No trickery here, I like him. I have gotten to know him reasonably well during the past six years and consider him a good man after much sometimes cynical but, always critical evaluation on my part. He does what he says he will do, and he will not promise something today to gain an advantage, to then just forget it tomorrow. Rather, he will tell you up front. I admire honesty.
This isn't something I've been told, nor something I've read, but rather personal experience that I have been blessed to live and see for myself.
He enjoys a marriage with an admirable, beautiful and intelligent woman who has given him three lovely and graceful daughters, and who is also his valued partner and counsel. I have watched his interaction with his family, and he is real.
He has learned through experience and trial and error that which works in private business and what doesn't. This is experience he applies to his work in making government, well, work…
I have watched closely how he deals with people, and he is sincere.
Not a feigned and superior portrayal for the camera of "compassion" but a genuine good heart.
And he's smart, damn but he's smart. Mark Warner understands what I understand. That we cannot be so hung up on the minutiae that we fail to succeed in the work. We need to move the ball down field, or down court to win. To win we must score. To score we must work as a team. Sometimes, or rather always, to work as a team we must deal with people we might sometimes disagree with on some things, in order to accomplish the win.
We need to be able to take some nonsensical crap from people we don’t like once in a while without getting hung up on reprisal.
Mark Warner hasn't simply talked the talk, he has walked the talk, and the walk. He is the classic example of getting results, and taking care of business.
He has proven over and again that he values this, my part of Virginia. And he values these, my people, of the Shenandoah Valley. The folks I care for.
He gave his word to us, to me personally, that he would be back, and he has lived up to his word; did not forget for convenience sake. He has chosen to announce many initiatives, right here, as Governor of Virginia. He has kept his word, and spoke at the graduation ceremony for Massanutten Technical Center, and then again for Broadway High School, as he promised he would.
This is something no governor, or senator, or really any elected official had ever felt the need to do before. See, this part of the state had never really been important to someone of such high office, except during an election campaign... And Warner kept coming here, time and again, because he values the people here and wants to see us do well.
When I ran for office, be it School Board or House of Delegates, it wasn’t because I wanted to be important or have preferred parking or to be famous, it was to do the job.
I would have liked simply to be an ancestor, someone who was remembered for having made a positive difference in people’s lives. Like my ancestors did and were remembered for doing.
I see the same sort of nature in Mark Warner. He wants to do the job that needs to be done, because it needs doing. And he can do the job, very well….
These are just a few reasons, but bottom line, I consider him a valued friend, and believe in him.
Mark Warner is real.
