McCain and Warner won't rule out '08 run
WASHINGTON -- Democratic Governor Mark Warner of Virginia said he plans to wait until his term ends in January to decide whether he will run for president in 2008.
''I have not made any decision," Warner said yesterday on CBS's ''Face the Nation." The governor said, ''the first thing I want to do is finish this job strong."
Warner, who is prevented by state law from seeking a second consecutive term as governor, said he wants to be part of the Democratic Party's efforts to appeal to ''sensible center" voters. Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat, also refused to rule out presidential bids.
Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, a Republican, said in an interview with the German publication Focus that he was ruling out a presidential run in 2008, although there was a ''vague possibility" he would be a candidate in a later election.
McCain, who ran against President George W. Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000, said he'll decide whether to run again after next year's elections. He said his party should be prepared for the likelihood that Senator Hillary Clinton of New York will be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008.
''If you underestimate her, you do it at great risk," McCain said.
Richardson said the Democrats' success in the Nov. 8 elections, including Tim Kaine's victory in the Virginia race to succeed Warner as governor, was a referendum on Bush.
''There's a mood out there of a collapse of confidence, failed leadership," Richardson said on ''Fox News Sunday."
Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said he expects the party to be able to maintain its majorities in the US Senate and House next year even as Bush's approval ratings drop and Republicans face questions about the war in Iraq.
''Is today a difficult day? Sure," Mehlman said on NBC's ''Meet the Press." He said, ''Our politics today are tough. And we need to be in a place in a year -- the election's not tomorrow, it's in a year -- where the voters recognize that."
The priorities on the Republican agenda for the coming months include cutting federal spending, increasing oil refinery capacity, advancing the war on terror in Iraq and controlling the nation's borders, Mehlman said.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said on ''Meet the Press" that Democrats are making progress in their efforts to find financial backers of their emerging 2006 agenda, even though the
''We have plenty of time to show Americans what our agenda is, and we will, long before the '06 elections," Dean said. ''It's our job to stop this administration, this corrupt and incompetent administration, from doing more damage to America."
Dean said Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr.'s views are ''well outside the mainstream of American public opinion," and Democratic senators should stick together in deciding whether to vote to confirm him.
