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The Democrats, coming after the Bush presidency, were facing happy days. Team Mudcat — the brilliant strategist in Virginia Dave “Mudcat” Saunders — had helped along Mark Warner Mark Robert WarnerIntelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings Overnight Defense: Trump hosts Israel, UAE, Bahrain for historic signing l Air Force reveals it secretly built and flew new fighter jet l Coronavirus creates delay in Pentagon research for alternative to 'forever chemicals' House approves bill to secure internet-connected federal devices against cyber threats MORE (D) to the governorship. It was considered then by Wall Street to be among the best managed states in America. The New York Times Magazine had a great feature on Warner as a presidential potential. And Mudcat helped Jim Webb (D) as well to the Senate. Said here, he is the most interesting and impressive man to roam the halls of Congress since Davy Crockett. But the '60s lingered, and war-baby demographics determined Clinton domination in the press. They do still, and it dangerously destabilizes America.

There are better options. Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenWarren, Schumer introduce plan for next president to cancel ,000 in student debt The Hill's 12:30 Report - Presented by Facebook - Don't expect a government check anytime soon No new taxes for the ultra rich — fix bad tax policy instead MORE (D-Mass.) coming up from Oklahoma to Massachusetts brings a country karma the Northeast sorely needs. Mudcat and fellow Democratic political strategist Steve Jarding wrote a prescient book in 2006 titled Foxes in the Henhouse: How the Republicans Stole the South and the Heartland and What the Democrats Must Do to Run 'em Out. They issued a warning that if the Democrats became a party of urban needs and attitudes and ignored the heartland, it could destroy the party. We are seeing that play out today with rural groups and red states coalescing. And since then, the Tea Party has risen, fulfilling the authors’ prognosis in 2008 when the Democrats chose to strategically go without the “futile pandering to America’s most conservative voters” by “whistling past Dixie.”

So may I suggest that if the Democrats don’t come around to their own Jacksonian and Jeffersonian roots — American patriarchs now commandeered by the right — the country could fall apart.

Schweitzer, a “live free or die” Democrat, would make a great president and would save the Democratic Party from its burdensome and pretentious sociology and its noxious urban hipster persona. I fully expect a good an important Democratic ticket in 2016. I hope to see Warren, Schweitzer, Warner and Webb apply. But now we are seeing the rigid regionalization of politics into red states and blue states.

If this be our fate, we might embrace it. In 2016, let the states have the president they voted for: New York and New Jersey would get Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonHillicon Valley: FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden | Treasury Dept. sanctions Iranian government-backed hackers The Hill's Campaign Report: Arizona shifts towards Biden | Biden prepares for drive-in town hall | New Biden ad targets Latino voters FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden MORE, the 30 states in the middle maybe get Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), while California recedes to the sticky neverwhere.

One size does not fit all, and this way everyone gets what they want.

Webb would be a great president. But he would also be a very good first governor of Appalachia.