Warner Won't Make 2008 Run For President

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Mark Warner's Career Highlights
Former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner's (D) announcement that he will not seek the presidency in 2008 comes after a successful career in both Virginia politics and the national political arena.

"Things will probably never be as aligned as they are right now," said Warner, who left office in January. "I bring a real desire to learn. I think I bring a tremendous curiosity. I think I bring a willingness to acknowledge when I'm wrong. Those three traits alone make me different from [President Bush]. Whether I had the experience and preparation to take on this challenge and then this job, I feel absolutely confident."

But that confidence -- a trait that some called unshakeable during Warner's four years in Virginia's executive mansion -- was apparently not enough.

Warner said his wife, Lisa Collis, and daughters, Eliza, 12, Gillian, 15, and Madison, 16, were ready to support a White House run. But he said that his wife was never enthusiastic and that his children were "excited" when he made his final decision.

"Lisa went from negative to neutral," Warner said of his wife's attitude in the past year. "They would have been supportive. They did not ask me not to pursue this."

A Democratic nominee could still ask Warner to run for vice president. That happened to Walter F. Mondale, who dropped out of the 1976 contest and ended up as Jimmy Carter's vice president.

Warner could also run for his old job again. Virginia law does not allow sitting governors to run for reelection, but it does allow them to seek the office again after a four-year hiatus. Warner, who left office with record-high approval ratings, has said repeatedly that he might want the job back someday.

Warner's statement that he will consider elective office in the future also shook up Virginia politics even as the state is watching another battle between Allen and Democrat James Webb.

Democrats who have been taking the first steps toward running for the U.S. Senate in 2008 or the governorship in 2009 now have to contend with the possibility that Warner will want one of those two jobs.

"There is a potential gorilla in the race," said former lieutenant governor Donald S. Beyer (D), who served for a year as finance chief of a possible presidential bid by Warner.

Beyer, the owner of a chain of car dealerships in Northern Virginia, jokingly offered Warner a job as a mechanic if he needed one. But Beyer, a longtime friend, sounded weary and exasperated.

"All of us who were deeply and emotionally invested in him are very disappointed," Beyer said. "There's nobody in the United States better positioned to be president. But I think we all very much respected his desire to have a real life."

Warner's year-long dalliance with a run for the presidency has had its ups and downs.