The reaction to Mark Warner dropping out of the 2008 presidential race has been pretty consistent. Most people think that Hillary Clinton benefits from anyone dropping out. Everyone also seems to think that Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) also benefit. Personally, I like Evan Bayh a great deal, but I don't think he is presidential material. He is just too boring. McCain and/or Gulliani would eat him alive. John Edwards has never really appealed to me either. I really like and respect his focus on poverty in America, but I'm not sure that is enough to appeal to a majority of American voters. He also suffers from the fact that he is so youthful looking, lacks foreign policy experience and has buckled to the pressures from the left of our great party and flipped on his Iraq vote. I'm not a fan of the damn war, but if you can't stick up to the left-wing crazies then you don't really have a chance.
Mr. Warner, who five years ago became the first Democrat elected governor of Virginia since 1989, had drawn broad interest among party leaders assessing the potential 2008 field, both as a centrist elected in a Southern state and as a wealthy entrepreneur able to finance his own campaign.
...Mr. Bayh canceled a day of fund-raising in California so he could make telephone calls to try to corral some of Mr. Warner’s supporters and contributors, the senator’s aides said.
Mark Warner may be the first, yet probably not the last, of the Democratic presidential hopefuls who succumb to what might be called the Hillary Effect.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has carved out such formidable advantages in fundraising, organization and ideological positioning, they said, that lesser-known candidates such as Warner will find it hard to compete.
Clinton, 58, leads all likely Democratic rivals in early polls. She has amassed $22 million for her 2006 Senate re- election campaign and will be able to use any leftover money in 2008. And by adopting issue stands that are a fusion of what political professionals characterize as centrist and liberal positions, she has left little room for a rival to differentiate himself.
Comments