Jim Webb for Vice President: A Brilliant Idea?

Though the media is now full of chatter about whether Barack Obama will select Hillary Clinton as his running mate, the betting markets say that Jim Webb is about as likely a choice for Vice President. There has been heated discussion about whether Webb would be a wise or disastrous pick, with most pundits coming down firmly on one side or the other. Now, with Obama's Vice Presidential Search Committee already at work, the time has come for a sober assessment of Webb, balancing his strengths against his weaknesses.

Webb's assets as Obama's potential running mate are considerable:

1. In a party often perceived as soft on defense, Webb is a genuine war hero with considerable experience in managing the military. For his service as a Marine in Vietnam, he was awarded the Navy Cross (the second highest decoration in the Navy and the Marine Corps) for "extraordinary heroism" as well as a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts. Quite simply, this is not a record that can be "swift-boated." And Webb has extensive service on the civilian side of military affairs, having served as first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Rescue Affairs and then Secretary of the Navy under the Reagan administration. In 1988, Webb resigned as Secretary of the Navy on a matter of principle; at a time when the Pentagon was under pressure to reduce the budget, he refused to cut the size of the Navy.

2. Webb was an early and prescient opponent of the Iraq War. In an Op-Ed in the Washington Post in September 2002, he argued that there was no "absolutely vital national interest" that would justify a "unilateral war" and asked bluntly whether such a war would "actually increase our ability to win the war against international terrorism." Webb delivered the Democratic response to Bush's State of the Union address in 2007, offering an eloquent and moving critique of Bush's conduct of the war.

3. Webb has been a powerful critic of the growing class divide in America. In a stunning piece entitled "Class Struggle" published in (of all places) the Wall Street Journal, he denounced "our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century." Noting that "the average CEO made 20 times what the average worker made" when he graduated from college in the 1960s but now makes "400 times as much," he denounced the "sense of entitlement ... bordering on hubris" that "has set in among elites." This theme of economic fairness also figured prominently in his response to Bush's State of the Union address.

4. In his very being and in his family history, Webb embodies a set of characteristics that would provide a powerful counter-balance to one of Obama's principal weaknesses -- his relative lack of support in the white working class. A Protestant of Scotch-Irish descent with deep family roots in southwest Virginia, he has an easy familiarity with working-class culture that Obama lacks. As Webb himself has written, "It's pretty safe to say that I am the only person in the history of Virginia to be elected to statewide office with a union card, two Purple Hearts, and three tattoos." Of special relevance to Obama's campaign is Webb's commitment to building a working-class alliance across racial lines; he has written more than once that the Scotch-Irish working class and blacks share many of the same interests and that they could, if they worked together, constitute an electoral majority.

5. A person of evident courage and integrity who has been a conventional politician for just two years, Webb meshes perfectly with Obama's core of themes of change and a different -- and less partisan -- kind of politics. In this regard, some of the very attributes that distinguish him from other potential Vice Presidential candidates and lead him to be viewed with suspicion by many Democrats -- his service in the Reagan Administration, his extensive record of military service, and his affinity with the culture of white working-class America -- may be viewed as powerful assets. So, too, is his exceptional talent as a writer -- a quality guaranteed to make him an articulate and passionate defender of the themes that Obama chooses to highlight in his campaign against John McCain.

But Webb's liabilities as a Democratic candidate for Vice President are far from negligible:

1. Webb has spent much more of his adult life as a Republican than as a Democrat. His identity as a Republican was far from accidental; he abhorred the protest movement against the Vietnam War, he was a strong supporter of Ronald Reagan, and he detested Bill Clinton. These are not the views that one would normally expect of a Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, and it is hardly surprising that many Democrats object to someone who rejects key elements of their basic narrative of the past 40 years of American history.

