Seems many of my fellow Virginians have taken a liking to this picture...

[SaveElmer]

I'd hate to lose him as our Senator so quickly...but could be an interesting choice for Hillary...



Assuming she is the nominee...

on edit: added the last line before the objections rained down...

[wyldwolf]

1. January 21, 2009 (AP) Washington: President Clinton and Vice President Webb Today...

... :)

[TwilightGardener]

2. Naw--not enough of a eunuch for the Queen--Webb has a mind of his own.

She needs a towel-boy like Bayh.

[SaveElmer]

3. "Not enough of a eunuch for the queen"

Maybe Obama would be a good choice then...

[TwilightGardener]

4. He's not either. Would upstage her. Hillary would NEVER allow that.

[SaveElmer]

5. Gee...he isn't upstaging her now...

In fact it is just the opposite...what makes you think he would after she got elected?

[TwilightGardener]

7. That's the difference between just being a star candidate, and being

a star candidate who'd married to a former President and has a ruthless machine of supporters and donors behind her. For his relative newness on the scene and his lack of long-standing connections within the Dem Party, I can't believe Obama's doing as well as he's doing. I'll bet she can't either.

[SaveElmer]

9. Man I am dizzy from the spin...nt

[noamnety]

8. Well. Nothing sexist in that post. (nt)

[LanternWaste]

12. Nope, nothing sexist at all.

Nope, nothing sexist at all. :sarcasm:

I imagine after the primaries are over we can all be progressives in deed as well as in name again, but until then sexism, racism, and class-ism will be the weapons of choice for the anti-candidate posters.

This primary season can't end too soon for me...


(edited for all kinds of spelling errors. Ugh!)

[Cameron27]

6. I prefer this guy,

but I don't think it's going to happen.

[Ninja Jordan]

10. Webb is staying in the Senate.

[movonne]

11. Maybe she will pick Lieberman...

[beachmom]

13. SaveElmer -- Webb is struggling with his approval ratings in Virginia as Senator.

I think he needs to improve his scores in Virginia before even considering going national.

[wyldwolf]

15. His approvals are higher than his disapprovals in a red state.

What do you expect?

[beachmom]

16. Mark Warner has a 70% approval rating in Virginia. Tim Kaine also has a high approval rating.

Webb can do better. The last poll I read was a 46/42 split. Webb has not budged his poll numbers since entering the Senate. I think he is a fine senator, but he needs to improve his "politician" skills. Like it or not, being on a VP ticket requires a lot of politician skills; until Webb can show more political chops in Virginia, it would be a mistake to put him on a VP ticket.

It is not just me saying this, but people like Lowell Feld at Raising Kaine, that Webb's numbers are not that great.

[beachmom]

17. Read this by Lowell at RK:

http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=10593

What's going on here? I'm not sure exactly, but it's almost certain at this point that these numbers are not a fluke. The fact is, Webb has been consistently trailing Warner in the approval ratings since he took office 9 months ago. About the only conclusion one can reach is that Virginians are happier with John Warner's job performance than they are with Jim Webb's.

Given that Webb's numbers have not been changing significantly, it's hard to blame his relatively poor approval ratings on this vote (FISA) or that one (MoveOn). Back in February, before the FISA or MoveOn controversies, Webb was +5 points (47%-42%). In June, Webb was +3 points (44%-41%). Today, he's +4 points (46%-42%). That's essentially no change in approval for Webb despite all the ups and downs in Congress. The bottom line is that Virginians are fundamentally split on Jim Webb, while they overwhelmingly approve of John Warner's performance in office.

It's important to point out that this isn't a Democratic problem more broadly. Tim Kaine is +20 points, while Mark Warner is viewed favorably by a 3:1 margin (50%-14%) in our state. For whatever reason, this appears to be about Webb specifically, not about the Democratic "brand" more broadly.

The bottom line is that Virginians are still not completely comfortable with Jim Webb as their Senator, almost 11 months after his 9,000-vote victory over George Allen and nearly 9 months since he took office. But no matter what he does, they love John Warner.

What accounts for the difference in approval ratings? Is it the continuing aftermath of the rough campaign against George Allen (could that help explain the intense Republican opposition to Webb)? Is it personality (Webb perceived as a gruff, introverted Marine? Warner seen as a moderate senior statesmen and a good guy?) Is it ideology (not sure what the issue would be here, though...Warner's support for the Iraq war and Webb's opposition would tend to push in the opposite direction)? Is it constituent services (but then why haven't Webb's numbers changed since he took office)? I don't get it, unless it's almost purely personality. I'm stumped, what do you think?

Edit: there are a lot of comments to this post, so you can sift through the different reasons why people think Webb's numbers are where they are.

[Bitwit1234]

14. I;'m not originally from Virginia BUT

my ancestors, on three sides settled there in the early 1700's. They moved out thru the United States even to Canada. My mother and father were native Virginians and I couldn't be prouder than anything if Webb was the VP nominee.