Burnt Orange Report

Lyndon Johnson was the last Democratic President from Texas. Since that time, all Democratic Presidents have been southerners.

Virginia is known as the mother of presidents. Eight U.S. presidents were born in Virginia:

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, & Woodrow Wilson.

Mark Warner is the most effective Democratic Governor in the South and is Chair of the National
Governors Association.

Texas for Warner is convinced the next president could be Virginia's popular Governor Mark Warner.

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Website: http://www.draftmarkwarner.com

Keep up with the fuss at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DraftMarkWarner/

To join the Texas for Warner Yahoo Group, follow this link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TexasforWarner/

The realist in me thinks that Warner has a good shot and he would probably do well fundraising in the primaries.

The idealist in me thinks that it doesn't really matter where a person is from, we should concentrate more on finding the right person and putting our full support behind them. When we get all worried about whether this canidate will do well in the south or lose swing states before they've even begun campaigning, things go wrong for us. So many people voted for Kerry in the primaries because they felt he was "electable" and not for what he had to say. I think the average Democrat should worry more about whether or not the really want a person to be president.

Obviously, I'd vote for Warner. I'll vote for who's on the top of the ticket. But it should be more about which person has the ideas that make you thank God we live in a democracy. Warner doesn't do that for me.

Politics is the business of selling something. A good political operative can work with anything and sell anything. It shouldn't matter where the candidate is from, it's positions on important issues and who this person is. I think we can sell someone who wants to raise the minimum wage, who wants a cleaner environment for the future, who wants us to be energy independent. Warner is on the party's side on these, but I'm talking about passion.

When you find the real deal, everything else becomes easy. No bad news cycle can stop it. No GOP attack machine can slow it down.

So Kerry wasn't the real deal, acording to "Nate"? Was ALGORE? Was the real deal candidate denied the nomination in 2004, or 2000?

Let me tell you, if y'all nominate another NE candidate again, you will see the same result as 2004. Look how Florida rewarded you for the 2000 fiasco. Now, you're treating Ohioans the same way. They will reward you in kind.

Looking back at ya.

Forget the South!
Edwards couldn't even carry his own state.

As long as the Republicans have the ability to pander to the fundamentalists they will keep racking up electoral votes down there.

One place the Democrats actually gained (except for the top of the ticket) is in the West.
In Colorado, Democrats gained control of both houses of the legislature for the first time since the early 1960s, picked up a US House and a US Senate seat.
Montana's legislature is also now controlled by Democrats and the state is led by a Democratic governor.
Even Wyoming has seen improvements in Democratic vote percentages.

Having a Westerner like Sen. Harry Reid in a high profile position can only help the Democrats in between the Rockies and the Pacific.

I'm leery of historical patterns being used to influence future strategy. In political terms, Jimmy Carter's 1976 campaign is ancient and Lyndon Johnson's in 1964 is prehistoric.
Remember how undecided voters in polls were supposed to break for the challenger on election day? After November 2nd, that's one pattern we won't be hearing about too much any more.

Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada are the future. Look to folks like Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and Congressman Tom Udall (NM-03) if you want to see what geographic direction the party should take.

Tim Z, great post, "forget the south". Forget your greatest demographic, minorities. Great signal to send, we don't care about you anymore, you're beyond hope. Those FEW Democratic Senators should fold them too. BOR, you might as well change your direction to favor the "red" positions now, your party wants to abandon you.

If your party practices this "forget the south", then don't EVER paint Republicans as racist. It would sound soo hollow. It already does now. It must really chap y'all that your greatest voting segment resides in the south and you can't seem to get to them.

About Edwards, winner of 1 Electorial Vote, he didn't work for his state once he made it to Washington. He was all about running for president then. I'm glad he's out of public service for now. I pray for his wife's recovery from cancer.

About Mr. VO, he needs to be seated, he apparently won. I haven't read enough to say anything more than that.

Looking back at ya!

I wanted Warner for VP over Edwards but no one asked me what I wanted. I did not even get to vote for who I wanted to run against Bush. They have the deck stacked against us, both the Republicans and the Democrats. I am not ready to join the Greens; if they were serious they would do something besides running for President, but we need change. It is too early to start focusing on anything except registering people to vote. Register people to vote NOW!

" Forget your greatest demographic, minorities. Great signal to send, we don't care about you anymore, you're beyond hope."

peter, were the demographic minorities you were worrying about the Aryans and the Creationists? We'll gladly concede them to Karl Rove.
The demographic minority I have in mind are Hispanics who are underrepresented in Washington and are largely concentrated in the West.

