Webb's women problems and his pederast writings make him a nonstarter as a VP candidate.

[Unsane]

The Obama campaign is not seriously considering him for the position. He's written some stupid things about women in combat; he's also a prolific author who's written some suggestive passages about child sex abuse.

Rendell's praising of Louis Farrakhan also makes him a nonstarter as an Obama VP. It's going to be Richardson, Ritter, Strickland, Schweitzer, Clark, maybe Sebelius, maybe Clinton.

[anonymous171]

1. Schweitzer would be totally awesome, IMO.

[Wetzelbill]

2. I don't much like him

oh wait, he's my avatar, nevermind. :)

[yurbud]

3. if you're going to make that accusation about Webb, at least quote specific passages

[Unsane]

7. The man grabbed his young son in his arms, turned him upside down, and put the boy's penis in his mo

uth."


Want more?

[yurbud]

8. what book is that in? If true, that would be a deal-breaker

[Unsane]

9. "Lost Soldiers"

[CitizenLeft]

10. I think Jim Webb is great, but that is what I was talking about...

...whenever I said his writings would be problematic. Doesn't matter that he was referring to a centuries-old cultural tradition that we don't understand - the rightwingers would go batshit over that. It was a big deal in the senate race, but imagine what they'd make of it in the GE. I'm afraid Obama might have to pass on him.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

12. slur? Fact: NAVAL WAR COLLEGE REVIEW of Fields of Fire

Such ignorance. If you write about something that really happened, to show the cultural differences
that make up the background of a story, then you are endorsing them - that is ignorant. More ignorant is voting FOR a war based on a lie. Hillary did that.

Fields of Fire
Book Reviews

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NAVAL WAR COLLEGE REVIEW: "The sound and smell of combat permeates FIELDS OF FIRE with a completeness that is extraordinary and a realism that is almost eerie. ... at the end the reader is disappointed only because there is no more good reading. ... While the reviewer has not read all of the books about Vietnam, he has read most of them. FIELDS OF FIRE is unquestionably the best. The rest aren't even close."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEWSWEEK: "In swift, flexible prose that does everything he asks of it including a whiff of hilarious farce, just to show he can -- Webb gives us an extraordinary range of acutely observed people, not one a stereotype, and as many different ways of looking at (the Vietnam) war. ... FIELDS OF FIRE is a stunner."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TIME: "Webb's book has the unmistakable sound of truth acquired the hard way. His men hate the war; it is lethal fact cut adrift from personal sense. Yet they understand that its profound insanity, its blood and oblivion, have in some way made them fall in love with battle and with each other. Back in "the World" they would never again be so incandescently alive. The point is as old as Homer, of course, but Webb restates it with merciless precision."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: "Webb has rehabilitated the idea of the American hero -not John Wayne, to be sure, but every man, caught up in circumstances beyond his control, surviving the blood, dreck and absurdity with dignity and even a certain élan. FIELDS OF FIRE is an antiwar book, yes, but not naively, dumbly anti-soldier or anti-American.... Webb pulls off all the scabs and looks directly, unflinchingly on the open wounds of the Sixties."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE MAGAZINE: "If a grateful government wished to extend a meaningful GI benefit to the infantrymen who fought in Vietnam, it could simply send each a copy of FIELDS OF FIRE. They would then know that their suffering, courage and seemingly limitless endurance will be forever recorded. James Webb has immortalized them. ...certainly a classic war novel, among the best of the past 35 years."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BEST SELLERS: "This is not a war novel about Vietnam but rather a people novel about people fighting in Vietnam. ... The selling point of this work is the characters. As a non-lover of war novels, this reviewer recommends the reading of FIELDS OF FIRE."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOUSTON POST: "Webb's style has the primitive power of a James Jones, ... but few writers since (Stephen) Crane have portrayed men at war with such a ring of steely truth."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BURTON FRYE PREVIEWS: "...it zooms in and out with the vast ability of a motion picture camera. New novelist Webb has more talent than Hemingway had."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DALLAS MORNING NEWS: "It is time for the novel of the Vietnam soldier. This, I think, is it. ... Webb has written it so powerfully that as you read, you wonder, where did that talent come from? ... This book seems really to have come from that old cliché source, the heart. Webb means to make you know what it was like for a handful of Young Americans fighting for their lives... He means to make you know that they mattered. And he does."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TEXAS MONTHLY (William Broyles editorial): "A decade after the worst years of the Vietnam War, hundreds of books about it are in print (the best being FIELDS OF FIRE by James Webb).


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JOHN J. McALEER (Personal correspondence): "FIELDS OF FIRE is unquestionably the finest war novel ever written. ... Having done nine other books before UNIT PRIDE , all of them in the field of literary criticism or literary biography, I know a great book when I see one. And FIELDS OF FIRE is unmistakably a masterpiece."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James Webb was an Assistant Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan Administration.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.jameswebb.com/reviews/fields.htm

[barack the house]

4. I don't feel he needs this military experience thing. He seems very competent in that area. Sibelius...

works and she delivered him Kansas. I have more warmed to the Sibelius idea as she really seams to have his back. A VP first and foremost is someone you can count on I sense that in their dynamic.

[MadBadger]

5. Obama is very competent in that area, but it is perceived that he needs that on the ticket.

[FrenchieCat]

6. How many electoral votes for Kansas?

[NewHampshireDem]

11. I've seen a lot of disingenous attacks, but this one may win a prize

First of all, pederasty is erotic love of a man for a boy.

Are you suggesting that Jim Webb is a pederast? If not, you might want to change the wording of your subject line.

As for the passage itself, which you are correct, describes a man putting a boy's penis in his mouth, its context and meaning have been analyzed ad nauseum, and your claim repeatedly debunked. I'll like to a couple of examples below:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/11/james_webb_and_lessons_in_make.html

http://www.theagitator.com/2006/10/27/not-to-belabor-the-point/

http://gayorbit.net/?p=5784

Heck, even some conservatives thuoght this was ridiculous:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2006/10/jim_webbs_dirty_books/

http://www.cjr.org/politics/bloggers_consider_impact_of_lo.php

The only ones who I could find who gave this any real 'legs' outside of the Allen campaign: CSN 'News' and Freeperville.

Oh, and now you. Congrats.

[MrRobotsHolyOrders]

13. Things I like about Jim Webb

Opinion in the armed forces about women has evolved over the last three decades. Jim Webb has evolved with it.

As for being a 'pederast': find a box of thumbtacks, consume at your leisure.