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Gavin Newsom, if he makes a Quixotic attempt at it. He's 37 today, so will be 41 by then. Chickenshit Deny-ocrats will run away screaming "gay marriage! gay marriage!"
Stop. It's time to be bold. It's time to be Democrats again.
Listen to him. On his website, there's a link to his most recent State of the City address. Watch it. As you do, keep thinking "this guy is just 37 years old. He's Roman Catholic. His wife would be a sharp, intelligent and appealing first lady. He's got the Clinton skills, without Clinton's roving eye. He's got Dean's straight talk, without Dean's geographic limitations. He's got a Kerry's hair line and Edwards approachability."
He's one of our future stars. I wish we could draft him to take on whatever stodgy GOoPer we'll have to run against in '08. Obama/Newsom, Newsom/Obama--I don't care. That's our future. I hope we seize it before the Shrums and Froms take it away from us again.
UPDATE: The consensus in the thread seems to be that thinking of Newsom in the future is futile because he's from San Francisco. I think most of you have not followed the link, watched the video and made an analysis based on anything more than gay marriage and San Francisco.
My God, by the time BushCo was done with Kerry, half of the country thought he was the mayor of San Francisco, even when he was running away from being a liberal. The point is, they will do it to any Democratic who runs, which should be a lesson to us that we can't win by running way from who we are. So the trick will be to run someone who, like Clinton, has the skills to overcome it.
Personally, I think Newsom would be better suited for '12 or '16. But that will mean we lost again. At what point do we start fielding our up-and-coming talent based on what we believe, rather than on what the right believes? Especially someone like Newsom who might have the skills to transcend geography like Clinton did?
This thread is a surprise to me. It suggests to me that so many people have been utterly beat. That so many are only willing to discuss surrender on terms set by the GOP.
Stop. Stop now.