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 enlisted soldier under George Washington — and not as the fair-weather kind who fought through the summer but melted away when the fall chill set in, but as one who suffered through the brutal winter at Valley Forge. He mentions the nine books he’s written, the literature courses he’s taught at universities, and the screenplays he’s penned. He dwells fondly upon a photo of his grandfather, a hardscrabble farmer who died from an infected wound that dripped poison into his bloodstream. He talks about the “efficiency” of his walking pace, calculating he covered more than 1000 miles striding between his office and that of his former boss, Casper Weinberger, secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan.
He does all of this by page 10.
The man’s not afraid to toot his own horn, that’s for sure.
(I’ve appended my quick thoughts on the main thrust of the piece as an update to “Webb for VP Backlash.”)
Photo: Thomas Paine’s Corner
When I bought Webb’s “Born Fighting” book for my dad a few years ago, my dad’s take was that it was a good book — would have been much better if Webb hadn’t been in it so much.
There’s an old joke (or, actually, a series of them) about the difference between a war story and a fairy tale that’s apropos there…