Jim Webb in 2016?
Dave sends us a link to an article in The Hill in which the journalist, of sorts, opines on the candidacy of Jim Webb, the former Senator from Virginia hoping that he’ll jump into the race for the presidency next year.
Jim Webb is a veteran. Period. I have his latest book, “I Heard My Country Calling” sitting here next to the computer. Unopened. His publicist sent it to me, uninvited a few months ago. I don’t like James Webb, veteran or not.
That picture above is one that I took in 2007 soon after the birth of this blog. It was those Bethesda MoveOn doinks going to an anti-war protest soon after Webb snubbed President Bush in the White House – you know, why would you go to the White House and snub the president unless that was your intention from the beginning and you intended to make headlines by doing it.
I don’t like President Obama much, but when I was in the White House, if he had made a gesture towards me, I wouldn’t have snubbed him – you know, out of respect for his office irrespective of his politics. You know, like we learned in the military, a lesson that escaped Senator Webb, apparently. But, on to The Hill’s article;
Webb would be Hillary’s “worst nightmare.” Webb “takes on his party’s hawks.” Webb is the “anti-Hillary.” Webb can “beat Hillary.” And as the coyote pups begin their autumn chants here in the hills of chilly New Hampshire, Webb arrives tonight to give a little talk at St. Anselm College.
[…]
After the Civil War, Walt Whitman sensed that we had come to dreams of world conquest and passage even across the universe; to Sirius and Jupiter and beyond. It will be a better time, Whitman promised, for then “the true Son of God shall come, singing his songs” and that is the promise of the millennium rising.
Why Webb? Because for every thing there is a season and our seasons today demand a leader with a stout heart. That could be warrior scholar Jim Webb.
I don’t know, there’s something about those veterans who become Democrats. You can name a bunch, I’m sure, who are reviled by the veteran community. Sure there are exceptions, but generally, they don’t look to help veterans as much as they seem to use their service towards a political end. It’s not because they’re not in my “club” (I’m a registered independent who is conservative) it’s because the party that they joined wants to screw veterans to the wall. Just look at the ways that they’re doing their best towards that end today, because veterans are a relatively small demographic compared to the others that Democrats claim to serve. We’re easier to screw in comparison, politically.
I just don’t see how a veteran can join that crowd knowing that they care more about politics than they care about veterans and the issues that are important to veterans. It has nothing to do with their membership in my club and it has everything to do with the club that they joined.
For the record, I have voted for Democrats in the recent past, but none of them were veterans.
If Webb runs for president, I’ll probably read his book, but I still won’t vote for a veteran who is a Democrat, because those two things don’t go together, generally speaking.
Category: Veterans in politics
Ditto!
I have great respect for Webb’s service in Vietnam. And I was a big fan of some of his earlier books, namely “Fields of Fire”. I never had much use for Webb the politician, though, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
I’ll have to see who my choices are in 2016….Webb, like him or not, was key in creating the Post 9/11 GI Bill. No one thought it’d grow legs and take off the way it did. right place at the right time?
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2008-02-28/pdf/CREC-2008-02-28-pt1-PgS1334-2.pdf#page=18
Doubt I could vote for the guy, very different political priorities and philosophy. However Webb did not screw me, quite the opposite actually per CH 33, Jim Webb got me over 100K and a Master’s degree.
Chilly NH evening? It’s still shorts and T-shirt weather.
And yeah, I’m trying hard to remember the last veteran Dem pol in the last 40 years who gave a shit about AD or vets when it came down to it, with the possible exception of Sam Nunn.
Pretty sad when you have to reach that far back.
CH 33 passed not that long ago, because of Webb. I don’t like his politics, but that ain’t exactly screwing veterans.
After it passed, Webb and the IAVA urged the government to delay implementation because it was going to be too expensive – you know, after the elections were over.
It’s not doing them or AD folks any favors.
One of the things it does is takes folks who might turn into good NCOs and career-minded folks into the, “One (enlistment) and run” types. That hurts on a lot of levels. Not to mention, as Jonn said, this program isn’t sustainable for an indefinite period.
