More handicapping from TNR.

The New Republic today has a rundown of what they call the "second tier" of 2008 Democratic hopefuls. Warner is included in this batch, and here's what they (actually Reihan Salam) have to say:

The Virginia governor has hardly gone unnoticed (yes, we're cheating by including him on this list) but it's safe to say that he ought to be noticed more often. He's very clearly positioning himself for higher office--serving as chairman of the National Governors Association doesn't hurt--and while he's not yet in the first tier of would-be presidential candidates, he soon will be.

Best known for his rural appeal, partly a function of his willingness to conspicuously embrace conservative positions on gun rights and abortion, Warner is the first Democrat to be elected governor of Virginia since his mentor, L. Douglas Wilder, another moderate with national ambitions. After Wilder left office, his brief presidential run having fizzled, Republicans, including the very popular George Allen, dominated state politics for the next eight years.

Despite Warner's whisker-thin victory in 2001, Republicans continue to hold a firm grip on the legislature and the state's electoral votes, the increasingly leftward tilt of northern Virginia notwithstanding. Like Bredesen and Easley, Warner has been swimming against a Republican tide. Perhaps his major accomplishment was to split Virginia's Republicans down the middle, with zealous anti-tax rebels on one side, working against him, and pragmatists from infrastructure-hungry growing suburbs working with him, cooperating on various "pro-business" initiatives.

However promising Warner may seem, there are serious risks. He is, for one thing, a self-made multimillionaire with a degree from Harvard--shades of Bredesen. But when not combined with Bredesen's self-effacement, this isn't always political gold. Warner won the gubernatorial race by spending massive amounts of money against incumbent James Gilmore, who had grown catastrophically unpopular in his own party and endured a bitter Republican primary battle. Warner won with a margin far narrower than he had anticipated. This was partly attributable to the 9/11 attacks, which happened two months before the election, but also to the strength of the state GOP and Warner's own weaknesses. Just as Wesley Clark, a charismatically challenged cerebral type, was no plainspoken Eisenhower, Warner is not the second coming of Bill Clinton by a longshot. That said, he's won some tough battles and is worthy of consideration.

Overall Grade: B+
Things to Work On: *

The asterisk under things to work on correlates to a cutesy list of "areas for improvement"; in this case it means "Try growing a personality in the lab, with the aid of revolutionary advances in stem-cell research." Warner gets one of the highest grades of the group, but Salem is highest on Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen, who gets an A-, albeit with the same asterisk Warner received.