(Mark) Warner voices frustration with Dems

[sabra]

http://www.newsone.ca/piercelandherald/ViewArticle.aspx?id=2544&source=2

Warner voices frustration with Dems

AMES, Iowa - Mark Warner, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, voiced growing concern Tuesday with his party‘s electoral strategy, arguing that Democrats‘ willingness to write off sections of the country could make it nearly impossible to win the White House.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Warner insisted he wasn‘t being critical of 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry , whom he called "a very strong candidate." But Warner said Democrats must stop conceding entire regions of the country.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean has steered money and staff to all states, contending that the party needs to build its operation in Republican bastions.

"We‘ve got to have candidates who can campaign not only in Ames, but at NASCAR races, candidates who can campaign in the barrio and changing communities," Warner said. "We‘ve got to have a message that‘s more focused on solutions than simply focused on criticism."

[SaveElmer]

1. Hmmm...seems like Governor Warner and Governor Dean should talk...

Perhaps Warner is not familiar with Dean's efforts...

[w4rma]

16. The DCCC and the DLC has taken the approach that Warner is critical of.

While the DNC under Dean seems to be doing what Gov. Warner wants done.

[SaveElmer]

21. Well the DLC has nothing to do with it...and the DSCC has a different role

The DLC, as I am sure you are well aware is proscribed by law from spending money on political activity, or donating to candidates or political parties.

The DCCC and the DSCC have different roles than the DNC. They are trying to get Democrats elected to Congress this year. The DNC under HowArd Dean has very wisely invested in a long term approach to build the party. I understand there has been conflict between them, but both are very passionate about what they are trying to do...and both are doing a good job.

I have never seen the Democrats recruit such a strong crop of Congressional candidates!

[w4rma]

38. The second in command of the DCCC is a DLCer who is supporting

LIEberman's run against the Democrat.

And the DLC has been the biggest organizational critic of Dean's 50 state approach.

[SaveElmer]

39. That is meaningless...

As you know the true leaders of the DSCC Schumer and Feird support Lamont...

It is guilt by association.

[w4rma]

41. Woops. I did mean DSCC. Mark Pryor is Vice Chairman of the DSCC.

And he is supporting LIEberman against Lamont.

Tom Carper is Vice Chairman of the DLC. I was for some reason thinking that Carper was Vice Chair of the DCCC. Carper also is supporting the independent over Lamont. Both are DLC.

However, Rahm Emanuel (chairman of the DCCC) did have a public spat with Gov. Dean a few months ago in opposition to Dean's 50 state strategy.

[Stoic]

2. Dear Mark,

STFU.

[Frances]

4. I agree with everything Mark Warner said.

I think Howard Dean is saying exactly the same thing.

[donheld]

8. Dear Mark, Please DO NOT stfu.

What is this person thinking telling you to STFU :grr:

[Le Taz Hot]

17. Uh, because apparently the boy

doesn't keep too current -- as in the last 2 years. It's called the "50-state-strategy" and its been Howard Dean's mantra since he took over the DNC. It's HIS backers (the DLC) he is listening to who are telling him to concentrate all monies and efforts on 6 or 8 "competative" races. That's why the DLC has been losing since 1994. He really should log onto the DNC website once in awhile. He might learn something.

[brentspeak]

20. How do you know Warner isn't telling this to the DLC?

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Because the tail doesn't wag the dog,

my friend. THEY are the ones with the corporate $$$. Them that has the gold makes the rules.

[brentspeak]

28. s/d

[brentspeak]

19. ????

He's agreeing with your avatar.

[blm]

3. Dean will work for 4yrs on 50state strategy - what did McAuliffe do?

Because the Dem infrastructure was allowed to collapse in many red states BY Terry McAuilffe and Bill Clinton's guidance.

Warner knows he's FULL OF SHIT when he wants attention directed at Kerry instead of McAuliffe and then SWITCHES the focus to Dean's strategy.

[Frances]

5. Did you read the same post that I did?

Warner is NOT attacking Kerry--he's just saying that the Democrats can win votes in red states.

[blm]

6. We all know that Dems can win votes in red states - If Warner INTENDED for

the STRATEGY from the Dem party up thru 2004 to be the target he would have specified, instead we get oh I don't mean Kerry, BUT.........

[wisteria]

9. You have that right. This is meant as a dig at Kerry, when it is a fact

that kerry supports the grassroots efforts and Dean's 50 state policy. Warner is trying to say he will be more appealing to the South. That may well be, but he is going to loose them up North. He just shouldn't assume all we have to do is throw them a moderate with a smile-like himself and they will buy it down South and he shouldn't assume he can take the Northern vote for granted either. He certainly isn't appealing to me.