The Army is doing a good enough job of driving out anything that could be a good leader without education benefits that work. Not to mention jut outright firing them. Why would anyone want to stay in an Army more concerned with EO and SHARP training and establishing ROE that places troops in danger, lest they should fucking hurt anybody. I’m proud I was soldier (not that there was anything distinguished about my time) but fuck this Army it is embarrassing, we couldn’t allow ourselves to win a water gun fight, and not for a lack of equipment or quality soldiers.
Yeah. Not enough evidence evidence. Right. Dude placed a bag with a loaded pistol in it on the conveyor belt of an x-ray machine.
Where was Webb when other veterans ran afoul of DC’s bullshit weapons/ammo laws? I am getting real sick of the privileged ruling class.
I’m with you, Jonn. I’ve never been a fan of Webb. He’s just an arrogant jackass, full of himself.
I got my first exposure to Webb when he resigned as SECNAV. I thought it was a bullshit move on his part.
Well, I don’t care what old Walt Whitman said, Quigley (the contributor to The Hill) doesn’t know a star (Sirius) from a planet (Jupiter) or, very likely, much about anything else in The Universe.
No, I wouldn’t vote for Webb, but he might give Helllary a run for her money.
Why is it that political campaigns at the nitty-gritty levle are about who has the most money? They’re all stinking rich idiots. I don’t think any of them should be allowed to run for office. They all come off as bored, rich old farts who want attention.
I never approved of his politics, but he was an absolutely fantastic Secretary of Navy and a genuine hero by any understand standing of the term.
I’d see him in the White House before I saw Hillary. I’ll say that much.
Democrap and a Vet? Yeah, bad combo. I can see “limp-dick” Bateman running as a demo-roach, too!! Screw that self-serving roach turd!
Jon, I think you might have lost your zero on this one. I don’t much care for Sen. Webb’s politics, and don’t particularly want to see him in that office (though better him than Hillary), but CH33 is pretty big deal to the veteran community. That is just as is, without factoring in the yellow ribbon program add-on, the ability to transfer the benefit etc. Can anyone here name a more landmark piece of legislation made into law benefiting vets in the last 25 years?
CMM. Okay, you are happy with that single piece of legislation. The bill had co-sponsors, you know, and it had to have votes to pass, and those votes included then-Sen Obama’s, as well as Reid’s. So, let’s spread the thanks around, shall we, and maybe look at Webb from a wider perspective. You personally benefited from the bill–signed into law by Bush, by the way. So, what? Does that mean Webb has your vote in his pocket?
Not in a million years would he have my vote. However there is some room between not having my vote and “being out to screw vets”.
That screwing vets line referred to the modern Dem party, not to Webb specifically, as I understood it.
Webb can go straight to the Hot Place.
Hmm. Yeah, Webb writes books. And according to some accounts, some fairly . . . interesting ones too.
http://floppingaces.net/2006/10/26/incest-pedophilia-in-the-mind/
Jim Webb is a very hard guy to apply any labels to. He appears to be very capable, yet he doesn’t seem to stick with any one thing very long, as his brief term as SecNav, his one term as senator and three marriages indicate.
I read his first novel, Fields of Fire, about a decade after I came back, and as I vaguely recall, it was a fairly realistic depiction of combat in Vietnam. I’ve read his other novels except for the last two and really don’t find them too memorable.
A few years ago I read his non-fiction, Born Fighting, an account of the Scots-Irish in America. My wife and I are both members of that clan, our families having come through the Cumberland Pass and onto the Wilderness Road, with her family, the Cutbirth’s, being companions of and intermarrying with the famous Boone clan. So I was interested in reading the book. I never finished it because while it contained some interesting historical insights, it was so repetitive as to be irritating and easy to put down without finishing.
So my take on the guy is that he’s just a bit too quirky and far too unpredictable for me to want to elect him to high office. That sense of unease is reinforced by Hondo’s link to the discussion of the pedophilia depicted in his last book. Weird…
Jim, who?
A bit off track, but there was an excellent book out that covered the mid 1980s actions of several prominent Naval Accademy grads, John Poindexter, Bud McFarlane, Oliver North and James Webb called “The Nightingale’s Song”