He didn't say anything like that today.  He expressed a desire to offer something cohesive as a Democratic opposition to Republicans and the problems they caused, but never said Democrats don't have ideas or anything like that.  He'll be talking about his ideas for a Democratic message and such tomorrow at the Boswell event, so I'll make sure to do a follow-up about what he said.

And I think, at least from our conversation, that a message similar to the one Michael Tomasky talks about this week in TAP is something Warner would go for.  But don't take what I say as his official position.

I feel the same way, I'm all for supporting any John Doe as long as his name is followed by (D). However, I simply will not support anyone that comes across as disparaging of the Dem grassroots and thereby plays into any negative meme of the Dem party.  That said, I heard Mark Warner on the Al Franken show this morning and liked what he had to say.  However, at this point, he's running a distant third after Feingold, "Don't Know," and the rest of the field.

It was a lousy thing to say, but it was after some CA Dems insulted him and his state.

Heat of the moment, I suppose.

However, the behavior that was being directed towards him IS exactly the reason that Democrats are hated by many of the people who DO actually hate Democrats.  While the comment itself is an unfortunate soundbite, the implications- namely that Democrats aren't going to win any friends by treating governance as an intellectual exercise and condescending to anyone with new ideas and/or fresh results- is exactly what this website, Crashing the Gate, progressive populism and blogging in general is all about in the first place.  The other underlying point- that Democrats are still desperately in need of defining themselves as Schweitzer and not Dukakis because it ain't happened yet- is another valuable reminder for Dems who think that they've got everything figured out already.

I'm not making any excuses for the comment itself, but I wonder whether, if it had been Paul Hackett four months ago, he would have been just as vilified for it.  Maybe instead of harping so much on the comment itself, we should pay a little more attention to much bigger problems that the comment addressed.  I don't catch much of the "Democrats need to stop being snobbish know-it-alls" rhetoric coming from leading Dems, and perhaps for good reason.  But I'll tell ya what...SOMEbody has to say it.  

The general attitude on the blogs and, in different ways, in the party itself has been "See, we told you so. We were right and you were stupid. Now vote for us like you should have in the first place."  I'm a Democrat and I cringe every time.  Maybe (most likely) Warner should apologize.  Maybe the folks at the event owe him an apology first.  Maybe we should get over the word "hate" and focus on fixing what turns voters off about Democrats.

This is starting to be the troll meme from the opposition, that's for sure.

C'mon..of all the stuff the guy has done for the VA Dems and for the party as a whole..this is what you are holding against him? Do you even know what the circumstances were when he said that. He was talking about kitchen talbe issues (schools, taxes, heatlh care etc)..stuff folks should care about to a group of wealthy Northern Californians and all they could talk about was gay marriage and abortion and some even tried to lecture him on that...if I were him I'd go far as to say "This is why Americans hate up-nosed latte sipping liberals"..but I'm an independent so I just say what I think..

No one purposely runs for VP but some take it as a consolation prize.

I am a NYer and like Hillary as a Senator but I think her support for President is a mile wide and an inch deep.  Someone is going to emerge as the "anti-Hillary" candidate and that person has a decent shot of winning the nomination.  That is what Warner is positioning himself to be.

No he isn't.  He would never take it.  This is a guy who has been in various leadership positions, both in the private sector and public, for 25 years.  You think he is running for vice president?  No way.  He's running for the grand prize and would probably run for governor again before accepting the runner-up prize.  

On the surface and based off of our quick conversation, I'd say I agree with your assessment.

Well put.  This is a lot of how I see Warner, too.  I've seen enough to be optimistic, but I just haven't seen enough, yet.  That's to be expected this early in the race.

I think the anti-Hillary label isn't doing Warner justice.  It's purely the label of the media who, for some odd reason, think Hillary's the front-runner, and I think Warner would be smart to distance himself from it.  From where I sit Hillary has about as much support as (enter some witty metaphor here -- none spring quickly to mind).  Basically I see no real support beyond the media...and republicans who would love to run against her.

What is it that you're looking for 18 months out from the election? Specific policy proposals? I don't think anyone has that.  He's campaigned pretty hard so far on overarching principles which I think makes the most sense this far out.  I don't at all intend this to have a contentious tone, I'm just not sure what you're looking for.

He's talked about poverty, about health care, about education, about job creation, about putting working Americans first.  Granted, he hasn't (so far as I know) said specifically how he's going to accomplish it, but how often has Bush known what he was going to do ten minutes later?  He managed to parlay rhetoric into two elections.  I think that Warner is focusing on party themes because he's working on getting other people elected.  Once he's actually running, he can start actually talking about himself.

At the bones of it, this is the argument for Warner: the guy gets the job done, and come January 2009 there's gonna be a hell of a lot that needs done.

I absolutely agree.  It is time for us to stop making primary votes for shallow reasons and focus on what we really need from the president who will have to clean up Bush's mess:

A proven ability to use progressive policies to solve pressing problems.

Mark Warner is an innovator with one of the finest records of policy achievement in years.  He is head and shoulders ahead of the rest of pack on this point.

If he can turn our country around like he did for Virginia, which I think he has shown he can do, he will go down as one of the great presidents.

hope to see you there, des moines dem.

"Americans hate Democrats" remark. He needs to explain and/or repudiate it.

To be clear, I don't think this is something he regularly does. I think he slipped just once. Still, I think he should take the remark back.

Even though I don't blame him for being pissed off. I just think the one statement was bad. Overall, I like the guy.

I don't think he makes a habit of it. I think this was one time where he screwed up. Still, it means he either has a short temper, which can be dangerous (and he should take it back), or it means he actually believes it, which is more serious.

I say this as someone who like Mark Warner. I didn't mean to start anything by my comment.

Mark Warner: Why I'm A Democrat

Yeah, it would be great to have a presidential candidate taking forward  the national-discourse on single-payer, but I'm not sure this is the way it will play out. Work with me:

Universal health care or universal insurance should be a tremendous issue for the dems, but needs to be based on the broad demand of popular opinion. States, local politicians and federal legislator have to be pushing it. Blogs, MSM, TV & Radio need to be talking it up. Leadership will follow popular opinion, especially because running for president requires a more cautious, balancing act.

Or look at Immigration. A huge groundswell and the national dialogue shifts in two weeks.