Warner Visits New Hampshire

This last Friday, His Excellency (did you know that’s that official title of the Governor of Virginia?) Governor Mark Warner gave a speech at the New Hampshire Senate Democrat Caucus Luncheon. New Hampshire is a very important state on the road to the White House since it holds the first presidential primary. This, plus the end of his term in 60 days, plus his new PAC equals Governor Warner running for President in 08. He seemed confident and joked often during his speech. One that drew much laughter was prompted by the sound of a cell phone in the audience. He joked “When you hear an annoying sound like that, I hear ca-ching ca-ching.” He informed the guests at the luncheon that he is the co-founder of Nextel and that they should all go outside and call someone after his speech is done. During his 30 minute speech, he talked without any notes.

He touched on all the major topics: education, healthcare, security, energy, and the environment. He talked about how integrity and competence are missing from Washington, and about how there is need for bipartisanship and inclusiveness. Of course he talked about the past election and the dirty slandering campaign ads created by “The Opponent,” never once mentioning the name of that loser.
Warner said that the Democratic Party has won when it has said that it is the party of the future. This is surprisingly easy to do considering that the Republicans are conservative, which, according to dictionary.com means “Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.” But no one has done it recently! It’s quite easy!

1) Call yourself a progressive, liberal candidate! Don’t hide from your liberal point of view. If a Democrat said in an ad that their Republican opponent was too conservative to be Governor, they would think it as a compliment and they would go thank the campaign manager for airing that ad. In this past election, Kilgore was just spewing about how Kaine was too liberal to be Governor. It’s not a bad thing! Don’t hide from yourself.

2) Have plans and solutions when you talk to people. Have an idea, a goal, a plan to get a group of people together to talk about possibly doing something! Anything! Anything that is not negative, or an attack, or just brainless skirting of the question is progress and thinking about the future. And it gets all of us closer to that goal.

3) Another thing Warner said is that the candidate should consider all ideas, even those from other points of view. If it’s a good idea, that gets the job done, and works, it doesn’t matter who it came from. You never want to discard an idea just because the person who suggested it doesn’t belong to the same party as you.

His Excellency looked relaxed and confident. He engaged the audience and answered questions after the speech. I see a presidential candidate in the making. And a very good one at that!
If you didn’t catch this speech on Sunday, you can get it from C-span.
Peace,
Carlos, 11th District Rep