Mark Warner was elected governor of Virginia in 2001 after losing a closer than expected Senate race to John Warner five years earlier. Virginia law does not permit its governor to succeed himself, so Warner's term ended in January when the newly-elected Governor, Tim Kaine, was inaugurated. Therefore, he will be able to devote himself to full-time campaigning for president.

The fact that Warner was a Democratic governor in a strong "red" state will be a positive for him. However, even though the Republican presidential candidate has carried Virginia every time since 1968, a Democratic governor in the state is not unusual. In fact, since 1977, Virginia has elected a Democratic governor every time a Republican is in the White House. The opposite has been true when a Democrat is in the White House.

If Warner is nominated by the Democrats and George Allen is nominated by the Republicans, the Mother of Presidents will be guaranteed to have produced our next Chief Executive.

Now Warner has a pretty good fallback position if he is not the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008. Because of this possible opportunity, he likely will not officially get into the 2008 race for the White House (although he has begun campaigning like many others) unless he determines that he has a more than fair chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

Of course, for this "Plan B" of sorts to work out, a couple of things would first have to happen. First, Hillary Clinton would have to become the 2008 nominee. Then she would have to be defeated by the Republican nominee in the general election. Those two occurrences would leave the door wide open for Warner.

Then in 2009, he could attempt to recapture the governorship of Virginia, where governors cannot serve consecutive terms. He would be the clear favorite to win, and if successful, would become one of only a handful of men to have served in that position more than once.

Assuming he is elected, he would have the enviable position of being a sitting second-term Democratic governor in a "red" state when 2012 rolls around. With no big-name name or celebrity candidates like Hillary in the mix, he would likely be among the favorites to win the Democrats' open presidential nomination battle.

Terry Mitchell

Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, blogger, and amateur political analyst from Hopewell, VA. He's been in the software development/engineering line of work for over 24 years.

He blogs and writes about various subjects such as current events, politics, cultural and social issues, health and well-being, personal finance, religion, technology, media issues, law, government, sports, humor, and trivia.

Through the BlogBurst network, his blog entries are often carried on the Website of the Houston Chronicle, one of the top newspapers in America. In addition, his columns and essays regularly appear on American Chronicle's network of 21 online magazines. They have also appeared online on American Daily, Media Monitors International, Opinion Editorials, The Washington Dispatch, Arrivenet, and hundreds of additional websites.

Terry never misses an opportunity to assail political correctness and take pot shots at the conventional foolishness. He's not a bandwagon jumper - he writes stuff that others should be writing, but are not. He thinks of himself as a kind of modern American philosopher. His blog offers commentary from a unique point of view that is not often found in mainstream media.

Terry would love to have his blog picked up and syndicated by a major news or web organization. He also plans to write a book based on his blog. But, for now, he mainly writes for free as a hobby and enjoys having his aritcles posted on as many websites, ezines, news letters, newspapers, and magazines as possible.