Feingold out of 2008 Presidential Race

I am not sure if everyone knew this or not, but I have been running another blog called Iowa for Feingold. I began Iowa for Feingold in January of 2006 to hopefully encourage Sen. Russ Feingold to run for president in 2008. Yesterday, Sen. Feingold announced that he was not going to run for president in 2008. Here are my comments that I wrote...

The Beginning
I first began to consider Sen. Russ Feingold for a possible presidential run back in Feb. of 2005. I caught part of an interview by Brian Lamb on CSPAN. Lamb asked Feingold up front about his votes on the Patriot Act, the situation in Iraq, and campaign finance reform and Feingold clearly explained his votes. This was so drastically different than John Kerry in 2004, that Feingold appealed to me. It didn't take much research on Feingold's stance on the issues and I was sold. I watched Feingold the rest of 2005 and began this blog in January of 2006.

Over the year that I had been blogging about Sen. Feingold, I had the chance to meet Feingold 3 times. I got my picture taken with him in Iowa City, had the chance to give him a Run, Russ, Run button in Ft. Dodge, and followed him around for the day when he visited Eastern Iowa . Feingold even wrote about the button in his letter to supporters!

Yet, while I've certainly enjoyed the repeated comments or buttons saying, "Run Russ Run", or "Russ in '08", I often felt that if a piece of Wisconsin swiss cheese had taken the same positions I've taken, it would have elicited the same standing ovations. This is because the hunger for progressive change we feel is obviously not about me but about the desire for a genuinely different Democratic Party that is ready to begin to reverse the 25 years of growing extremism we have endured.

Feingold is a great champion of progressive values, but his candidacy did not assure a victory. Feingold did bring some baggage (or the holes in the swiss cheese?). As we saw with John Kerry in 04, a long voting record in the Senate can be used against him in a Presidential campaign. Also, Feingold is Jewish and we have never had a Jewish president. Unfortanately, I think some people out there would hold this against him. And finally, and possibly most damaging, is the divorce issue. Feingold has been divorced twice and is currently single. Some people would say this doesn't matter, but it definitely would have been brought up on the campaign trail.

Everything's Not Lost
On Tuesday night, the Democrats made great gains in the Senate. Russ spent much of his time in the Senate as a member of the minority party. Now in the majority he sees that he can make great strides moving the progressive agenda forward, as a leader in the Senate. As Feingold said in his letter to supporters...

My fourteen years in the Senate have been the greatest privilege of my life and I am extremely pleased with what we have accomplished. During so much of that time, however, we Democrats have not only been in the minority but have often been so deeply mired there that my role has often been to block bad ideas or to simply dissent. That is a very important role but I relish the thought that in this new Congress we can start, not only to undo much of the damage that one-party rule has done to America, we can actually advance progressive solutions to such major issues as guaranteed healthcare, dependence on oil, and our unbalanced trade policies.

Senate newcomers, Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown, Jim Webb, Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Bob Casey all support fair trade agreements. They join Sen. Feingold and Sen. Dorgan in the Senate as strong advocates for fair trade and maybe something can be done on this issue to keep jobs in America. Another theme of Democratic candidates in the 06 elections was universal health care, a long stance Feingold has fought for. Feingold has important positions on the Senate Foreign Relations, Intelligience, Judiciary, and Budget committees. This puts him in position to intelligently fight terrorism, deal with Iraq, defend the constitution, and balance the budget.

Feingold didn't necessarily decide not to run for President, as much as he decided to stay in the Senate. Russ is in position to become a leader on the issues that matter most to him. When this happens, he will be in even better positions to make the step to the White House in 2012 or 2016. Having progressives like Feingold in the Senate is a good thing.

What's Next?
Now, I have been asked by numerous people today, who should progressives get behind now? I honestly don't know. Over at MyDD they ask people to look for a candidate that truly inspires people.

What Democrats need in 2008 is a candidate who can truly inspire people. That is the only way we are going to achieve the transformation that the progressive movement promises. It is not going to be done through narrow targeting. It is not going to be done through resume boasting. It is not going to be done through risk aversion and "electability." In fact, in all likelihood, it will be done in spite of all the old rationales.

The Iowa caucuses are 14 months away. That is plenty of time to check out the other candidates and I am sure there will be plenty of chances to do so. I doubt there will be another candidate that will win me over as easily as Feingold did, but that doesn't mean there isn't another strong candidate outside of Iowa that can come in and win the Iowa caucuses and the White House in 08. I know there will be times my mind will wander and I will think of what could have been with Russ on the campaign trail. So I guess I plan to do the same thing that Kos is going to do...

So sit back. Watch everything unfold, then make the candidates work hard for our support.

And remember that Russ is still standing up for US!
"It's time to stand up - not to cheer, but to fight back." - Russ Feingold

(Thanks to Down With Tyranny for the image of Superman Russ)