MARK WARNER’S CALCULUS. Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who considered a 2008 presidential race but then said the strain would be too much for his family, has announced he will run for the Senate seat of retiring Republican John Warner. The Democratic cell phone entrepreneur with a reputation for technocratic competency has been endlessly buzzed about as a potential Hillary Clinton running mate, mostly due to his ability to woo centrist voters in newly purple-ish Virginia. Will the Senate race be Warner’s last stop on the road to November 2008, or would he still consider a V.P. bid?

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.