As Democrats ponder that question [of who can lead their revival], they may want to remember that there is a particular kind of leader who in the past has succeeded in shepherding them out of the political wilderness: a moderate Southern governor who knows how to win in those red states, who is able to win over Republicans and who can speak to the middle on social issues.

In this hour of their gloom, the good news for Democrats is that they have precisely such a figure within their ranks. He is Mark Warner, the governor of Virginia. In the party's search for fresh faces to guide it now, his may well be the most appealing.

Three years ago, Mr. Warner was comfortably elected the Democratic governor of Virginia, a state that has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964. Like nearly every governor, he has struggled with a deep budget crisis. In his case, he has had to do so in an essentially conservative state alongside a state legislature solidly in Republican hands.

Yet Mr. Warner succeeded this year in balancing the state's books by signing into law a $1.4 billion tax increase. He was helped enormously by the fact that the Republican chairman of the state senate's finance committee actually pushed for an even larger tax increase to fill the state's budget gap. Still, Mr. Warner emerged with an image as an effective and fiscally responsible Democrat who knows how to work with the other side.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 8:13 PM | Basie! Home