2. Webb's record on race is one that will arouse unease among African-Americans, who are the cornerstone of the Democratic coalition and may comprise 20 percent or more of Democratic voters in the 2008 election. The descendent of several men who served in the Confederacy, Webb has at times expressed views that seem to endorse a Gone With the Wind view of Southern history. In a speech in 1990 at the Confederate War Memorial, he wrote lyrically of an "army that rose like a sudden wind out of the little towns and scattered farms of a yet unconquered wilderness" and referred to "the bitter humiliation of Reconstruction" that Southerners endured. More recently, in an article in The Wall Street Journal, he attacked affirmative action as "a permeating state-sponsored racism that is as odious as the Jim Crows laws it sought to countermand."

3. Webb's record on gender includes some statements at least as inflammatory as his remarks on race. In a notorious 1979 article in The Washingtonian (for which he has since apologized), he came out in fierce opposition to a role for women in combat and memorably referred to the Naval Academy's Bancroft Hall, which houses 4000 males and 300 females, as "a horny woman's dream." Years later, he described the investigations of the notorious 1991 Tailhook incident at a convention of naval aviators as a "witch hunt." Webb's views have evolved since this time, but it is hard to view him as a stout defender of women's rights -- one of the core principles for which the Democratic Party is supposed to stand. Especially in a year when gaining the support of working-class and older women who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries is crucial for Democratic prospects in November, selecting Webb could well be seen as a gratuitous "slap in the face" to female voters.

4. Precisely because he is a gifted and prolific writer (he is the author of six widely acclaimed novels, two serious works of non-fiction, and numerous newspaper articles), Webb has left a long paper trail that could easily take the Obama campaign off track. There are many examples, but one in particular caught my eye; Webb endorsed a highly questionable revisionist history of the Vietnam War that in essence argues in favor of the view still found frequently in right-wing circles that the Vietnam War could have been won had it not been for the efforts of treacherous elites inside and outside of government. In his book, Born Fighting, he writes that "creationists rationally argue that... the theory of evolution as presented by the Darwinists still rests on scientific speculation that has yet to be proven". Part of Webb's appeal is his penchant for idiosyncratic and frequently iconoclastic views; whether Obama wishes to deal with his long record of highly controversial statements is a question that he will have to ponder.

5. Finally, there is the question of whether Webb has the right temperament to be Vice President. I am not referring here to his somewhat unusual relationship to guns; in 2007, one of Webb's aides was arrested for inadvertently carrying Webb's loaded pistol as he entered the Senate Office Building. Webb was given his first gun by his father at age eight (as he did with his own son), and he is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and rights of gun-owners; he has stated that having a permit to carry a weapon is "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." Nor am I referring to the personal rigidity that kept him from shaking hands with John Kerry for twenty years because, in Webb's view, Kerry's activity as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War had dishonored the men who served there. But I am referring to Webb's apparently deep-seated inability to accept limits on his autonomy. After resigning as Secretary of the Navy, Webb said "It's no secret that I'm not a person who wears a bridle well." Yet the capacity to wear a bridle (and to so gracefully) is a sine qua non of the job of Vice President. This may be a case of an egregious mismatch between an undeniably talented man and a job that requires acceptance of subordination.

Much of the discussion, both pro and con, about Webb as a prospect for Vice President has focused on his capacity to help Obama win the White House. But this discussion seems largely misplaced because there is surprisingly little evidence that the choice of Vice President in fact plays a significant role in determining who wins the White House.

The far more important issue is whether Webb -- or any candidate for Vice President -- would make a good president. Of the 46 men who have served as Vice President,
14 -- fully 30 percent -- have gone on to become President. Nine of them succeeded directly to the presidency - four by assassination(Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson), four as a consequence of the president dying while in office (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman); and one as a consequence of resignation (Gerald Ford). Four others were elected directly to the presidency (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, George Herbert Walker Bush), and one other (Nixon) was elected after an eight-year interval. Looked at it from a different angle, 9 of the 43 Presidents -- over 20 percent -- did not complete their term in office, thereby elevating their Vice President to the White House.

So Obama's choice of Vice President could not be weightier. When I started research for this piece, I was convinced that choosing Webb would be a bad idea; now, having read more of his writings and having developed a better sense of who he is and what his beliefs are, my position has softened. For Webb is, by any standard, an extraordinarily accomplished man -- a gifted writer, a genuine war hero, a serious political and military thinker, and a person of exceptional character, courage, and integrity.

