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.

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: 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.

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.

Buzz Buzz

Sometimes, you wonder if maybe there's a better way to select a running mate than "buzz"

From the Drudge Report to the Huffington Post, Newsmax to The New Republic, there is speculation about Virginia's junior senator and his prospects to become Barack Obama's running mate.

On the web site Donklephant, ("Surprisingly Reasonable," according to its masthead) writer Jennn Fusion last week had this answer to the question "Who is Jim Webb?"

"He's not afraid to bite, if provoked - even if the provoker is President Bush himself! He likes his guns and he's a good Irish Catholic, which may be how he won over Virginia - a traditionally Republican state."

Maybe It Really Does Matter

Sure, Bentsen stomped Quayle in the 1988 VP debate, and Quayle wound up riding GHWBush's coat-tails to Naval Observatory but:

Here is what you do need to know about vice-presidential choices: Does the nominee make a "micro" choice or a "macro" choice? A micro choice would mean picking a running mate who would help carry one important state. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore, instead of choosing Connecticut's senator Joe Lieberman, could have selected the popular senator and former Florida governor Bob Graham. With Graham, Gore carries Florida and goes to the White House, and George W. Bush returns to Texas.

The Obama/Webb Ticket....

....made its first appearance yesterday in Bristol, VA:

Under pressure from supporters of Hillary Clinton to pick her, Obama is scheduled to appear at a rally in Bristol, Va., with former Governor Mark Warner, then a rally this evening in Bristow with current Governor Tim Kaine and Senator Jim Webb.

Webb, in particular, has been mentioned as a possible running mate because of their shared opposition to the war in Iraq and Webb's resume as a former Marine.

Obama on Wednesday named a three-person vetting committee, including Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, and appears in no hurry to select a vice presidential nominee.

Gone Fishing

OK, not exactly gone fishing. More like, gone swimming with the fishes.  Hopefully not in the sense that expression was used in "The Sopranos."

Ann and I leave at oh-dark-thirty Sunday morning. We'll be scuba diving in the Caribbean.  I will not be taking a laptop (what's THAT gonna be like?)  so I will not be checking my e-mail. So, if the secrets of the universe are revealed during this time, somebody please make a note and send me the link.

By the time we get back the primaries will just be over.  Hopefully there will only be one Democrat still in the race.  And the race to select Senator Obama's running mate will be in full swing.

I'm sorry I won't be able to keep up with the hijinks for the last ten days of the Primary Season.  But if you want to keep abreast of all the latest Jim Webb stuff, your best bet is probably raisingkaine.com.  They're based in Virginia, and keep a close eye on their junior senator.