Wagner James Au / New World Notes

August 31, 2006: Read my interview with now-Senator Mark Warner here. His SL appearance came at a time when Democratic insiders were considering whether the former Virginia governor should be their "fallback" presidential candidate in 2008, should Senator Hillary Clinton’s presumptive ascension as the party’s choice for President in 2008 ever fell through. (Funny these insiders hadn't yet considered who'd actually go on to become their candidate.) A few months after the SL event, I was lucky enough to meet Warner in person and found him an impressively knowledgeable politician with a keen knack for grasping and synthesizing competing opinions. When we shook hands, one of his assistants reminded him of the Second Life event, and he grinned broadly, saying something like, "Wow that got us lot of a buzz, didn't it?"

Warner's virtual world appearance in Second Life was covered by multiple news outlets as a novel (if strange and geeky) thing for a potential political candidate to do. Fourteen years later, the fact that Joe Biden had an official campaign headquarters in Animal Crossing scarcely merited much notice — now, virtual world appearances by well-known cultural figures are taken for granted.

Photo of Warner, by the way, courtesy team members on his Forward Together PAC. I asked them to take it after constant questions from SLers and reporters along the lines of, "Is he really appearing in Second Life or is someone else just moving his avatar around and typing in chat for him?" So, confirmed: Senator Mark Warner really appeared in Second Life.