Dear Democrats: PLEASE Nominate Doug Wilder
By Ward Smythe | Thursday, February 10th, 2011 | Politics
I’m afraid, as passionate and well-informed as they are I must disagree with my fellow BD bloggers who call for the Democrats to nominate Rick Boucher, Terry McAuliffe, Krystal Ball, Tom Perriello or Tim Kaine.
It is time for the Democrats to nominate Former Governor and Former Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder. And not just because he probably already has a drawer full of “Wilder for Senate” stickers from his aborted 1994 challenge to Chuck Robb for this very same seat. And not even because we have a drawer full of “Nobody’s Wilder than Doug” stickers that we keep around for occasions such as this.
The reality is that, of all the Democrats out there pretendinng to be fiscal conservatives (*cough* Warner *cough* Kaine *cough* Webb *cough*), Wilder actually was the only Democrat in 40 years to serve as Governor of VA without asking for a tax hike. He managed to clean up the budget mess left by “Transportation Governor” Gerry Baliles without a tax increase.
But here’s the best part. Nobody, we repeat nobody, is better at ticking off his fellow Democrats than Doug Wilder. And that is a thing of beauty.
Plus, dude’s got a scary website already in place. Stop staring at me Doug!
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About the author
Ward Smythe is a pseudonymous aspiring freelance writer from Central Virginia. Until late 2007 Ward blogged at the now defunct "Ward View" and was active in Virginia and national politics. Ward's signature style of snarkery gained him a unique following that he hopes to regain here at Bearing Drift. Ward uses humor, satire and sometimes photoshop to make his point. Ward is proud to be an equal opportunity offender.
Comments
10 Responses to "Dear Democrats: PLEASE Nominate Doug Wilder"
This may be the first time anyone agreed with me here. I hope you are not being facetious though in your support for Wilder as the strongest Dem candidate. It’s a good thing he is 80 or so and has criticized Obama if you are a Republican Senate candidate. IMHO of course
Hey, Dude’s more conservative with his D than all too many Rinos with their R are.
As far as I can tell there are at least 21 individuals named “Mark Warner” in Virginia. I think one of them should run for the Democratic nomination as a “radical centrist”. In a primary “Mark Warner” would be an odds-on favorite, because he’s so well known and liked among liberals.
No Democrat in their right mind would attack a Mark Warner candidacy for US Senate, right? It’s a sure bet!
Why are you wasting time analyzing straw men (and women)?
When you stop and consider that the prohibitive Republican favorite in this race is the has-been George Allen, then I humbly propose that you have bigger things to worry about than Doug Wilder.
But knocking down straw men is easier than dealing with real candidates. The Democratic candidate for Webb’s seat will probably be Kaine or Perriello. Either of these statesmen would crush George Allen.
You can quote me on that.
You should be careful what you wish for. If he wasn’t 80, I’m pretty sure Wilder could whip Allen’s butt in a Senate race in 2012.
I am going to have to agree with The Richmonder. I have said all along that George Allen is hardly the best Republican that can be put forth as a Senate nominee. IMHO he was a do-nothing failure as a Senator the first time around, hardly more effective than Chuck Robb, and I doubt if he has overcome the Macaca baggage. Mark Warner was a shoo-in in large part because of his moderate Democratic positions that Independents could support, but also because the Republicans gave him the gift of Gimmick Gilmore as an opponent.
There are lots of moderate Republicans in Virginia who could easily garner Independent support–Tom Davis immediately comes to mind. Why aren’t they being drafted instead of the likes of Radtke and Ball?
HR-or even one of the sitting Congressmen. Cantor wants to be Speaker of the House, but both Goodlatte and Forbes have put in a pretty good House tenure, are popular with most Republicans as far as I hear and don’t have Allen’s baggage.
Oh, and they both hold safe Republican seats too.
@Richmonder, perhaps the bigger question is why are you wasting your time reading our waste of time?
I will agree with other commenters though. While this was a bit tongue in cheek, if it weren’t for his age, Wilder would be a tough candidate to beat.
Ward: First black president, first black governor, running on the same ticket….that would have been really interesting.
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