Populist Former Senator Jim Webb Could Give Hillary Clinton Major Headaches in 2016

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/populist-former-senator-jim-webb-could-give-hillary-clinton-major-headaches-2016



Hillary Clinton is certainly enjoying a clear lead in Democratic polls for presidential nominee in 2016, but she will not go unchallenged. A few Dems have made noises about taking her on, among them former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, independent who sits with Democrats in the Senate, has spoken of running, too. But former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb could be the most serious challenge to date, with strong appeal to white working class men, some independents, and parts of the Democratic base.

Webb is quite an interesting character, and naturally has some progressives buzzing since he announced he was considering throwing his hat into the ring. A military man, as well as a best-selling author, documentary producer and screenwriter, Webb is disciplined, articulate and TV-ready. He is simultaneously thoughtful and pugnacious, and possesses a persona that has been described by southern political strategist Mudcat Saunders, who worked on Webb’s successful 2006 senate race, as “redneck regal.” He’s a man who presents an air of integrity, and whose straight-talking reputation contrasts with the slippery aura of the Clintons. (In 2006, newly minted senators Webb, Tester and McCaskill joined forces in what Webb called the "redneck caucus,” named for those who held the reddest seats Democrats won that year.)

Webb was notorious for despising fundraising when he ran for the Senate and has frequently taken an anti-Wall Street stance. However, once he got to D.C., he proved a quick study in working the money machine, hauling in handsome sums from the defense, transportation and communication and technology industries, and yes, Wall Street, for his PAC. So there's that.

Webb likes to quote Ronald Reagan, and he served as assistant secretary of defense and Navy secretary during the Reagan administration. A former marine and combat veteran whose only son has served in Iraq, Webb garnered the enthusiasm of many progressives during a famous incident back in 2006, when then-president George W. Bush inquired about Webb's son. Webb snapped back that his son was none of the president’s beeswax and that Bush should do something about getting the troops out of there. The dustup made headlines, and Webb later apologized.

[RedstDem]

1. i like this guy a lot more than the clintons

Not progressive enough for me personnely, but head and shoulders above Hill/Bill.
Would love to cast a vote for him.

Run Jim Run!

[TBF]

2. In no way is this guy progressive -

I'd really like to know what the party is up to. Is Hillary considering sitting it out and they are trying to find a centrist replacement? This guy might appeal to the Reagan dems - maybe - but that's about it.

[theHandpuppet]

5. Agreed. He's far from progressive.

I would find it a huge disappointment if he became the choice. Does a true progressive have any chance in hell of becoming the party nominee?

[HereSince1628]

6. You've got that right.

[Samantha]

13. That is exactly what I was going to post (n/t)

[Demit]

3. I notice the article doesn't bring up his age (he's a year & a half older than Hillary).

[tularetom]

4. A guy who worked for Reagan is the best the Democrats can come up with?

I'll vote for him over Hillary in a primary and I'd vote for him in the general election but I have to believe there are people out there who are more in line with what the country needs.

[frazzled]

8. Not just worked for Reagan

but who apparently was a full-fledged Republican for more than 20 years:

Jim Webb’s route to becoming a Democratic senator from Virginia was circuitous, and his party affiliation has taken a meandering path. Like much of his family, he had been a Democrat. But he quit the party over Jimmy Carter’s grant of amnesty for those who had avoided the draft, and he supported Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W. Bush (and George Allen) in 2000.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/jun/26/the-jim-webb-story/

Look, he's a complicated guy; he's obviously smart, a good writer, and has a deep interest in military matters. But I doubt someone who has had three wives and had an aide carry his loaded pistol into the Senate office building for him really stands a chance. He is big on gun rights, so that's an automatic exclusion for me.

"I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment; I have had a permit to carry a weapon in Virginia for a long time; I believe that it’s important; it’s important to me personally and to a lot of people in the situation that I’m in to be able to defend myself and my family."[50]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb

[Johnyawl]

11. Complicated indeed, but far more progressive then most here will give him credit for

also from wikipedia:

"In a 1990 New York Times opinion piece, Webb opposed further U.S. military escalation in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield citing lack of a coherent strategy and consent from the United States Congress. He also warned against a permanent military presence in the Middle East."

"On November 15, 2006...an op ed authored by Webb appeared in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Titled "Class Struggle," the piece addressed what Webb feels is a growing economic inequality in the United States, touching on what he feels are overly permissive immigration policies, extravagant executive compensation, the detrimental effects of free trade and globalization, iniquitous tax cuts, and speedily rising health care costs, and attacking the "elites" who he says perpetuate the aforementioned woes for their personal economic gain."

