Mark Warner In Iowa: Learning To Beat Hillary

[Mark E. Smith]

Slate - July 14

Watching former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner tour the glass and concrete Pappajohn Higher Education Center in Des Moines gives me flashbacks to 2000, when I followed then-Gov. George W. Bush to countless identical education-related events. Here I am, six years later, walking a few paces behind another businessman turned red-state governor. Warner, too, is focusing on education, promising to change his party by broadening its traditional base and, most significantly, running for president.

But then Warner stops his tour guide and short-circuits my flashback. I expect the perfunctory question or two that Bush asks at such events. Bush uses these appearances not to gain information but to create a scenic backdrop for his programmed message of the day. But Warner starts quizzing his host about advance-placement testing, articulation agreements for credit sharing, and how to educate different student populations. What's he doing? Shouldn't somebody step in and save him before he makes a flub?

Later, speaking to Democratic activists, Warner makes fun of his early business failures. (Business failure is another trait he shares with the president.) Warner can joke because he reversed the curse, creating more than 60 new businesses as a venture capitalist after 20 years at Nextel, the phone company he co-founded. When a ring tone interrupts Warner at one stop, he doesn't glare at the offender, as Bush famously does. he offers instead his favorite line: "Please leave it on. When I hear that, I hear ka-ching."

Unlike Hillary Clinton, or any of his other likely primary challengers - almost all of whom are from the senatorial class - Warner can talk about specific recent accomplishments: improving test scores, balancing the budget, and reforming tax code. His central theme, "ensuring a fair shot for everyone," lifts from being a mere standard progressive platitude when he talks about how he wants to guarantee that others have a chance to fail and succeed as he did. Since he made his fortune recognizing before others that cell phones would be popular, he's also smart to frame his campaign as "not so much about red versus blue but the future versus the past."

http://www.slate.com/id/2145713/

[bronxiteforever]

1. interesting piece-thanks!

I don't know yet who is my choice for our party's nominee-I like senator Russ alot but Al Gore is great-i know it is not a proIraq war pol-Warner seems wise on domestic affairs but foreign policy will also be front and center in 08- his limited experience doesn't seem very helpful

[skipos]

2. Warner accomplished much in VA despite Republicans there

I like him.

[dogman]

3. Supports Lieberman over Lamont?

Why am I not surprised?

[Mark E. Smith]

4. Ah yes, the litmus test

Crick, jerk, snap!

[dogman]

5. No litmus test.

Just an indicator. Put this with a lack of FP experience and it starts getting scary. That's all.