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For Warner's Supporters It's a No-Win Situation
Mark Warner announcing in Richmond that he wouldn't be running for president. After that, he still had to go to Iowa.
(By Bob Brown -- Richmond Times-dispatch Via Associated Press)
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"Maybe go catfishing," Ratliff says.
Outside places like Des Moines and Washington, this story won't play so big. So a man holds a news conference to declare that he's not going to do something that most of America didn't know he was thinking of doing in the first place -- so what? (Warner? Who is he? He that silver-haired senator from Virginia?) The presidential campaign calendar is speeded up so much now that a non-candidate can amass a staff and millions of dollars, seem like a viable challenge to the front-runner, and back out, all before most of the country has heard of him.
Qualls says Warner's announcement was sudden, in part, because several of Warner's friends called him recently to say they were planning on quitting their jobs to work for his campaign. If he told them not to, she says, they'd start to wonder why and news of his indecision might leak. He had to make the call quickly. He thought about it and decided, according to his statement, that he wanted to (as the cliche goes) spend more time with his family.
For now, Qualls still has a job. Warner's Forward Together PAC still has money to disburse to other Democratic candidates around the country and Warner has appearances to make.
For the ex-almost-candidate, "it's kind of a 'if you'll have me, I'll still come,' " Qualls says.
And after Election Day next month? What happens to Qualls?
Unknown.
By now, her bloody mary must be starting to sweat.
Appleby says he plans to attend Warner's fundraiser in the evening. Will Warner still have that sheen, that mix of hope and ambition that surrounds presidential aspirants?
"Some of the electricity will be gone, probably," Appleby says. "Maybe I'll ask him whom he likes." For president, that is.
