Free Republic

It would be the ultimate presidential matchup for Virginia political junkies: Sen. George Allen versus former Gov. Mark Warner. A new poll shows Warner, a Democrat, would easily win red state Virginia over the GOP's Allen if the two faced off for the Oval Office. "Mark Warner's stock has gone up and George Allen, his stock has gone down, obviously," said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. Head to head, Warner would stomp Allen by 17 percentage points, 56 percent to 39 percent, according to the poll's measure of this increasingly unlikely scenario. The poll, conducted last...

Former Virginia Governor and potential 2008 presidential candidate Mark Warner became the first politician to make a public appearance in an MMO yesterday, speaking to a small crowd of avatars in Second Life on issues ranging from the Iraq war to abortion. Warner, who is also founder of cell phone company Nextel, literally flew onto the stage at the start of the event, leading interviewer Hamlet Au to comment that he is "not a noob."

Washington Whispers It's Gingrich's to Lose in 2008 Sorry, Hillary. And Big John, you might have missed your chance in 2000. That's because a new and innovative poll from John Zogby about 2008 presidential candidates finds former Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich way out front of fellow GOP-ers like Sen. John McCain and also finds moderates like former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner far ahead of libs like Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Here's the unusual thing about the Zogby poll released to Whispers: When questioning likely primary voters, only brief biographies and not names were given. In other words, voters picked the...

June 29, 2006 -- IMAGINE the out rage, especially from the Left, if President Bush were to hire an Internet guru who had a past as a Web shill for a worthless dot-com stock. Nope, Bush hasn't - but "un-Hillary" 2008 Democratic prospect Mark Warner did just that when he hired Jerome Armstrong and has no plans to fire him, despite new revelations about his past. The Post's Roddy Boyd recently reported that after a Securities and Exchange Commission probe, Armstrong agreed to a December 2003 SEC settlement that permanently bans him from stock-touting. ---snip---- Several Dem activists were startled...

WASHINGTON - In the battle for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, no one is running harder than Mark Warner. The former Virginia governor has a lot going for him: he is tireless and engaging; he talks about policy and international affairs with verve and a grasp of detail. In a 30-minute interview, he comes across as an affable all-American guy who made a fortune in the cell phone business and happens to have an insatiable interest in politics. At the end of his four years as governor, Governing magazine gave his administration an A- grade for its management of money...

I was just getting ready to write up the topic of this blog edition this past Tuesday when the story broke that Karl Rove WON'T be indicted so I was temporarily diverted by all the hoopla over this event in DUmmieland. However, the DUmmies falling for the TruthOut Hoaxmas story perpetrated by their own WILLIAM RIVERS PITT shows just how far they have fallen in the public eye in relation to their loonie left rivals, THE DAILY KOS aka KOmmieland. Yes, while the DUmmies were tearing themselves apart in angst over having so easily fallen for the Jason Leopold...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Despite Republican scandals, Democrats will not win back majorities in Congress by default, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold told New Hampshire Democrats on Saturday.Speaking at the state party's annual convention, Feingold, D-Wisconsin, rejected the idea that Democrats should just lay low and let Republicans self-destruct. "Some say 'we've got it made ... let's not rock the boat,'" he said, "but I believe that's exactly how we lost in 2002 and 2004. We won't win by default. We won't win by just running out the clock. We'll only win if we show we are willing to discuss tough...

(AP) MANCHESTER, N.H. Despite Republican scandals, Democrats will not win back majorities in Congress by default, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold told New Hampshire Democrats on Saturday. Speaking at the state party's annual convention, Feingold, D-Wisconsin, rejected the idea that Democrats should just lay low and let Republicans self-destruct. "Some say 'we've got it made ... let's not rock the boat,"' he said, "but I believe that's exactly how we lost in 2002 and 2004. We won't win by default. We won't win by just running out the clock. We'll only win if we show we are willing to discuss tough...

Presidency 2008 For the first time since 1928, both major parties will have open contests for the Presidential nomination without a sitting President or Vice President in the running. Politics1 presents a "first look" at those people being mentioned as possible, likely, speculative, or draft candidates for President in 2008.

Here come the Virginians By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, May 14, 2006 Will the commonwealth of Virginia take center stage in 2008? It is not impossible that Virginia's Republican U.S. senator, George Allen, could square off against its former Democrat governor, Mark Warner, in the 2008 presidential election. Not since 1944, when Republican Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York ran against that state's former Democrat governor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, have two men from the same state opposed each other for president.