"On March 5, 2007, Webb introduced his second piece of legislation, S. 759, intended to prohibit the use of funds for military operations in Iran without the prior approval of Congress. In a statement on the floor of the Senate, Webb said, "The major function of this legislation is to prevent this Administration from commencing unprovoked military activities against Iran without the approval of the Congress"

"On March 26, 2009, Webb filed the Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 (SB 714), which would create a blue ribbon commission to reevaluate the criminal justice system and drug policy and make recommendations for reform.[53] Noting that the United States houses 25% of the world's inmates despite having only 5% of the world's population, Webb proposed a comparison between U.S. incarceration policies and those of other developed nations.[54] At a United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs hearing, Webb described the criminal justice system as being in "...a profound, deeply corrosive crisis that we have largely been ignoring at our peril." He also criticized the lack of standards in prison administration and highlighted the justice system's negative impact on communities."

A lot of people, including Sen Warren and myself were once "full-fledged republicans". Times change. People change.

On economic issues he's every bit as progressive as Sen. Warren or Sen. Sanders.

Complicated indeed, as are most thinking people.

[frazzled]

15. People may change their professed stances

but their character is not prone to change. Adults who for the better part of their lives made very poor political decisions and judgments (and then for political reasons, to get elected, adopt different ones) are more than likely to make poor decisions and judgments in the future.

I'm fully willing to forgive the muddled ideas of youth (heck, I used to wear a red Mao star on my jacket), but I reserve the right to mistrust the judgment and acumen of adults who for decades stood on the wrong side of issues that most of us have clung fast to our entire adult lives.

Jim Webb was no liberal in Congress. Take a look at where he stood in Congress on the ideological chart here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/jim_webb/412249 He's close to Bill Nelson and Kay Hagan — not Bernie Sanders or Sheldon Whitehouse, who are on the far opposite end of the liberal spectrum.

I would never vote for Jim Webb. Bringing a loaded gun into Congressional offices is the mark of a deranged, paranoid mind.

[pangaia]

7. Watch out.

[Oilwellian]

9. It sounds like the oligarchs are covering their bases n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

10. I see him as sexist, homophobic and a supporter of Reagan administration bigotry and ignorance.

The policies of that administration have been much on my mind with the virus events. Remembering what Reaganites said and did about the dawning AIDS crisis makes me want to vomit. I have enough trouble trying to accept long term Reagan supporter Liz Warren, and she at least sounds a bit liberal when she talks about money,which is all she talks about. Webb? I'd not even give him the time of day. He's out of the question.
Reagan was poison. Those who empowered him did great harm to Americans.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

12. ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY NOT!!!1!! That guy is an asshole and I WILL NOT support him. nt

[amandabeech]

16. If he did end up with the nomination, which I don't think that he will, would you vote 3rd

party or stay home? I'm assuming that you won't vote for any of the clowns in the puke bus. Please don't take this question the wrong way. I'm genuinely interested in what you might do.

I'd vote for him because I'm scared to death of puke court appointments, but I wouldn't take a lot of joy from it.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

17. I don't have to worry about that because he won't be nominated.

I will get ten people to vote against him in the primaries. I will get those ten to get ten others to vote against him.

I have already said, many times here, that I will support the Dem nominee. And I will hold my nose if I have to in order to assuage your fear (and mine) of a court stacked, for at least a generation, with assholes.

[amandabeech]

18. Thank you for your reply.

Perhaps someone ought to design some blue earplugs with little donkey ears coming out of the sides because there are so many times that Dems have to hold their noses in order to vote.

[spanone]

14. 'Webb likes to quote Ronald Reagan'

[Blue_Tires]

19. Webb? A "populist?"

AlterNet needs some better editors and fact-checking...

[PAProgressive28]

20. My theory

I'm not into conspiracies and all that but I suspect Hillary ad the Party will try some tricks for 2016. And I don't blame her. That's how you play the game.

People like Webb will be encouraged to run as the "liberal option" to Hillary. They'll be the "reasonable" liberals. He'll agree that we need entitlement reform and we need to be aggressive overseas and ObamaCare went far enough and money is free speech, etc, etc.

All of it will be an effort to isolate Bernie and make him look like Kucinich.

[Barack_America]

21. Then he'll end up her VP candidate.

A bone to the working class white males who hate Hillary.

[Vattel]

22. Webb is homophobic and seems to love the Vietnam War.

But on the bright side, seven months before the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War, Webb wrote an essay for the Washington Post in which he questioned whether an overthrow of Saddam would "actually increase our ability to win the war against international terrorism” and pointed out that the measure of military success can be preventing wars and well as fighting them. He charged, “those who are pushing for a unilateral war in Iraq know full well that there is no exit strategy if we invade.” He concluded, “the Iraqis are a multiethnic people filled with competing factions who in many cases would view a U.S. occupation as infidels invading the cradle of Islam. … In Japan, American occupation forces quickly became 50,000 friends. In Iraq, they would quickly become 50,000 terrorist targets.” see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb

Clinton didn't have that sort of foresight.

[amandabeech]

24. Not many people had that kind of foresight at that time.

Unfortunately, not many have developed such foresight even after our Iraq disaster, because it seems likely that we will have to put a bunch of boots on the ground around Baghdad in an attempt to keep it from being over run by ISIS. The Big Red One's headquarters are already being moved there. Can troops be far behind?

[KamaAina]

23. Populist?