Mark Warner, the Democratic senator from Virginia and governor from 2002 to 2006, has decided not to run for governor next year. The Washington Post's Ben Pershing reports:
Warner’s decision means that, barring a surprise entrant, the Democratic field is clear for businessman Terry McAuliffe. On the Republican side, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II are battling for their party’s nod.
Warner, who held the commonwealth’s top job from 2002 through the start of 2006, had refused to rule out a return engagement in recent weeks, as a series of polls confirmed that he remains popular statewide and would be the instant favorite if he ran. But few Virginia Democratsexpected Warner to run, and he said Tuesday that he had decided to stay put after giving the question “serious, heartfelt consideration.”
McAuliffe first ran for governor in 2009, losing the Democratic nomination to Creigh Deeds. Deeds was defeated that year by Republican Bob McDonnell.
In the tradition of the proverbial carpenter and his nails, if you're Barack Obama, every political problem looks like 2008. Today, the DNC signaled its willingness to use 2008's rhetoric to win in 2010 with a half-hearted rallying video recorded by Obama asking his base to show up at the polls in November.
It's the same message Obama used to pitch Creigh Deeds for governor in Virginia, Jon Corzine for governor in New Jersey, and Martha Coakley for Senate in Massachusetts. It's also the same pitch he made for health care—the one instance in which it actually worked, at least on the Hill, but health care's numbers are still about on par with Corzine's, Deeds', or Coakley's.
Spot political problem, apply speeches, lather with inspirational rhetoric, repeat. What Obama seems to miss, however, is that his inspirational rhetoric worked because he himself was inspirational. Conferring his inspiration upon any old hack Democratic cause or candidate that comes through the DNC has not proven fruitful.
In this video, he is Barack Obama. He is the man whose problems are still inherited. He is the man who fights the health insurance companies... whose product he's requiring that every American buy, battles the big banks... who bankrolled his campaign, and stifles special interests... with whom he meets behind closed doors to hash out deals on legislation. And, he posits, all of this should inspire those who voted for the first time in 2008 to vote again on behalf of all the uninspiring Corzines, Deedses, and Coakleys who will in some unspecified way guarantee the uplifting change at sometime in the unspecifed future that Obama himself has not delivered. Fired up and ready to go!
It's hard to say whether this is more pathetic and phoned in or cynical and disingenuous. They're neck-and-neck. Obama uses what Ben Smith at Politico calls "unusual demographic frankness," when he exhorts, "young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women" to come to the polls. Drudge calls it the "race card," though like Ed Morrissey, I'm not sure I'd go that far.
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