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It's funny that Walter Shapiro says here that although he heard Mark Warner voice caution about the '08 race in September, he didn't believe it, because the Warner quotes in Shapiro's September story made me think he wouldn't run. Warner knew exactly what he was getting in to and he knew why he'd eventually turn away.
My useless hunch is that the nominee will be Edwards or Obama. I suspect Hillary Clinton and Al Gore won't run either.
This is, by far, the worst news that I've heard in a long while. Warner was really the strongest candidate the Democrats had available, and had the potential to draw independents and moderate Republicans into the fold.
Honestly, Clinton just can't do that. Even ignoring Falwell's mad ravings a few weeks ago, it is obvious that many conservatives curse her name and would even vote for a ficus tree over her. Of course, any liberal worth their stripes shouldn't be too happy with her candidacy either, as her positions have leaned more towards the moderate-to-conservative end of the Democratic Party.
Aside from Clinton, Obama will be seen as too inexperienced for a run at the top job, Clark hasn't really been in the public sphere since the primaries in 2004, and Biden... well... Biden is just not a pleasant fellow. I like Feingold, and I think that he's a strong, effective speaker, but he's just too easy to paint as an evil "liberal" in the eyes of the public.
It's really all riding on Edwards now, or maybe Bayh. Dodd would be okay, of course, but not awe-inspiring. But it is high time that we had someone that actually wouldn't seem like an also-ran even at the beginning of a run.
