against confirmation of Alberto Gonzales yesterday, he is off to a very poor start. He's a putz.
Let them both suffer under there campaign finance reform bill legislation they helped pass.
The citizens of the Peoples Republic of Wisconsin(a third world nation comprised of Madison and Milwaukee) wish our comrade well in his presidential race. The remainder of Wisconsin just wishes he would get the h*ll out of here.
Oh yeah, the guy who conspired with McCain to make possible the obscene, illegal use of soft money in presidential elections. The man who almost made it possible for a mad, anti-America, Hungarian to steal the White House.
I can't stand that SOB. I went to one of his "townhall meetings" in 1994 and I have never before personally witnessed such a smarmy, lying, arrogant idiot. Even Kerry couldn't match this creep in those areas. IMO he probably really is angling to be The Beast's running mate in 2008.
screamin'out of control dean, botox boy kerry, bancheee screeching hillereee, and now feingold. Oh yeah....it's gonna be good!
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