Looks like Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) is picking up more coverage lately. Could this be an indication he is being highly considered for Obama’s VP position? I like Jim Webb but he hasn’t been a senator for very long and this form of inexperience could come back in November and bite the democrats in the ass.. no pun intended.
But I guess if you seriously want change, you’ll have to accept that it may very well come in the form of inexperience.
08AMA!
Arming Obama:
Sen. Jim Webb — Vietnam Vet, ‘Redneck’ — Is Emerging As the Democrats’ Military Point Man; The ‘VP!’ Chant
By Monica Langley
Wall Street Journal Online – WSJ.com
June 21, 2008
Click here for the original article
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With his two Purple Hearts, three tattoos and spoiling-for-a-fight attitude, Sen. Jim Webb is emerging as the Democrats’ point man on two of the most profound matters facing the electorate this November: national defense and the military.
A highly decorated war veteran who opposes the Iraq war, Sen. Webb is considered by many Democrats to be the best person to go into battle against another war hero, expected Republican nominee Sen. John McCain. The ex-Marine, who hails from the important swing state of Virginia, could also become Sen. Barack Obama’s go-to person on national security, where the Democratic presidential candidate’s résumé is weak compared with rival Sen. McCain’s.
His rising star has been enhanced by the expected passage of a GI bill he championed, which provides money for veterans to go to college, and which President Bush recently accepted despite his earlier veto threat. All that makes Sen. Webb one of the most talked-about possible vice-presidential contenders.
Yet, Sen. Webb, a politician for less than two years, could be a risky combatant for the Democratic party. The 62-year-old lawmaker and novelist has a zeal that sometimes defies political niceties: He didn’t shake President Bush’s hand when the president asked about his son’s deployment to Iraq. Some of his views aren’t politically correct. He contends that “poor whites” are an oppressed class, and defends Confederate soldiers for fighting for state sovereignty.
A spokeswoman says Sen. Webb “speaks artfully about complex issues that many politicians shy away from, and it’s his authenticity that is so compelling.”
The self-described “redneck” occasionally carries a concealed pistol, and is still suspect to some Democrats for having served as Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration. He speaks fluent Vietnamese with his third wife, a lawyer who fled Vietnam as a girl and whom he calls his “warrior queen.” He takes long walks in Arlington Cemetery, stopping recently to place a rock on the headstone of Sen. McCain’s father, a tradition that signals respect for the dead…
I know what you’re thinking: Klein is going to speculate about, or endorse, the increasingly popular idea that Virginia Senator Jim Webb should be Barack Obama’s running mate. Sorry, but no. That sort of speculation is usually a waste of time. It is what political reporters do instead of reporting during the dead weeks after the primaries. Anyway, there is more important Webb-related business to be transacted now. He has written a book, A Time to Fight, that may be the best evocation of the 21st century Democratic Party’s emerging style and philosophy. In the process, the Senator bids a not-too-fond adieu to the hapless late-20th century Democrats—at least those who made “interest-group rights” a higher priority than the economic well-being of the middle class … and especially those who disdained or didn’t take time to understand the U.S. military.
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