[flaminbats]

11. then who is he attacking?

"Mark Warner, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, voiced growing concern Tuesday with his party‘s electoral strategy, arguing that Democrats‘ willingness to write off sections of the country could make it nearly impossible to win the White House."

is he attacking Howard Dean? Clearly Warner isn't attacking John Kerry, but he could explain which strategists he is criticizing. If he doesn't want Democrats to write off sections of the country, then maybe he should try supporting Howard Dean's leadership! :eyes:

[WhiteTara]

45. McAuilffe made a lot of money from

Global Crossing. And I agree, what the hell does Kerry have to do with anything? Our party is in shambles because the DLC split from our party and forgot the rule, Let us all hang together rather than we each hang alone.

Maybe Clinton thought he could truly be the great uniter, but just like when he was a kid, he will never be let into the cool kids club, and because he is so handsome and smart they let him come in for his monkey dance and then they laugh at him behind his back.

[wisteria]

7. It was the same group of thinkers that Warner is hanging around with

that instructed Kerry to focus on the battleground states and not to bother campaigning in the South.In other words, he is full of sh*t. This is his way of trying to say, Kerry didn't care about the South and he will. :puke:

Oh, and I haven't heard any ideas coming from Warner lately. Seems, Senator Kerry has had quite a few though.

[muryan]

12. I wont support kerry as a candidate in 2008

He will fall to the same tactics that he did in 2004. I however would support warner knowing that he is more moderate and more likely to get my party into the white house, which is the biggest goal for me.

[wisteria]

13. That is all speculation on your part. Warner lacks a lot of what

will be necessary in 08. Support whom you will. I will continue to support the most qualified person and the one who fights for the people.
The one with the real ideas and the one who has been proven right numerous times since 04. And, the one who has learned a lot of lessons from 04 and will not be repeating them. Warner couldn't stand in Kerry's shadow.

[muryan]

14. Swing voters wont vote for kerry

I have no problem with him being part of the administration. I like the man and i like his ideas, but he wont win as president.

[flaminbats]

23. huh???

swing voters did vote for Kerry. He did far better than I expected him to do against a wartime incumbent, and probably would have done better than Gore in an open election like 2000. Kerry did better than Mondale and Dukakis, and would have won in the Electoral College with only one more state!

perhaps Kerry was too liberal on the death penalty, but was too conservative on issues like the Iraqi war and the environment! but he had a far more appealing healthcare plan than Gore did, one which could never be attacked as radical or socialist.

[Ignacio Upton]

25. Kerry has already been defined for the public at large

The "flip flopper" image and the Swift Boat attacks have created an image of him that will be hard to undo. Warner, OTOH, doesn't have that problem, and is a new face nationally.

[karynnj]

31. Very few people not on Free Republic believe the SBVT stuff

Kerry was never a flip flopper - that meme would have been used on any Democrat. There are things Kerry wrote as long ago as 1966 that have echos in what he says today.

Warner has almost NO image now - the question is what image will he create and what image will the Republicans try to create for him. I really wish he had run for the Senate as his excellent experience as Governor coupled with even one term as Senator would have made him a great candidate.

The problem is that there are major areas where he has no position yet - and some are Key such as Iraq, where he suceeds in being vaquer than Hillary.

[wisteria]

33. A new inexperienced face with nothing to really offer , but his ability to

make nice with VA Republicans and restore a sinking economy that had no where to go but up.
The opinions you suggest of Kerry are able to be overcome. The flip flop can be dispelled with any example of someone changing a position when circumstances change. The SB comments have been discredited and most people realize they were lies- much like the lies that were associated with McCain in 2000. McCain has been able to overcome the false charges levied at him. S to can Kerry. One of our greatest Democratic Presidents-Roosevelt was viewed as indecisive and even an elitist by our party. Some didn't want him to run at all. Just look how well he time in office turned out. Peoples opinions change- it is as simple as that.

[muryan]

36. I can think of a certain Arkansas governor

who was just a blip on the national scene, and not favored among democrats until the campaigns started to heat up. Warner has the same power in the south that clinton had, and that is not something to be overlooked.

[blm]

46. And with the same media ethics in play for 2008 that Clinton had in 1992?

.

[blm]

47. And what news metwork editting rooms does Warner control?

.

[Le Taz Hot]

24. As a long-time detractor of

Senator Kerry, I would vote for Kerry before I voted for Warner -- who has NO chance on the West Coast. The guy is WAY too milquetoast.