This post is about presidential politics. If that wasn't obvious from the start, my mention of electoral votes should have made it clearer. Even Dubya could have figured that out by himself.
If Democrats running for Congress or state offices in various Southern states are viable as candidates, they should be supported.
But on a presidential level, this pandering to the South is at best a distraction and at worst a disaster.
Instead of "attacking" the South head on, Democrats should try to outflank it.
Bushies like lower case peter are afraid we might actually dump an out of date strategy and replace it with a winning one.

"Looking back at ya!"
I'm glad you still admire our backsides.

How many minorities were in the Clinton Admin.? How many in our current admin.? Appointing Latinos to prominent jobs in the admin. A gain in Latino votes for our President. Your focus is a little late, as always.

Even Cisneros voted for Gonzales when he ran for the Texas Supreme Court. Endorsed by your newly installed Senator from Colorado. The increase in the Latino and Black vote accounted for most of the difference between Sen. Kerry and President Bush in the 2004 vote. See, even your most taken advantage of segment of our population is starting to leave your party. Y'all don't seem to listen to them, so they're coming over to our side big time.

Where were their representation on Kerry's staff? An afterthought.

The only backsides I'm seeing is y'alls walking back to your side of the field after I scored.

Looking back at ya and still enjoying our victories.

lower case peter,
Gonzalez is small fry. And except in the area of torturing and humiliating prisoners, he is relatively moderate by fundamentalist Republican standards. The big guns are being saved for loony-right appointments to the federal judiciary.

My fellow Illinoisan Barack Obama more than negates any token high profile minority appointment made by the Bushies. As a bonus, Sen. Obama is wildly popular even in lily white suburbs. Obama campaign workers were transported out to Illinois' 8th congressional district where their work helped boot reactionary Phil Crane out of the US House.

I wish the administration luck in finding more minorities like Papi Bush's Clarence Thomas. haha

Sorry you no longer enjoy our backsides.

How does Chief Justice of the Supreme Court sound Tim?

I always enjoy the dejected walk back of the defense, after I score.

Any comments about CBS/DNC?

"after I score"
Peter, you've mentioned yourself "scoring" a couple of times in this thread. Either you ran for office yourself, or you are seriously bragging about...company. Or do you play soccer? Which is it, Peter?

Does it have anything to do with our backsides, as Tim said? I know we're hot, but don't let us bother you.

"after I score"
Peter, you've mentioned yourself "scoring" a couple of times in this thread. Either you ran for office yourself, or you are seriously bragging about...company. Or do you play soccer? Which is it, Peter?

Does it have anything to do with our backsides, as Tim said? I know we're hot, but don't let us bother you.
Posted by Andrea M. at January 10, 2005 07:35 PM

SCORE
Andrea................1
peter...................0

Well, I would say that "forgetting" the south is a bad idea-- we never want to send the message that we are a region-specific party. The only way we'll win is if we project a message of concern for ALL Americans.

I think Mark Warner would make an excellent veep candidate. I don't think he has quite the charisma or experience to be at the top of the ticket, but he's definitely impressive, and is popular in his home state. I would love to see a Richardson/Warner ticket in '08. Bill Richardson's credentials are stellar, since he has both domestic and foreign policy experience, and he knows how to connect with voters when giving a speech (a rarity among Dems these days, unfortunately.) The fact that he is Hispanic is an added bonus, but it's certainly not the only reason he should run (or win.) I think that out of all the Democrats who are interested in running in 2008, Richardson would be the best leader. Warner would make a good president as well, but I think he needs to be the veep first.

I definitely think that either Richardson or Warner would've been a much better veep choice for Kerry. We should not "forget the south" simply because Edwards couldn't carry his home state; from the get-go, Edwards was all about Edwards, not about the people of North Carolina. A one-term senator with a toothy grin and an undistinguished resume is not a winning candidate, and the Kerry campaign should've known as much. But, that campaign was, quite sadly, inept in so many ways. I would say that it's a safe bet that no one outside of Kerry's friends and family actually voted FOR Kerry; we were all voting AGAINST Bush.

Mark Warner, on the other hand, has been working hard for his constituents for the entirety of his term. He continues to garner high approval ratings among Virginians, because HE HAS NOT ABANDONED THEM IN FAVOR OF HIS OWN ADVANCEMENT. Thus, I hope to see him on the national ticket next time around.

Richardson/Warner 2008!