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Fred Reed: Jim Webb for VP

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Not that I agree with everything Fred has to say, but he’s making a strong case for Webb. I love the opening:

Barack, listen up. This election thing is important. If you don’t win this fall, the US will be in the hands of a borderline-senile headcase who thinks we need more wars. The country can’t afford another eight years under an escapee from a psych ward.

http://fredoneverything.net/Ji…

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  1. is definitely in the running.  But I do wonder about his rather odd forays into fiction … is there a reason that Webb is better than Wes Clark, beyond possibly helping out in VA?

    • Webb is better to some because he’s a loyal Obama type, unlike Clark.  Doesn’t help that Clark has been more or less out of work for five years now, and really absent from the public eye (and yes, Cheney…)  However, I’d say that Clark can help make Arkansas competitive, while Kaine can handle Virginia on his own.  

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      p>The worst part — possibly aside from his loathing of actual campaigning — is Webb’s rather discomforting history re: women.  Matt Yglesias lays out a great case why Webb shouldn’t be VP, and it convinced me.

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      p>If Obama picks Webb and light gets shone on this stuff, we’re starting the party unity process over again.

      • the post you reference is not by Yglesias, but by a guest blogger.  That said, it’s a good post, and she raises important points that should give the Webb-boosters pause.  And I tend to agree that between Kaine and Mark Warner, VA is looking pretty decent even without Webb on the ticket.

        • Timothy Noah covers some of the same ground as Yglesias’ guest blogger Kathy G.

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          p>After reading the two posts I’m convinced that Webb would be a very poor choice for VP.  As a woman who was torn between Clinton and Obama because I wanted the best qualities of each of them, I would be quite annoyed by the choice of Webb.  The testosterone infusion is not the kind of balance I hope to see.  (Nor am I looking for its total opposite, either, btw.)

      • Thanks for the link. For those of you who don’t want to read it in full here is the money quote (pulled out of context, of course: my advice is to the read the article đŸ™‚ re: Clinton supporters:

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        Stepping away from all that high-minded rhetoric, I’ll add that, in practical terms, selecting Webb would be a slap in the face to the Hillary Clinton supporters. I’m not saying that Obama has to pick Hillary as veep (and indeed, I think that would be a bad idea). I’m not even saying that he needs to pick a woman.

        But Hillary was the first woman to ever have a serious shot at the presidency, and she came so close. So the Hillary supporters (of whom, to be clear, I am not one) will feel frustrated enough that their candidate didn’t win. But for Obama to choose — out of all the well-qualified candidates out there — the one person who has a really awful record on gender issues would be like rubbing salt in the wound. It would be seen as a big “screw you” to Hillary’s supporters and to feminists in general.

      • Wes Clark giving Jim Webb and Sam Nunn a run for their money? Clark is working the “VP=attack dog” angle.

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        “I know he’s trying to get traction by seeking to play to what he thinks is his strong suit of national security,” Clark said of McCain while speaking from his office in Little Rock, Arkansas. “The truth is that, in national security terms, he’s largely untested and untried. He’s never been responsible for policy formulation. He’s never had leadership in a crisis, or in anything larger than his own element on an aircraft carrier or [in managing his own congressional staff. It’s not clear that this is going to be the strong suit that he thinks it is.”

        (h/t Deoliver47)

    • And I donated money to the guy so he would beat George Allen.  Other posts have mentioned that his past indicates some real mysoginist tendencies so I will not belabor that point.  In addition, he won his senate seat mostly because George Allen, thankfully, imploded.  Friends who were living in VA at the time have told me that Webb was not a very good campaigner.  I heard him on NPR last week and I thought he sounded weak on some of the easy questions.  It would be a big mistake if Barack Obama picks him.    

    1.  He appeals to the same well-educated white voters Obama appeals to.  I used to think he was a guy who appealed to blue collar voters, but I was just assuming that his military background meant he appealed to blue collar voters.  It’s not true.

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    p>2.  Can Dems really win back that seat after George Allen lost it so narrowly?  Is it worth the risk to our goal of 60 seats in the Senate?

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    p>3.  How frustrating would it be to have a Democratic President and Legislature but a cadre of 40 Republicans filibustering every good idea put forward?  Ask any Dem who lived through 1993.

  3. An idiotic characterization of Senator McCain and hardly the way to set up a winning general election campaign.

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    p>With friends like these, I worry about Senator Webb’s chances for VP.

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    p>Webb was pretty good on the Daily Show the other day though.

    • He is not being published in any major newspapers, his website and books are the only way to reach out to his readers. Therefore, he feels more on the fringe and uses less politically correct words and more overstretched metaphors like this one. He is a really fun read though.

  4. but I don’t like the idea that Barry must overcompensate to become president.

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    p>a military man (ie a Democratic McCain) as VP, wearing lapel pin, accentuating foreign policy differences… where does it stop? “I am Barack Obama and I am reporting for duty”

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    p>this election will be won or lost on economic issues. I don’t think he should fall for the ol’ Kerry-Shrum trap.  

  6. Jim Webb’s comments on women in the military make him absolutely unsuitable for VP. “Horny women’s paradise”?  I think not.  And if you think Clinton’s feminist supporters are upset now, just wait until a sexist boor like Webb is placed on the ticket.  

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    p>People need to get a grip.  

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