Yet I still have grave doubts about whether Webb, who joined the Democratic Party so recently, should be its second most visible representative. And I will confess that I remain uncomfortable with the thought that a man of his views and temperament could be a proverbial heartbeat away from the presidency. However, the prospect of a genuine maverick like Jim Webb -- with his skepticism about the deployment of military force and deep commitment to economic fairness- - in the Senate for years to come is one that I find appealing; I also believe that he might make an outstanding Secretary of Defense. But in the end, the thought of Webb as Vice President remains a profoundly unsettling one, and I suspect that Barack Obama - after reflecting on Webb's many virtues -- will reach a similar conclusion.

Comments

[lovethesinner]

Excellent post.

The fact that Webb is now a Democrat after being a Republican for many years only proves his commitment to progressive principle. It isn't some genetic condition that he might suddenly revert to as though he were an actual pit-bull (reputation notwithstanding) but seems to be the result of a carefully evolving awareness.

Having held all that resentment, having lived all that stars and bars culture, he decided he was wrong about the political commitment he'd made to it.

Let me repeat that. He did more then try it. (Republicanism) He did it, he liked it, and after CAREFUL consideration...

HE DECIDED HE WAS WRONG.

To me, this describes a man of principle.

It looks to me like he decided that the important consideration wasn't about what he felt, or what he wanted... it was about what was fair. He seems to have made his choice because he matured beyond his feelings. To a place of inclusion, not separation.

It takes a lot of reflection to get beyond one's gut, and make decisions based on principle. And this brings up the part about Webb that I like so much. In this way he's very much like Obama. They both seem to have grown past the culture they grew up in, yet their cultures were opposites, and they've come to the same conclusion.

Two DIFFERENT sides to the same coin.

Obama-Webb '08

But, I like Brian Schweitzer. (vice-president who speaks Arabic? Wouldn't that be cool?)

[BADEN]

Jim Web for Vice President: A Brilliant Idea?

To answer your question:

NO - not, nada, nope, never, 'HA!'

Jim Webb: Women Can't Fight
By James Webb

"Your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable"it is to win wars," Douglas MacArthur told the 1962 West Point class. In this story, a Naval Academy graduate, a combat veteran of Vietnam, says the country's fighting mission is being corrupted, with grave consequences to the national defense. One of the main problems, he says, is women.

From the November 1979 Washingtonian
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/mediapolitics/2182.html

[ChristopherLib]

I think we can almost rule out any first term Senator as being Obama's VP. Webb had the best shot of the freshment senator due to his previous experience, but the racial and expecially sexist things he has said/written I think is a deal breaker. Anyway I don't see the logic in having two first term senators on the ticket. Of sitting senators if I were Obama I would only really concider Hillary Clinton and Evan Bayh. Biden, Dodd have been there too long, McCaskill not long enough.

Anyway my early darkhorse favorite is Sam Nunn. Was in the Senate for a long time, but has seperated himself enough since then. Helps with white working class voters, military credentials, and helps in the region where other states may be at play (though I still doubt Georgia would go blue).

[holyhandgrenaid]

I like Webb. A lot. But, should he be VP? Not so sure. Not because of his liabilities, or anything like that, but because, like Karabel says at the end of the article, he has the potential to do great things in the Senate in years to come. This is the same reason HRC should not be VP, she can do great things in the Senate as well. For BHO to have a successful presidency, he needs talented, motivated, dedicated people in the Senate to promote his ideals and champion them through legislation. Furthermore, he needs as many senators to be Dems as possible either way, a reason that folks like Bayh and Biden should be left in the Senate as well. All of them are qualified, all of them are great, loyal Democrats. But there are just some people who can best serve their nation in the Senate, as many of these individuals would, and already do.

