It's a measure of just how wide open the '08 presidential field is that after only a few weeks in his first elected office, as Virginia's junior Senator, Jim Webb's name is being bandied about as a condidate for President or Vice President.
Just look at some of his new admirers: Any More for Any More in the UK Guardian; Hillary Clinton's Mission Unaccomplished (Frank Rich in the NYT yesterday); State of the Union: Jim Webb for Vice President (on Huffington Post); and SOTU: Jim Webb for President.
Readers of the Curmudgeon know we like Webb a lot. But we're not ready to say he should run, much less earn the nomination, for President (although we're happy to see him included on the lists of approximately 1000 potential vice presidential running mates). It says a lot about the already crowded existing field, however, that bloggers and political pundits around the country, and even the world, are floating Webb's name out there after his masterfully succinct response to Bush's state of the union address.
We doubt Webb will be too tempted to throw his hat in the ring. We can't see him schlepping around the country kow-towing to Democratic Party activists, many of whom Webb has no use whatsoever for. Nor do we see him standing on a stage with somewhere between 10-15 other candidates in the inevitable "debates"--more like state fair cattle contests--that soon will get underway. If anything, the nominating process could only serve to sully Webb's growing reputation on the national scene as an independent minded progressive.
Still, you've got to hand it to the guy--he's certainly managed in short order to attain the highest profile of this year's large class of freshman Senators.
1 comment:
Actually, it's more a measure of how delusional Webb's supporters are.
This guy's not ready for Prime Time. Against a less self-destructive opponent, he would have been dismissed for the flake he is.
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