Warner Calls for Moderation

Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner called for a more moderate Democratic Party in a speech last night at the Institute of Politics.

“We’ve got to be willing to be bi-partisan in order to get things done. We don’t have the luxury [of fighting] in a world that is moving at Internet speed,” he said to a crowded room of Harvard Democrats.

The governor, oft-mentioned as a potential presidential candidate for 2008, outlined three main issues he believes the Democrats—and the next president—must take on.

Personal security, economic security, and political efficacy and accountability are the most important problems facing America, Warner said. All three must become Democratic issues, he added.

“We as a party have to take back this country,” Warner said.

The governor has an 80 percent approval rating in Virginia, a Southern state that usually elects a Republican governor. His speech touched on many areas considered traditionally moderate—or even conservative—territory.

He insisted that Americans have to make themselves safer at home and abroad. “Making our ports, airports, and borders safer is an issue,” he said.

He also said that America should be a moral, not military, leader.

Although he was not explicit about any presidential aspirations, he did directly criticize the Bush administration’s actions post-Hurricane Katrina. They failed to deliver resources “in any effective way,” he said.

The governor also emphasized fiscal responsibility in his speech. Elected in 2001, Warner has since stabilized Virginia’s fiscal deficits and started the Virginia Health Care Foundation, which provides health care to thousands of Virginians.

Despite his speech’s centrist overtones, he took care to include progressive themes.

“Being part of the sensible center does not mean that we have to get rid of our progressive ideals,” he said.

Warner came to campus as a guest of IOP Fellow Adam Nagourney, the national political reporter at the New York Times, and spoke to a group of Harvard College Democrats.

The Harvard Dems sent 18 undergraduates to Virginia this fall to knock on doors and phone bank for Tim Kaine, who was lieutenant governor under Warner and is now governor-elect.

Though Governor Warner did not explicitly state his future presidential plans, he encouraged the Harvard Democrats to “stay engaged and stay active,” for in the words of “the Governor of California: ‘I’ll be back.’”