Why Warner Quit
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections, General Politics
I’ve heard a few people suggest that Warner is lying when he said he wanted to basically spend more time with his family instead of try to win the Presidency.
Time has a few thoughts on this cynical POV:
Perhaps there’s a hidden truth that belies Warner’s simple explanation a skeleton in a closet that was about to get the kind of rummaging that only a presidential campaign can bring. But the known evidence suggests he is being honest. Those close to him say that even though his wife and daughters were willing to support a presidential run, he felt guilty about missing so much of his children’s lives for the sake of pursuing political office. A fiercely ambitious man, he discovered something he didn’t expect when he asked himself how badly he wanted the ultimate prize: ambivalence.
Basically, not every politician is a cookie cutter version of the partisan political archetype we can sometimes reduce them to. And given Warner’s success in his business and life, maybe he doesn’t want to wade into the political waters for fear it’ll be detrimental to the life he’s built so far. After all, the world weighs a lot, and having it on your shoulders for up to 8 years changes things. Hell, sometimes a new job that demands even 15 more hours a week can throw your personal life off balance…now think about being the leader of the free world.
The paradox of somebody like Warner, though, is we need people like him running our country. We need people who don’t crave power. Because as we’ve seen in recent history, those people will do anything and say anything to maintain it. That’s what I’ve liked about Warner from the beginning, and the irony is…I like him even more now that he’s chosen to pursue other interests. You’ve gotta respect somebody who knows he has it good and doesn’t want to mess with that.
And so it goes…
This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 and is filed under Elections, General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 13th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
Imagine if Warner teamed up with other Centrists: John Danforth, Colin Powell, DLC , Republican Mainstreet Partnership, etc. to build a source of funding for talented Centrist candidates from EITHER party.
Sort of like a Moveon, ActBlue, Club for Growth…
October 13th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
I am sad that Mark Warner has decided not to run for PRESIDENT, but could he be angling for the VP job?? I think the eventual nominee would give Warner some careful thought.
October 15th, 2006 at 12:01 am
I agree Paul. I think he could do that, but something tells me he’s done with politics for now. Maybe he just wants to go back to being the Governor of Virginia, since you can’t serve consecutive terms there by law.
And I don’t think he’s angling for the VP job. I think he’s probably had enough of politics, is turned off by the thought of trying to win the Dem nomination and has decided against it.
Of course, this is politics…you never know…