Jim Webb for VP

You SURE That's Your Final Answer ?

Link: Raising Kaine:: Jim Webb: "Under No Circumstances Will I Be A Candidate For Vice President".

Last week I communicated to Senator Obama and his presidential campaign my firm intention to remain in the United States Senate, where I believe I am best equipped to serve the people of Virginia and this country. Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for Vice President.

 

A year and a half ago, the people of Virginia honored me with election to the U.S. Senate. I entered elective politics because of my commitment to strengthen America's national security posture, to promote economic fairness, and to increase government accountability. I have worked hard to deliver upon that commitment, and I am convinced that my efforts and talents toward those ends are best served in the Senate.

C'mon Senator, tell us what you really think?  Holding out for DefSec?

The comments that follow are interesting, too.  Just a ruse?  Hey, why not?

 

 

One Man's "Snub"

... is another man's intestinal fortitude.  Eleanor Clift discusses the Webb/Bush enounter in 2006:

Webb told The Washington Post that his intention was not to offend Bush or the institution of the presidency but that “leaders do some symbolic things to try to convey who they are and what the message is.” By standing up to Bush, Webb became a hero to a lot of people who voted against this president and this war, and whose views have been sidelined for six years. Symbols matter. Bush certainly understands their importance, or he wouldn’t have jetted onto that carrier in a flight suit and stood in front of a banner that proclaimed MISSION ACCOMPLISHED more than a thousand days and thousands more deaths ago. A president snubbed by a junior senator-elect and then, more tellingly by the puppet prime minister in Iraq, should be wondering where he went wrong, not the other way around.

Disqualifiers?

One blogger focuses on Webb's downside:

Webb has said that "-women can't fight' because they are biologically unsuited for combat; he called the Naval Academy "-a horny woman's dream'; he derided the Navy's attempt to clean up its act after the infamous 1991 Tailhook sexual harassment scandal. Jim Webb for Secretary of Defense, maybe, but not for vice president.

Yeah, the minute Webb was nominated, somebody would probably trot out those red herrings. But Obama's already got the women's vote, and it's hard to fathom those women switching to a pro-life dinosaur because of remarks made years ago (that have since been recanted). What Webb brings to the party are those, umm.... "rural" voters who Hillary so famously courted ("hard working white Americans...") who could potentially put Obama ahead in states that McCain might otherwise expect to win.

Setting The Record Straight

Jim Webb on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" last night, after President Numbskull signed the emergency appropriations act that includes the new GI Bill:

Jim Webb: Better Than A Red Corvette

Today's Wall Street Journal features a front-page profile of Jim Webb that offers as good an assessment of the potential VP candidates as you'll find:

And in a scene that Democrats would relish, in recent days Sen. Webb stood as the honored guest of a sunset parade of Marines bearing rifles, drums and bugles at the Iwo Jima memorial near Arlington Cemetery. "I probably would change my vote from McCain to Obama if Webb goes on the ticket," said Denise Barrineau-Brooks, a Virginia resident who was watching her son in the Marine parade...

Although raised as a Democrat, Sen. Webb found himself more aligned with Republicans for their support of a strong military. In 2000, he even campaigned for Republican George Allen's first term in the Virginia Senate race -- before deciding to challenge him in 2006.

"When most men hit 60, they buy a red Corvette," says Chris LaCivita, a Republican political consultant. "Jim Webb became a liberal Democrat."

 

If Jim Webb is a "liberal" Democrat, then there may be some hope yet for the sobriquet.  The only worry is: if his suitability is so obvious, it might be too easily overlooked.

Jim Webb, Modern Day Truman

HOUSE-SENATE APPOINTMENTS NAMED TO COMMISSION ON WARTIME CONTRACTING

Independent Oversight Body Will Tackle Systemic Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

Washington, DC – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have named a co-chair and three additional commissioners to the Commission on Wartime Contracting.  Established as the result of legislation introduced by Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) last spring and signed into law January 28, 2008, the Commission is charged with addressing the systemic problems associated with the federal government’s wartime-support, reconstruction, and private security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This Commission was inspired by the work of the “Truman Committee,” which conducted hundreds of hearings and investigations into government waste during and after World War II at an estimated savings of more than $178 billion (in today’s dollars) to the American taxpayer.

