Post Trying to Macaca McDonnell

Republican Bob McDonnell enjoys a rather sizable lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds in his race for Virginia's governorship. But the Washington Post, which went after George Allen with amazing fervor in his 2006 race against longshot Jim Webb, is doing what it can to fix that. First, it ran a series of articles about a master's thesis McDonnell ...

Webb Won’t Support Card Check

Ezra Klein passes along word that "James Webb, it seems, will not be supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, and won't even say if he'd support efforts to break a filibuster and let it get to the floor for a vote. That's a significant blow to EFCA, and something of a surprise given Webb's carefully cultivated image as an economic ...

Jindal Flubs Debut

Judging from a scan of memeorandum and my RSS feed, quite literally everyone writing about Bobby Jindal's national coming out party, his Republican response to Obama's non-State of the Union address, thought it was an epic fail.  Indeed, seemingly everyone came to the independent conclusion that his delivery was channeling moronic page Kenneth Parcell from "30 Rock." It's great news for ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

G.I. Bill Needs Updating

Wes Clark and Jon Soltz take to the op-ed pages of the LAT to urge John McCain to support a massive increase in educational benefits for our veterans. The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), will restore the promise of a cost-free education to those who serve in the military. The ...

Obama-Webb 2008

I've mentioned in passing several times, both here and on OTB Radio, that Jim Webb would be the Democrats' smartest choice for Vice President, particularly if (as seems exceedingly likely) Barack Obama is their nominee. Alex Massie makes the case in detail. Some excerpts: The political considerations first: the Democrats have no other plausible candidate with anything like ...