Mark Warner Demonstrates How Not to Make the Case for DEMOCRATIC Candidates.

You need to watch this video to see what a “strong” statement of support US Senator Mark Warner (Yes, D-VA) gives for president Obama (not!).  In the video, Warner addresses Democrats rallying in Buena Vista, VA. First, he toots his own horn, “For 20 years I’ve been coming almost every year to Buena Vista to kick off the fall campaign…”

He then admits it’s “One of the most important” campaigns. It determines, “What kind of campaigns we’re going to have going forward.” But “it doesn’t help Democracy when we’ve got millions of negative campaign ads from folks we don’t know tearing each other down.” Here we go on the false equivalence again.

At the end of these sixty four days, our country’s  going to have to come together. True.  But Warner is actually acting sanctimonious here and trying to elevate himself as better than anyone else.

“I personally hope that President Obama is going to be re-elected,” said Warner. “But whether you vote for President Obama or Governor Romney….” My God, he is at a Democratic rally.  He hopes, but doesn’t explain why its so important to re-elect President Obama. Can he not make a better case than that.  I could and I am not even a politician. I have not been in the US Senate, sent there by the hard work of the DEMOCRATIC Party and people like us.  

Warner became governor on our backs. His campaign was one of the hardest I ever worked on. We poured it on. We fought for every single vote.  And you’d better believe he wasn’t talking the false equivalence then.

He said something like (audio isn’t clear) “Let’s let the candidates yell back and forth…”  “I’m not running for anything this year.”  So, is he saying he isn’t going to make the case for President Obama?

He launches into more Republican talking points in his “over the cliff” and debt talk, ignoring that the GOP pledge to not let the president succeed.  The GOP also played brinksmanship these past eighteen months concerning the debt. Yes, the nation’s debt is important. But Warner”s got things really backwards. You have to put people BACK to work in real Middle Class jobs before you engage in massive debt reduction.  Even then, draconian austerity isn’t appropriate when ending the Bush tax cuts for the rich will solve much of the problem. Ending the war in Afghanistan and not pumping up another war will help.  And President Obama’s reform of health care will also bring down the deficit.

Then Warner says (after the election) we’re going to “Check our Republican and Democrat hats…” and refers to not wanting “Democrat” solutions or Republican solutions. Well, no, Mark, you better  not (check your Democratic hat at the door). You are still supposed to caucus with Democrats vote most of the time with Democrats. Or, do you have other ideas? Notice he has embraced the GOP rename of the Democratic Party as the “Democrat” Party. It isn’t the first time.

We all know we have to work together after the election (duh). However, every time the President offered what Republicans asked for, the GOP moved the goal post. The truth is if he were to be in the presidency, Warner would have given up a lot more ground than the already too-much ground President Obama offered. Compromise is good, but it should not come only from one side. Say that!

Give President Obama credit for trying to work with Republicans. Tell the truth about what really happened. You cannot deal with extremists in the same way you can work with Republicans such as the ones You, Senator Warner, dealt with when there were still a few moderates in the Virginia Senate. They are not there in Richmond anymore.  And they are not in Congress either.

One more time, Senator Warner. You can do better than this. I have heard you do it, though not recently. You are supposed to have the President’s back. This is the week of our convention and there you are wearing your No Labels hat while using Republican frames. Make the case for the President. He deserves it and so do we of the DEMOCRATIC Party who put you where you are.  You are not a self-made pol.  We built that.  And We are from the DEMOCRATIC party.