[Samson1]

Webb is an Obama supporter of long standing. To unite the party, what he needs to do is reach out to members of the Democratic party who are outside of his normal circle. In short, someone who very likely will not be a favorite of the Obamaphiles. And why not, are they going to jump ship? He needs to attract the women alienated by Clinton's loss and the union workers and lower middle class white voters ofthe rust belt. Webb is not only no help with this, he specifically hurts Obama in exactly these areas. I suspect that this will be the case with all of the Obama campaign "favorites" becuase, not too suprisingly, they all look much like his campaign. He can pick one like this and his longtime supporters will be very happy, he just won't win in November. This is going to be a much tougher campaign that a lot be people think. The polls have it close now and the negative atacks have not even started.

[JohnFromColorado]

I really like articles like yours. It gives a lot of information along with your opinion.

I can understand your concerns. However, I am very much impressed with Senator Webb. What impresses me about Barack Obama is similar to what impresses me about Jim Webb. There are both people of intellect and character. I would like to vote for a ticket that has two people of integrity.

[arkgrfx61]

Well said!
I think the fact that Webb WAS a republican and is now a democrat is not such a bad thing.
It shows that people can change - they can change their views....and as for an article that was written 30 years ago...well, again, people change and not just as flip-floppers (unlike a certain OTHER candidate we know).
I think they would work well together and put aside any differences that they might have and do what's best for the COUNTRY.
Two patriots who have served their country in completely different ways.
I think if people are going to vote for McCain after Hillary not winning, I don't see why they couldn't vote for Obama w/ Webb...

[Noelle]

The way I see it there are three qualifications a candidate must meet to be Senator Obama's running mate.

1 - Against the Iraq war and the Bush administration's foreign policy from the beginning. Obama can not question McCain's judgement on the Iraq War and continue to say he would be Bush's 3rd term if his VP voted for and supported the same policies. This takes about 60% of the names being mentioned off the table.

2 - They must not be DLC/Corporate whores. They are as destructive to this country as republicans. The candidate should be progressive/populist on economic issues.

3 - Senator Obama must pick a running mate that he can trust. A candidate that will have his back and help push an Obama agenda and not try to undermine it.

Of the list that was leaked (which I think is fake), that leaves two candidates. Jim Webb and Gov. Sebelius and one not on the list Bill Richardson. Webb and Sebelius were both against the war, neither supports the corporate agenda and both would have Obama's back.

Another possibility is to pick someboby like Nunn (an example) that would agree to one term as VP and put someboby like Claire McCaskill (or whatever dem emerges in the mean time) on the ticket in 2012 so that they could run for president in 2016 (getting a head start). I think if the democrats actually strategized a bit into the future they could keep the White House for many

[scooperss]

Don't know about webb. he talks good but votes wrong.

[egal]

I think you hit some vital points, but the trust is a wider issue than you state.

Senator Obama must trust his VP not merely in the way of a person who will help him push his agenda, but also and foremost as a person who will:

be honest about fact and opinion, particularly in the most important areas and, at least in private, when it differs from or undercuts the president's agenda, as well as present all facts and data especially if it disagrees with expected or desired information;

look at an issue thoughtfully and rationally as well as morally rather than jumping on bandwagons, coasting along on popular whim, or focusing on personal political gains;

and determine to put the good of the nation, the world, and their people ahead of the partisan self-destructiveness often couched in term of "loyalty" and "solidarity" when it is the basest treachery in that it serves short-term or limited party interests at the cost of the national good.

[BlueOnBlue]

No "security" candidates like Webb. No centrists. No Blue Dogs, either and certainly nobody who would give the DLC the time of day. The last thing we need is a candidate who is supposed to be making up for perceived weaknesses in Obama.

This sort of approach gave us Lloyd Bentsen, who was supposed to bring "gravitas" to the ticket. Instead,, he made Dukakis look like more of a wimp than he already was. It gave us Lieberman - and I'm still trying to figure out what he brought to the party.

I think Obama is smart enough to know that you don't pick a VP based on your own weaknesses. Besides, VP candidates don't account for many votes.

I'd really like to see someone out of left field, a solid individual who is a progressive Dem, but not necessarily a well-known national figure.

[JimR]

The problem with Dukakis was Dukakis.

