I figured out why the notion of Jim Webb as VP is appealing to me.

[hedgehog]

I like Richardson and the other possibilities that people have put forth except for Wes Clark. I want no military careerists anywhere near the White House. I don't consider Webb a military careerist, in fact, I think he would be the Pentagon's worst nightmare.


In any case, if we ran with Obama-Webb, our ticket would have the Good cop / Bad cop thing down pat!


You got to admnit, Jim Webb would be a BAAAD cop!

[BeyondGeography]

1. Good piece in TPM yesterday about how Webb can help Obama

But Clinton's West Virginia landslide does mean that Obama, for reasons that go beyond race, has a problem with Appalachia's whites and the Scots-Irish who settled there and forever branded its culture.

As Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., argues in his 2004 book, ``Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America,'' the Scots-Irish are a particularly pugnacious people, self-reliant and hyper-individualistic, who place honor above profit.

These are the people whose ancestors lived and fought along the brutal borderlands between England and Scotland, and later in Northern Ireland (they are the Protestants of Ulster). Unlike other British settlers, the Scots-Irish, Webb writes, migrated ``directly to the wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains, bypassing even the rudiments of colonial civilization.''

Frequently occupying the lower rungs socially and economically, they have always been the most likely to fight and die for their country, Webb writes. They don't cling to guns; they proudly pass them on to their young sons as a rite of passage Webb likens to a ``Redneck Bar Mitzvah.'' Webb's father gave him his first rifle when he was 8 and his first pair of boxing gloves when he was 6.

Around the same time, his father laid out ``the eternal ground rules for street fighting,'' which now find their echoes in the last days of the Clinton campaign: ``Never start a fight, but never run away, even if you know you are going to lose. ... And whomever you fight, you must make them pay. You must always mark them, so that the next day they have to face the world with a black eye or a cut lip or a bruised cheek, and remember where they got it.''

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/05/its_an_appalachia_problem_not_1.php

[cliffordu]

9. Ah, yes, my people. Webb could be talking about the things my father

gave, an said to me....virtually identical.

Fortunately, I accidentally had ONE great teacher, in the third grade, who helped me grow a brain....

[hedgehog]

12. If we're talking about the same people, they only do things by extremes -

either very wrong or very right, but willing to fight to the death no matter what!

[marylanddem]

2. Except for Webb's sexist comments years ago about women

being fit for the military - and THAT in my opinion makes him unfit to be V.P.

[DefenseLawyer]

3. I think someone a little rough around the edges

has a definite appeal, not to mention that it gives us Virginia.

[cloudythescribbler]

4. What was Webb's position on the IWR IN 2002? I think he's generally too hawkish

I strongly think the pick should be (1) a woman and (2) someone who NEVER EVER supported the Iraq War Resolution. AND DEFINITELY NOT HILLARY. Barbara Boxer fills that bill well, although there might be others.

What do people think about Sebelius (who I learned today is the daughter of a past Gov of Ohio), Napolitano, Stabenow or others?

If Obama must "realistically" pick a centrist male, what about Schweitzer?

[hedgehog]

5. Excellent question - I had to do some googling, but here 's your answer:

MR. RUSSERT: Did you go see Senator Allen and talk to him about the war in Iraq before it began?


MR. WEBB: Yes, I did. I wrote a piece for The Washington Post six months before we went into Iraq, laying out in my view this was not about WMDs, it was about our troops being turned into terrorist targets, and that there was not an exit strategy because the people in this administration who were doing this did not intend to leave. I went and saw Senator Hagel, I went and saw Senator Allen. I spent an hour with Senator Allen discussing this with him. And from that point forward I decided that, although I had perhaps a, you know, a political—a personal regard for him on one level, politically that I could not support him anymore.

Meet the Transcript for Sept. 17
George Allen, Jim Webb

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14815993/

[cloudythescribbler]

6. That bumps up Webb (generally to far right for my preference) to my short list nt

[kentuck]

7. When he reminds Repubs that he was in Reagan's Cabinet...

That will be all many Repubs will need to vote for Obama. Many like him anyway, but with Webb on the ticket, that would be the clincher, in my opinion.

[olkaz]

8. My only problem with him is that he's a little too "Type A" to jive with the new administration.

I see Senator Biden being the perfect fit.

[musiclawyer]

10. I've reconsidered as well

I wanted Clark for purposes of party unity etc. I was afraid of losing a senate seat. But no longer. Clark can still be offered an important position, and the upside to having Webb on-deck far outweighs any downside (the conventional wisdom being that two senators should not run). I think these are extraordinary times where certain risks must be taken. Sorry no women. No Richardson. The country is not ready for that type of ticket IMHO

[woolldog]

11. Good thread

:kick:

[SparkyMac]

13. Webb is too good a man to waste as VP.

We need to put him somewhere so he can kick ass and take names.