Webb Aide Shot Dead
A young aide to Senator Jim Webb was found dead along a Virginia highway yesterday morning. Authorities in Botetourt County [Virginia] this [Tuesday] morning discovered the body of a well-known Democratic operative and U.S. Senate aide along U.S. 220, dead from an apparent gunshot wound. The body of Frederick W. Hutchins Jr., 26, of Roanoke was found shortly after 7 a.m. along ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 30, 2008 06:51
Obama’s VP Selection — Anyone But Webb
The Economist has a good article that summarizes why Jim Webb would be a nightmare pick for VP to people like me: The main worry about Mr Webb, however, is that he is a genuine fire-breathing economic populist. He appears actually to believe the sort of stuff that Mr Obama only says during Democratic primaries. Since vice-presidents sometimes become presidents, this ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 20, 2008 01:05
Sam Nunn Joins Veepstakes
In the long months between now and the conventions, one recurring theme we'll see in the press and the punditocracy is speculation of who Barack Obama and John McCain will chose as running mates. None of us have any idea, of course, other than that Dick Cheney is not on anybody's list. But it's still fun to speculate. For ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 16, 2008 13:09
McCain Making Kerry Mistake on Vietnam?
Pat Lang, a retired Green Beret colonel, is somewhat bemused at how much is being made of John McCain's military experience. John McCain is an admirable man. There are many such who wore the uniform of the United States in adverse circumstance. Jim Webb, Chuck Hagel, Daniel Inouye, Bob Dole... Shall I go on? How many ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 13, 2008 13:40
Jim Webb: Confederate Sympathizer?
Senator Jim Webb, touted by many as a vice presidential candidate who would help shore up Barack Obama with Southerners and those uncomfortable with his lack of national security experience, has an "affinity" for the Confederacy, Politico's David Mark reports breathlessly. He has suggested many times that while the Confederacy is a symbol to many of the racist legacy ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 11, 2008 07:15
Webb on War
Spencer Ackerman takes to the pages of the Washington Independent to do a book report on Jim Webb's 1991 novel Something to Die For, which Spencer believes offers "a window into Webb's views on war." The upshot: War is not one tool of national strategy among many — it is the most awful of human experiences. It is not to be used ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 2, 2008 13:14
Jim Webb as VP: The Definitive Word
James Fallows gets the "Jim Webb for vice president" boomlet exactly right: - Until 7pm November 4, 2008, Webb might well be a very strong addition to the ticket. - On November 5, the troubles -- for Webb -- would begin. Fallows likes and admires Webb and thinks he'd be both an asset on the campaign trail and a very, very bad ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 30, 2008 07:07
Jim Webb: Modest, Too!
Ezra Klein's long-awaited (a day's forever in Internet time) American Prospect piece, "Is Jim Webb Too Good for the Vice Presidency?" is out. The lede: In his new book, Virginia Sen. James Webb quotes T.S Eliot and Rudyard Kipling. He alludes to his past as a boxer and marine. He recalls his "four times great-grandfather," who served as an ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 28, 2008 12:57
Webb for VP Backlash
After several weeks of being the odds-on favorite to be Barack Obama's running mate (at least if bloggers were doing the picking) it appears is if the inevitable backlash has set in. Kathy G, guesting at Matt Yglesias' site (apparently, the Atlantic Monthly has given their bloggers the week off) takes the lead, setting out the anti-Webb argument ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 27, 2008 15:13
Keeping Troops Out of College and On the Battlefield
Earlier this month, my collegue James expressed his bafflement that John McCain wasn't supporting Jim Webb's expanded GI Bill. At the time, McCain hadn't expressed a reason for not supporting the bill, but now he has announced why: he is concerned that expanded educational benefits would lower overall retention rates.Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has suggested ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 21, 2008 09:52
