Warner announcement Friday

According to the Virginian Pilot, Senator John Warner has called a press conference for 2pm Friday in Charlottesville, where it is expected he will announce whether he’s running in 2008.

Today’s editorial in the Pilot urges him to run again, despite his age.

Warner is uniquely suited to serve a central role in what will be the nation’s most critical and treacherous mission over the next few years.

[…]

But even if his health slips in his mid-to late 80s, the service he can provide over the next few years – particularly on military policy, but on energy and other matters as well – outweighs that risk.

The state and nation will be well-served if John Warner decides to go for one more term.

No doubt it was this kind of response that Warner hoped to elicit by his comments last Sunday on Meet the Press. However, those comments make me think he is leaning towards not running.

I asked Mark Warner Monday night whether he would run for the seat should John Warner retire. As usual, he was noncommittal.

I still will be surprised if Mark decides to run. That choice simply closes too many doors for him. I asked him if he had been contacted by any of the campaigns about being the VP. He said it is much too early for the campaigns to be doing that – and I agree. Nevertheless, we all know that should he run for Senate, he is taking himself out of any VP consideration, something that I mentioned to him and that he acknowledged was something he has already considered (of course).

So the question remains: who will be the Democratic nominee if not Mark Warner? And, if John Warner decides to run again, will the Democrats challenge him?

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