Reply #55: I'll be watching Warner. I have a friend who favors him.

[JDPriestly]

The video makes him seem a little overconfident for my taste, but then it is just a video. I will want to know how Warner stands on issues like health care, education, student loans, reigning in the power of corporations and many, many other issues.

Also, I will be watching to see how he gets along with other Democrats. The video depicts Warner as a uniter. If he can unite Democrats around him, he may be able to win. Not since Clinton has a Democrat been able to unite and excite Democratic voters behind him or her early enough to be able to focus on winning a presidential election. (Gore, as popular as he was and, even though I believe he actually won, bored a lot of Democrats, I fear.) I think uniting the party will be the key to winning the next nomination. Face it, Kerry actually has a good head start on that point even though a lot of activists even those who like him viewhim as having too little charisma to win.

The nomination will probably go to the candidate who can unite the party, including his or her rivals for the nomination, behind his or her campaign. This is especially true for Warner, because he is not well known among Democratic activists outside Virgina. If Warner really can unite us, he will have a great advantage.

Do you know who Warner's major funders are? Is he a front for corporate interests? Where does he stand with regard to the DLC? Does he get along with Dean? Does he have a grassroots movement? Who are his friends in California? Does he have on-the-ground contact people or grassroots organizers in California? Same for New York? And Massachusetts? Same for New Hampshire. Same for Iowa. These are the factors I will watch. Regardless of how well he is liked in Virginia, without well organized support in the most important blue states Warner will get nowhere. Much as we need to swing one or two red states our way, the energy, the big money and the activists are in the major blue states. Without us blue states, a politician from a red state can get nowhere in Democratic politics because he or she will never swing enough red states to win in the end.