Obama needs to put a moderate on the ticket. Just because people want Bush out doesn't mean they are ready to embrace 2 liberals.

[veracity]

I'd say Webb is too important to leave the Senate...
The ideal Dem VP nominee would have some winning election experiencem, some military experience, and some executive experience. Unfortunately, perhaps, a white male from a Southern (or Western) state would be the best balance for a winning ticket.
(Had Al Gore choosen a white male Southern Dem for his running mate in 2000, as Clinton choose Gore in 1992, President Gore would be wrapping up his 2nd term.)

Hmm.. DON SIEGELMAN never did military duty, but did serve as a Capitol Hill police while working through law school, He WON elections in Alabama as Attorney General, Sec. State, Lieutenant Governor, and Governor!
While Catholic, Siegelman's wife is Jewish, & his children were raised Jewish. Did I mention, a student & black belt in karate?
In short - FOUR winning election victories in the Deep South, a "liberal Democrat" who raised the hackles of the radical right while WINNING ELECTIONS - the PERFECT running mate for Senator Obama in November 2008!

Oh - Karl Rove's lynch-mob prosecution of Siegelman (using the wife of one of Siegelman's Republican, political opponents as lead government prosecutor, Leuera Canary, US Atty, wife of Repub. gubernatorial candidate Bob Riley's campaign manager Bill Canary) managed to convict Siegelman of - putting a campaign donor on a state hospital regulatory board?

(By that standard, every one of Bush and Cheney's donor-ambassador "Pioneer" and Ranger cronies belongs in prison.)

Oh well, it was fun to imagine "the perfect" VP

[FogBelter]

Funny, but I don't seem to recall any Republicans who rejected Ronald Reagan because he was once a Democrat.

[robXdion]

I know Webb as the "John Wayne" type is the 'angry white man's' dream. But we don't need a race apologist and southern sympathizer screaming "the South will rise again" to accompany the first serious black candidate into the WH. People need to stop with this need for a doppleganger to project their ideal self-image on. Webb needs to stay right where he is so Obama doesn't have to explain why Webb offends blacks and women with his past writings and statements. He only won his senate seat because Allen got caught showing outright bigotry. And that was by a hair. That won't float outside of VA.

[j.gold]

robXdion- People who think like you are the reason the democrat's lose in the South. The every Southerner a ignorant bigot shit has to stop.

The picture painted about the civil war is about as actuate as the one they paint now about the Iraq war. If anyone has a different opinion of it you yell "racist" just as one is demonized as "unpatriotic" when speaking up against the Iraq war.
So go ahead and tell me I am a racist, ignorant bigot because of where I was born and how I believe no one goes to war to free anyone. All wars are about power and greed and the civil war was no exception.

[Querent]

This discussion is not about you. RobX didn't yell "racist", and your perceptions of how the discussion affects your sense of self-identity is not relevant

[XME]

I like Webb (and am a woman), but I have no idea how he would be for other women, especially older women.

The problem is that NO candidate is perfect. They all have their pros and their cons, and I think the Clinton supporters who wouldn't vote for Obama just because of Webb would ONLY vote for him if he picked Clinton...and to me, she would be a huge mistake. She'd really encourage Republicans to go out and vote and to be honest, I don't think Bill is vet-able. And I really think that his presidency would be underminded. He has to be able to work at a team with his veep and not have to worry that they are not on board with your own agenda.

[kdublya]

Thank you Mr. Karabel for your research efforts leading to this article.
I look forward to more insights on the prospective candidates!

[1DarkCelt]

I love Webb, but if I see one more knuckle head talk about Scotch Irish, I will puke. For the last time, Scotch is a friggin drink......its Whiskey. Its SCOTTS-IRISH. That's different ya bunch of amadans.

[j.gold]

someone mentioned whiskey?

[RadCenter]

Actually, it's Scots-Irish.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

Or Scot-Irish.

[colleen2]

I hope to God he does not pick another insipid, utterly forgetable 'centrist' DLCer such as Warner, Bayh, Clinton or Kaine.