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Mark Warner for President?

by vj, Sun Nov 14, 2004 at 07:51:00 PM EST

As long as we're speculating about 2008, how about Mark Warner? There's an article about the buzz surrounding him in the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48211-2004Nov13.html (registration required.)

Three years ago, Warner persuaded voters in an overwhelmingly red state to put him in office with a NASCAR-loving, pro-death penalty, pro-gun rights, fiscally conservative campaign. Since then, he has backed some restrictions on abortion, signed more than a dozen gun rights bills, balanced the state's books and persuaded a Republican legislature to help him pass a $1.5 billion tax increase.

Now, as Democrats lick their wounds 1,452 days before the next presidential election, some are wondering whether Warner could work the same magic across the South, providing the party a presidential candidate who could appeal to the conservative, heartland voters who helped reelect President.

Do we have to choose someone this conservative in order to win? Could he win the nomination? One problem: Some people think he is "boring".

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Divisions on the right

by vj, Fri Nov 12, 2004 at 08:55:57 PM EST

Widely perceived as having won the election for Bush, the Religious Right is flexing its new found muscle. Meanwhile, the pundits are getting irritated.

Karl Rove says 'Moral Values' Carried Bush

I do think it was part and parcel of a broader fabric where this year moral values ranked higher than they traditionally do," he said, adding: "I think people would be well advised to pay attention to what the American people are saying."

Charles Krauthammer says there's a Moral Values Myth

...on what does this victory-of-the-homophobic-evangelical voter rest?

The American Family Association doesn't like the fact that Mary Cheney is flaunting her sexuality:

...A Virginia pro-family advocate says the people who helped re-elect President Bush don't support homosexual relationships -- the administration apparently does. Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, has worked tirelessly for family values, including the fight against legalized homosexual "marriage." He says it was conservative Christians who put the president back in office and who held to the belief that the president shared their views. But Glover says the day after the election, that all seemed to go out the window. "The day after George Bush was elected president again, because of this morals revolution taking place in our country, he allows his vice president to not only put his lesbian daughter on the platform, but to bring her lesbian 'partner' up on the stage with him," Glover says. "It almost seems to be a slap in the face from the get-go against the very conservatives that re-elected the president at a time when he ought to paying them some homage and respect." Glover says the Cheney daughter's open flaunting of her homosexuality is the antithesis of what the administration claims to stand for -- and that the post-election display sends a mixed message to Bush supporters.

The religious right is determined to get Specter.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Critics seeking to keep moderate Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter from chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee were broadening their offensive on Friday by attacking his record on curbing lawsuits. Specter, who supports keeping abortion legal, is already engulfed in a political firestorm fanned by opponents of abortion rights, who do not want him to head the committee that

Please post more examples of pundits saying the Values Voters aren't important. I'm loving this stuff.

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Everybody take a deep breath

by vj, Fri Nov 12, 2004 at 11:19:28 AM EST

We need to calm down about the religious right.

The republicans are now the majority party and they are primarily responsible for what happens. If they've learned anything in their steady rise to the top they will moderate. Otherwise, they will overreach and self destruct.

Liberals and progressives will not become extinct.

Lyndon Johnson won in a landslide in 1964. The democrats had held the presidency for 6 of the prior 8 terms (I believe they also controlled the congress for most of that time as well - correct me if I'm wrong).

Yet in four short years the democrats self destructed spectacularly over an unjust and immoral war.

Things can change quickly in politics. I believe we must prepare ourselves. We'll have to catch up to the republicans in practicing "post-modern politics". We must learn how to be effective as a minority party, but we must also hold fast to our core beliefs, win or lose.

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Groups Oppose Specter Chairmanship

by vj, Sat Nov 06, 2004 at 06:37:54 AM EST

From an article in the New York Times "Conservative" groups - the Concerned Women of America and The Family Research Council - are mounting a letter writing and phone calling campaign to oppose Senator Specter's appointment to the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

This will be an interesting early test of the "Values Voters" new influence.

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