I should start by saying that I am a HUGE Fiengold fan, but I've been giving this a great deal of thought and I'm not sure that Russ or the Dems will be best served in the long term by Having Russ win the nomination in 2008 (although if he does trust me I will be behind him 1000%). I definitely think that America is ready for a new direction, but even when people are ready for change they usually tolerate it better in baby steps. Therefore I think that it is important that we nominate someone who people would feel was leading them forward rather than pushing them. And for that Job I think the unequivacal choice would be Mark Warner.
Warner has made some very impressive & agressive progressive reforms in Viginia in the face of a staunch opposition legislature, and walked out of office with rediculously high approval ratings among people who are taught by the status quo that they shouldn't like him. He doesn't talk a lot about how progressive he is but his record reflects it. He is a tremendous concensus builder among both his political opponents and more importantly constituents. He is part of the libertarian dem movement that believes in the bill of rights, including the right the bear arms, and I think he would be our first step toward recapturing the south.
That being said, I think that Feingold would be the ideal choice for Warner's VP. I think Russ represents where we want the party to be in the future and I think that Warner would be a good bridge from right now to then. The benefits in my mind of having Feingold as the VP are that:
1) He would have an 8 year cushion from being a senator because like it or not, senators are seen as pontificating wind-bags rather than people of action.
2) He would have some time pass since his divorce in 2005 because like it or not right now a twice divorced single man has a cultural problem when running for president.
3) He would have a powerful bully pulpit for 8 years.
4) We would have a true progressive democrat in line to succeed the current president.
5) In 2016 when he was the nominee, our progressive infrastructure would be equal to if not better than the right wing noise machine and we'd be better able to elect a staunch progressive and influence public opinion about whether that is good or bad
I think Russ is absolutely presidential material, but I think that strategically the democratic party and ultimately Russ would be served better by having a Warner-Feingold administration first and then have Russ in place to take the reigns in 2016, as he would only be 63 or 64 at that time. Also, we have to get serious about having a GREAT VP candidate as well as a great presidential candidate because the kinds of problems we need to address cannot be solved in one administration. Look at all the good Clinton put us in position to do and how quickly it was squandered. We need to control the white house for a minimum of 12 years and preferably 16 or 20 years to pay off the national debt, save the social safety nets, and create true universal health care (not to mention undo the international disaster that has been caused by this administrations "diplomacy" or lack there of). This is just my opinion...I'd love to hear yours.