IT'S TOUGH TO BE a moderate Democrat. Hatred of George Bush has changed the loyal opposition into the bitter opposition, less interested in policy than in punishing their bête noire. It's particularly tough for Democrats who supported the invasion of Iraq, the defining George Bush moment, and who oppose withdrawal. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the very model of a modern "defense Democrat"--not to mention the party's 2000 vice presidential nominee--now faces overwhelming votes of "no confidence" from Connecticut Democratic town councils.The conundrum is acute for the rising generation of moderate Democrats who may run for president, if the performances last week...

Washington — It's the race within the 2008 Democratic White House race, the marathon to see who can emerge as the alternative to Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination. Convinced that Clinton is too divisive to win a general election, many Democrats are looking for a candidate with more crossover appeal, and a number of potential candidates already appear to be auditioning for the role. "I really don't think she can win, and I really wish she would remove herself," Carol Huxel, a Democrat in Goffstown, N.H., said in a phone interview. "There are big, big swaths of the country...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner showed off his presidential credentials in the Show Me State on Friday. Warner told an overflow crowd of 700 Missouri Democrats that the Democratic Party should stand for opportunity rather than an extreme ideology. "I think we've got to change the whole debate in this country from liberal versus conservative, left versus right, to the future versus the past," he said at the Jackson Day dinner. He brought his message of "the sensible center" to one of the most conservative areas of Missouri, a bellwether state that has correctly chosen the...

WASHINGTON -- Surveys in Iowa and New Hampshire found that former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner appealed strongly to stalwart Democrats as a potential presidential candidate, a GOP pollster says. "Mark Warner was the big star" in the surveys this month of likely Democratic caucus and primary voters in the two states, pollster Frank Luntz told reporters yesterday. The two states are first in the nation to hold nominating contests. Warner "ought to frighten Republicans if he were ever to get the nomination -- because he could win" in 2008, Luntz said.

If you harbor serious thoughts of running for the presidency, the first thing you do — long before you commission any polls or make any ads, years before you charter planes to take you back and forth between Iowa and New Hampshire — is to sit down with guys like Chris Korge. A real-estate developer in Coral Gables, outside Miami, Korge is one of the Democratic Party's most proficient "bundlers." That is, in the last two presidential elections, he bundled together more than $7 million in campaign checks for Al Gore and John Kerry from his friends and contacts.

WASHINGTON -- Former senator John Edwards got high marks from labor for a new effort to unionize hotel workers, and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold's demand this week that President Bush be censured was music to the ears of activists on the left. Meanwhile, Mark Warner, former Virginia governor, recently hired one of the leftist blogosphere's biggest names to run his Internet outreach campaign, and Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana began a blog on the liberal Huffington Post, peddling his foreign policy views. The next round of prospective Democratic presidential candidates, even those with centrist credentials, is actively courting the Democratic...

The Virginian Moment: Allen vs. Warner in '08? Wait! We've got some great elections coming up this year! ..... No, some folks insist on focusing on '08, and lo and behold, Virginia's got the juice. ...... Warner has the aura that may count most in the next election cycle--that of competence

- ROVE KNOCKS “BRITTLENESS” OF “VERY LIBERAL” HILLARY: “DO WE WANT TO HAVE HER AS PRESIDENT?” - SAYS RICHARDSON, WARNER MERELY “PREENING” FOR VEEP SLOT - BUSH SLAMS DEMS AS THE “PARTY THAT’S AGAINST EVERYTHING” Reporter Bill Sammon, who joins the WASHINGTON EXAMINER tomorrow as Senior White House Correspondent, begins his new job by detonating the following bombshell in Monday morning editions, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. President Bush and his top strategist, Karl Rove, say Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be tough to beat in the Democratic presidential primaries of 2008 — but not in the general election.

When I first heard Mark Warner speak, my impression was of a complete BORE. The guy just talks on and on and on without saying ANYTHING memorable. But of course, I'm prejudiced since I am a vicious right-wing neanderthal who normally has an aversion to Democrats. Therefore I figured that bored as I was by Warner, the Democrats would get excited by his bilge but noooooo.... It turns out that Warner even puts the DUmmies to sleep as you can see in this THREAD titled, "Hey guys, This Mark Warner, he's nice but he's freaking BORING AS HELL." Therefore...

MANCHESTER, N.H., Feb. 11 -- A lot has changed for Mark R. Warner since he left behind the Virginia governorship and his 80 percent approval ratings to begin mulling a presidential campaign. But perhaps nothing more than this: At just 3 percent in a recent poll asking Democrats nationwide to rate their presidential preference, Warner has become an unknown overnight. Which is why, on a frigid Friday in February, Warner found himself in a Radisson Hotel, eating stuffed chicken and introducing himself to a ballroom full of strangers 500 miles from home. "Good evening, everyone," Warner told the Democratic audience...