Jim Webb: Obama's McCain Antidote

The Chicago Tribune seems to think so:

Webb, 62, has had an almost absurd number of careers since leaving the Marine Corps in the early 1970s. But there's one more role he could yet play: Barack Obama's saving grace.

It is widely speculated that Obama will need to choose a vice presidential nominee versed in national security matters, perhaps with a strong military background, to attempt to blunt the edge his opponent, John McCain, carries in those arenas.

Webb seems made-to-order for that, a character right out of one of his novels. His careers keep evolving. Lawyer. Defense analyst. Journalist. Pentagon bureaucrat. Novelist. Screenwriter. Emmy-winning filmmaker. Businessman. And now, politician.

A(nother) Big Week for Webb

The House Approves His 21st Century GI Bill:

"For the past 17 months, I and my staff have been working every day to provide first-class educational benefits to those who have served since 9/11. I am delighted that after having opposed this legislation, the President has now pledged that he will not veto it when it comes before him as part of this year's supplemental appropriations package.

"The bill being sent to the President contains every provision in S. 22, which has received meticulous scrutiny and the full support of every major veterans' organization. It will pay for a veteran's tuition, books, and a monthly stipend, along the lines of the benefits given to those who returned from World War II. As such, it fulfills the pledge I made on my first day of office to provide today's veterans with the opportunity to move forward into an absolutely first-class future.

WSJ: The Case for Webb as Obama's Running Mate

Link: Political Perceptions : The Case for Webb as Obama's Running Mate.

The excitement among Democrats about James Webb, the senator from Virginia, is understandable. Having a Vietnam-war-hero-turned-Reagan-administration-official-turned-Iraq-War foe on the ticket would lend Barack Obama a stiff dose of military experience, not to mention manly toughness.

But most speculation about Sen. Webb misses just how radical, risky and historic a choice he would be. He’s not some liberal Republican or moderate Democrat a few degrees to the right of the Democratic mainstream. He’s a Vietnam veteran whose driving passion for several decades was contempt for “the Left,” those draft-evading “elites” who came to run the modern Democratic Party.

Democrats have nominated southerners as part of their tickets nine times since 1976 (Jimmy Carter, Lloyd Bentsen, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Edwards) and military veterans 11 times (Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, and Messrs. Bentsen, Carter and Gore). They’ve convinced themselves therefore that they have reached out to the Reagan Democrats. But these veterans and southerners were all men who had been on the liberal side of the Vietnam-era culture wars. Not Jim Webb.

Choosing Sen. Webb would either violently reopen old wounds or finally call home the Reagan Democrats.

WSJ: The Case for Webb as Obama's Running Mate

Link: Political Perceptions : The Case for Webb as Obama's Running Mate.

The excitement among Democrats about James Webb, the senator from Virginia, is understandable. Having a Vietnam-war-hero-turned-Reagan-administration-official-turned-Iraq-War foe on the ticket would lend Barack Obama a stiff dose of military experience, not to mention manly toughness.

But most speculation about Sen. Webb misses just how radical, risky and historic a choice he would be. He’s not some liberal Republican or moderate Democrat a few degrees to the right of the Democratic mainstream. He’s a Vietnam veteran whose driving passion for several decades was contempt for “the Left,” those draft-evading “elites” who came to run the modern Democratic Party.

Democrats have nominated southerners as part of their tickets nine times since 1976 (Jimmy Carter, Lloyd Bentsen, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Edwards) and military veterans 11 times (Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, and Messrs. Bentsen, Carter and Gore). They’ve convinced themselves therefore that they have reached out to the Reagan Democrats. But these veterans and southerners were all men who had been on the liberal side of the Vietnam-era culture wars. Not Jim Webb.

Choosing Sen. Webb would either violently reopen old wounds or finally call home the Reagan Democrats.