FLASH: WARNER BACKS OUT

Former Governor Mark Warner has elected not to seek the presidency, after a "final gut check", according to NYTimes blog The Caucus. He had been in full pre-race swing, but decided he doesn't want to be president bad enough (and doesn't want to run the gauntlet of a punishing primary with a slim chance of winning).

"He realized how hard this was going to be," said one Democratic official, friendly to Mr. Warner. “He’s a great general election candidate, but he thought he would have difficulty winning the primary."

The political cynic would take this as code for, "He's still hoping to be vice president", the which is the role Global Review has been predicting for Warner all along. In terms of the Chatter Rankings, this should lead to a spike in Warner's chatter for the upcoming October rankings, as the news cycles through his decision not to run, and then a sharp dropoff in November and December. Global Review will keep tabs on whether he's being talked about as a vice presidential nominee, a role for which he seems uniquely suited among the madding crowd of Democratic hopefuls.