[karynnj]

32. That's your priviledge, but it contradicts what the MA people say

about Kerry. One MA person mentioned that she was impressed at how much he learns from any weaknesses exposed. The example given was that after he beat Weld comfortably in his hardest re-election race, at a point where almost anyone else would have breathed a sigh of relief realizing he would never be defeated as Senator, he decided that he needed to be better connected to MA industry and cities. He then used his positions on the Small Business Committee and on teh technology subcommittee to work with MA companies and towns, becoming an even better Senator.

If a win causes him to reasses how he could do his job better and to fix weaknesses, the same impulse would be even stronger when he loses. He has made many appearances and given many speeches and he is better than he was even in October 2004. (and there was enormous improvement from spring to fall. It is not surprising that in a focus group done early this year, Kerry's sound bite tests higher than anyone elese's.

You hypothesis Kerry would do the same thing again. Yet the evidence is that he works very hard to be better. The other comment that some of the MA people made is that he seems more comfortable with opening up.

[geek tragedy]

10. He's talking more about rural vs. uirban

than Kentucky vs. Massachusetts.

[Crowdance]

15. This is about Hillary Clinton

Every poll of non-democratic-base populations puts Hillary at the top of the list. It's generally believed that she's the one to beat in the primary. Gov. Warner wants you to imagine Hillary talking to the NASCAR Dads; Kerry can certainly hold his own there.

I don't support Hillary because of her positions on many issues, but I'd hate to think she's being ruled out because she can't hold her own at the car races.

BTW, what are "changing communites?"

[Tyrone Slothrop]

40. I think HRC would have better luck talking to the NASCAR crowd

than Kerry would, personally.

The first thing I thought of when I read of that was Kerry's awkward joke during the debate about how much money he, Bush and Charlie Gibson all made.

[davidinalameda]

18. changing communities

those areas that are more racial diverse than before?

[depakid]

26. I've pretty much written off Mark Warner

An unispiring loser if I ever saw one.

[BenDavid]

27. Damn! Here we go again with

some silly ass democrat speaking without knowing the damn facts. Hell, I am the last liberal in the state of Mississippi and I know that Dean has gone full throttle ahead with a 50 state campaign. It is a shame that dems, especially the ones that want the parties nomination does not know what the party is endorsing....

[Anakin Skywalker]

29. You Gonna Go Zell on the Dems, Markie Mark?

[PATRICK]

30. I was expecting

what some are reading into this, backhanded alarm at progressives screwing up the centrist strategy and that is a stretch in these brief comments, things we all agree with that also serve his type of candidacy. As stated this is legitimate even as self service. Just one warning, invoking the success of past Dem winners doesn't always rub off on the present. Things are different and so is the meaning of big tent bi-partisanship, mockingly abused by the GOP.

This snippet is just not enough and for what it says is mainly positive. I guess as we get closer to primary season how a candidate ties his shoes will start a rote flamebait fest.

[flaminbats]

34. what is Warner's point?

I'm not sure he's doing a good job of making the point..but here's what Warner might be trying to say. Democrats can win votes, only without driving away voters. Dean, Kerry, and Pelosi are not doing this..I think his point is that liberal talk radio is doing this to some extent. Attacking voters in the south, linking religion to the religious right, and Democrats who vote for people like Lieberman or Ben Nelson is a mistake. Not everyone on liberal talk radio does this, and the liberals need to be represented on talk radio.

But I think Warner's point is that attacking moderates who mistakenly voted for Bush..are changing. These people will probably not vote Republican in the midterm elections, and can probably be won in 2008. So Democrats need to be careful if we wish to win, this means being critical of the Republicans in power without insulting those who might of voted for them. ;)

[PaDem]

35. Is this guy living in a cave?

I don't get it. Dean's been tirelessly laying the groundwork for a 50 state strategy for almost two years now.

[many a good man]

37. Don't think about an elephant!

Hah! Caught you. You were thinking about an elephant.

Warner should stop trashing Dems and repeating the talking point that we can't win the redneck vote.

[zara]

42. Man's a fool. Should attack Bush, not his party.

[IronLionZion]

43. Anyone actually read the article?

It's not that long, but the title is misleading.

Warner is supporting Dean's 50-state strategy and is frustrated with the overpaid consultants who oppose it. Most of us can agree.

He's also campaigning in heavily republican western Iowa for his own presidential campaign and wants these folks to see that they are not being ignored. We can be a national party again.

[diamidue]

44. Personally, I don't trust Warner.

I think his connection to the Bilderberg Group might mean that TPTB have picked him as our next presidential candidate. We're starting to hear his name tossed around for 2008 and I wonder: Why him? Why now?

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782778937&path=!news&s=1045855934842