Letters to the Editor
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What I Hope You're Going to Learn About Mark Warner
Remember what George W. Bush said in 2000 about how he had been a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature and he'd accomplished this, that and the other, and the Molly Ivinses of the world pointed out to us that the Democrats he was working with weren't recognizable as Democrats to anyone outside Texas, and the governor didn't have too much power anyway?
Well, Governor Warner did all the things W. claimed to have done, as a real Democrat in an authentically Republican state. And he did it quietly, sharing credit, and through hard work and a firm grasp of policy.
Unfortunately, of course, the Democratic nomination process is more of a contest in political purity, about position papers about things that are never going to happen, rather than a test of who is best able to run the country. This is more of a shame now, in these parlous times, when we've learned the last five years how terrible it is to have a man woefully unprepared to face an uncertain future. The key is not to mouth that you want to repeal Taft-Hartley, which ain't gonna happen, but how you will operate in a country increasingly divided and polarized. Read Mark's comments about 9/11, and the way he simply went ahead and gave Virginia (which, after all, had been attacked on 9/11) many of the recommendations of the 9/11 report without waiting for Washington to get its act together. That's governing, man.
When Mark says he's not decided about running, take him at his word. This is a man who never practiced law for a single day after a Harvard education. He's knows how to take the road not taken. I would like to think, though, that if he decides not to run it will be the country's loss far more than his or his family's.