At The Trail blog, David Broder reports:
Is Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia interested in being on the Democratic ticket this year? "Not particularly," he told a group of reporters Wednesday.His less than firm rejection of the rumors linking him to the No. 2 spot was the final question at a breakfast session sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, leaving journalists free to speculate.
OK, here's my speculation: if the Democratic nominee comes to Jim Webb and says, "Jim, I need you, your country needs you, I will rely heavily on you in the White House for your foreign policy, military and national security expertise," I think that Webb will say "yes." Meanwhile, Webb should get a burst of publicity out of his new book:
...on May 20, [Webb] will publish his latest book, "A Time to Fight," a non-fiction volume dealing with "economic unfairness" here at home, "strategic failures" in Iraq and elsewhere, and "where we go from here," plus an autobiographical section recounting his personal saga.
You can pre-order "A Time to Fight", which "exposes how America has entered a dangerous, unprecedented cycle of seemingly unsolvable unknowns" and which is described as a "stirring, populist manifesto [that] calls upon voters to make the choices that will change America for the better in this election season." I look forward to reading it. I also look forward to Jim Webb possibly being on a ticket with Barack Obama. You might say that I'm "particularly interested" in that scenario. Ha.
I say this because if anyone gets a boomlet of running mate talk right now, they are going to have Hillary Clinton's negative attack machine trained on them. After a month or so of that, Clinton would have some small yet significant percentage of the party convinced that this person is Satan incarnate and that would-be candidate will be considered damaged among the base and thus removed from consideration by convention time.
It's just one more way in which the sore loser/vandal can cripple this party and cripple our chances in 2008.
If he's the Dems. VP candidate, then he expands his recognition across the country and the world and has the chance to become part of a Democratic administration.
If there's the chance that the Dems end up losing (which I highly doubt!), then he remains the Senator from Virginia still with quite a bit of recognition.
On the other hand, though, if Webb were to be VP I think Kaine could appoint himself to serve the remaining 4 years of Jim's 6-year term. That would at least give us 3 years to find a good replacement candidate and by then Va. should be close to blue with the certain help of the GOP.
Book Description"I'm the only person in the history of Virginia elected to statewide office with a Union card, two Purple Hearts, and three tattoos."
Jim Webb - the bestselling author and now the celebrated, outspoken U.S. Senator from Virginia - presents a clear-eyed, hard-hitting plan of attack for putting government to work for the people, rather than special interests, and for restoring the country's standing around the world.
Infused with the intelligence, force, and firebrand style that has earned Senator Jim Webb enormous national attention from his earlest days in office, A Time to Fight offers a thorough and provocative assessment of the thorniest issues Americans face today, along with cogent solutions drawn from Webb's lifetime of experience as a much-decorated Marine, a widely traveled, award-winning journalist and novelist, a highly placed member of the Reagan administration, a Senator with a son who fought as a Marine in Iraq and, perhaps most important, a proud scion of America's vast but frequently ignored working class.
Webb exposes how America has entered a dangerous, unprecedented cycle of seemingly unsolvable unknowns. Our economic policies, particularly in this age of globalization, have produced widely divergent results leading to a country calcifying along class lines. Our demographic makeup has been altered dramatically and is set to keep on changing, through both legal and illegal immigration. Our editorialists and politicians talk about the American dream, and some urge us to bring democracy to the rest of the world. But more than two million Americans are now in prison, by far the highest incarceration rate in the so-called advanced world. Our foreign policy is confused, without clear direction; increasingly vulnerable to such largely unexamined long-term threats as China's emerging power while it has become bogged down in the never-ending struggles of the Middle East. As this drift toward societal regression has taken place, America's leadership has largely been paralyzed, unable or unwilling to stop the slide. "Where are the leaders?" Webb asks. "Has our political process become so compromised by powerful interest groups and the threat of character assassination that even the best among us will not dare to speak honestly about the solutions that might bring us back to common sense and fundamental fairness?"
Through vivid personal narratives of the struggles members of his family faced, and citing the courageous actions of presidents ranging from Andrew Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower, A Time to Fight provides specific, viable ideas for restoring fairness to our economic system, correcting the direction of national security efforts, ending America's military occupation of Iraq, and developing greater government accountability. Webb brings a fresh perspective to political dynamics that have shaped our country. His stirring, populist manifesto calls upon voters to make the choices that will change America for the better in this election season.
About the Author
JIM WEBB is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and the author of nine books, including the bestselling cultural history Born Fighting and the classic novel of the Vietnam War Fields of Fire as well as Lost Soldiers, The Emperor's General, and three other novels. As a Marine in Vietnam he received the nation's second- and third-highest awards for combat heroism. He served as Assistant Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration. In January 2009, upon the retirement of Senator John Warner, Webb will become Virginia's senior U.S. Senator.