Virginia's Warner Wows S.C. Democrats

Virginia's Warner wows S.C. Democrats

BY JOHN FRANK
The Post and Courier






Virginia Gov. Mark Warner appears to have wrapped up South Carolina's 2008 Democratic presidential primary more than two years before voters will go to the polls and after only his second visit.

Not to mention, Warner hasn't even officially entered the race yet.

But the reception at a state party fundraiser Wednesday night was overwhelmingly supportive of the lame-duck governor, whose political stardom is on the rise after he led his party to victory in Virginia's recent gubernatorial election.

Political observers consider him one of the Democratic front- runners for the White House if he chooses to run.

Warner said he had not made up his mind yet.

"I don't have any timetable, but I do feel a little like the flavor of the month in terms of all the attention," he told reporters at a dinner honoring South Carolina's four living former Democratic governors at the Francis Marion Hotel.

Those at the event ate it up.

"You are going to be one heck of a president," said former Gov. Jim Hodges, who lost his re-election bid to Republican Mark Sanford in 2002.

"I believe like the rest of you that we have a real winner here tonight," added former Democratic Gov. and U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings.

Dick Harpootlian, a former state party chairman and vocal Warner supporter, took one step further: "I think the people in this room heard the next president of the United States. He was inspiring."

This led political pundit Tom Schaller, who was on hand for the event, to one conclusion: "He just won the South Carolina primary."

Schaller, a professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore College, said, "He practically got the endorsements of almost every speaker on stage this early."

Schaller was visiting the state as part of his research for a forthcoming book about the Democrats' non-Southern strategy.

He thinks the South Carolina Democratic primary could prove more important than the state's Republican contest in 2008.

"If anti-Hillary Clinton Democrats are looking for a backstop moment, this could be it," he said.

In promoting Warner, who was named by Time magazine as one of the best governors in the nation, Democrats took shots at Sanford, who was named one of the worst governor's in the same article.

"I think South Carolina deserves better than one of the three worst governors," said former Gov. Bob McNair.

"We can't afford to privatize our school system through some voucher system," he added referencing Sanford's plan to give tax breaks to parents who send their children to private schools.

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