Could Mark Warners Virginia Juggernaut Hurt Obama?
Ok, so Barack Obama didn’t pick Gov. Tim Kaine to be his #2, but the Democrats’ emphasis on Virginia as a–or perhaps even the–crucial swing state in this fall’s campaign is hardly flagging. With more than 30 campaign offices spread around the Old Dominion, a torrent of TV spots on Virginia airwaves, and former Gov. Mark Warner as his convention keynote speaker tonight, Obama is making the biggest play for the state’s votes in four decades. “You’ve got 44 years of history working against you,” Warner noted in a phone call with Virginia reporters yesterday, but with 200,000 new voters registered in the state and lots of enthusiasm among young people, the governor says there’s a real chance that Virginians might vote Democratic in a presidential race for the first time since Lyndon Johnson won in 1964. But even given Warner’s sturdy popularity three years after he left office and his gaping lead in the polls over Republican Jim Gilmore, are there really reverse coattails? Would a Warner
