Jim Webb, dark horse for Dem. Nomination?

Sep 29, 2014, 4:45 PM

fascinating. Could certainly support him over a Juan McCain or a Chris Christie.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/jim-webb-former-senator-from-va-takes-on-his-partys-hawks-and-maybe-clinton/2014/09/28/ba12f572-43f1-11e4-9a15-137aa0153527_story.html

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s enormous popularity and dominant standing among Democrats means that any potential challenger for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination would be, by definition, a long shot — and maybe none more so than James Webb, a former senator from Virginia who served in the Reagan administration. A Washington Post-ABC News poll in June showed that Webb has only 2 percent support among Democrats nationally, lagging 64 percentage points behind Clinton. Add to that his political baggage, especially on women’s issues, and his chances seem even slimmer.

Still, as the national debate turns increasingly toward questions of U.S. military involvement abroad, Webb — a decorated Vietnam veteran who is antiwar — may be uniquely positioned to be a disruptive force on an issue where many Democrats consider Clinton compromised.

“It would be an uphill fight, almost like climbing a wall,” former senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) said in an interview. “He would be running against someone who simultaneously has two television shows based on her. She is a political figure with such remarkable strength ahead of the campaign, unlike anything I’ve seen in my lifetime. The question is whether all the minds of those who would vote at the convention are closed.”

Kerrey, who in 1992 battled for the Democratic nomination that Bill Clinton eventually won, has been urging Webb to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016. Over phone calls in recent weeks, the two friends — Kerrey is also a decorated Vietnam veteran — have concluded that Clinton could be vulnerable. They believe Webb could win over activists in early primary states who are uncomfortable with Clinton’s vote as a senator in 2002 to authorize war in Iraq and her support for the strategy President Obama is pursuing to fight the Islamic State.

Webb “would speak forcefully and have tremendous credibility on the issue of war and peace,” Kerrey said, and with war raging, some Democrats may seek a contrarian voice to counter the hawkish impulses that have shaped Clinton’s worldview.

Webb stoked the speculation about his 2016 intentions last week when he delivered a stinging rebuke of Obama’s foreign policy.

“Our country has been adrift,” Webb said in a speech Tuesday at the National Press Club in which he rattled off a list of his disagreements with the administration. “We continue to be trapped in the never-ending, never-changing entanglements of the Middle East.”

Webb, 68, is a terse former secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration who won national fame in 2006 when he beat then-Sen. George Allen (R-Va.). On the campaign trail, he wore his son’s scuffed combat boots as he railed against President George W. Bush. Now Webb, who earned two Purple Hearts in Vietnam, is questioning Obama’s judgment on his decisions to launch airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.

“We need to be very careful,” Webb said. Comparing the situation in Syria to the civil war in Lebanon in the early 1980s and drew U.S. involvement, he called Syria “Lebanon on steroids.”

Clinton and other senior Democrats have mostly backed the president’s efforts. Clinton was an early proponent of the intervention idea even before Obama came around.

The specter of a Clinton candidacy loomed over the proceedings at the National Press Club last week, but Webb resisted criticizing her by name. Instead, he cited disagreements he had with the Obama administration during Clinton’s tenure at the State Department.

“I’m not here to undermine her,” Webb said during a question-and-answer session. “I’m here to explain where my concerns are.” When pressed on whether his comments were meant as a direct critique of Clinton, Webb assumed a bemused smile: “As you know, I’m a writer and I choose my words carefully. .?.?. This isn’t personal.”

Webb was not coy about whether he was considering a presidential run. “I’m seriously looking at the possibility of running for president,” Webb said. “We want to see if there’s a support base from people who would support the programs that we’re interested in pursuing.”

Oddly, if he ran, the former Reagan official would probably be challenging Clinton from the left, but he could expect sharp disagreements with the party base on numerous issues. He is, for example, an advocate for gun owners’ rights and on Tuesday praised both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan for their leadership abilities.

“Some of my Democratic friends don’t like it when I say that,” Webb said. “But Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat and still a leader. He brought strong people around him, and he had a vision for where he wanted to take the country.”

If he runs, Webb will run as a Democrat rather than as an independent.

“I’m a Democrat, and I have strong reasons for being a Democrat,” he said, citing the party’s alliance with the poor and its message of “economic fairness” as integral to his own politics.

Brewing populism
Webb said in an interview that the brewing populism in Democratic ranks, particularly at the grass-roots level, resonates with him. That same shifting tide in the party has led some Democrats to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a progressive favorite, to run against Clinton.

Steve Jarding, a former political consultant for Webb, said Webb could run a “maverick campaign” comparable to the presidential candidacies of Republican John McCain in 2000 and Kerrey in 1992.

“In this climate there is a thirst in the electorate for someone who can shoot straight, and Jim knows that,” Jarding said. “I don’t think he’s intimidated by the long odds. It’s not in his makeup to be fearful, and I think he’s putting a trial balloon out there because he is probably going to run.”

Several influential Democrats in early primary states said Webb could eventually gain traction should the left wing of the Democratic Party sour even more on the airstrikes in Syria and desire an aggressive, antiwar populist to be the party’s standard-bearer.

“I don’t know enough about him, but there is always room for more in a presidential race,” said Iowan Jan Bauer, chair of the Story County Democratic Party.

In October, Webb will head to New Hampshire, where he will speak at Saint Anselm College near Manchester and stump for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D).

A Webb campaign would start with little national name recognition, little money, and questions about his appeal. For a party that has made improving the lives of women a central part of its pitch this year, Webb has a controversial history of statements. Webb, who has Confederate roots, has praised rebel troops for their “gallantry” during the Civil War, and in 1979 he wrote a Washingtonian magazine article questioning whether women should be on the front lines of battle.

Robert Shrum, a longtime strategist for Democratic presidential candidates, said Webb is “intriguing” as a political figure but would enter a race stacked against him. “I think Hillary Clinton is going to be the nominee, and I don’t think she would run in any of the caricatured ways it’s assumed she would run,” he said, adding that “there is not a lot of room to take her on,” be it as a Democratic dove or otherwise.

In June, Webb began to solicit donations for Born Fighting, his mostly dormant political action committee, and wrote a letter to supporters about his desire to jump back into national politics.

“When I left the Senate in January, 2013, I decided to take a full year away from all media interviews, editorial articles, and direct political activities,” he wrote. “I am now ready to reenter the debate, and I am asking that you consider helping me do so.”

In July, Webb gathered former aides and supporters for a reunion in Falls Church, Va. Soon after, and working with his adviser Jessica Vanden Berg, an Iowa native, he began to map out a travel itinerary.

“I had a great time in Iowa,” Webb said of his trip there last month. “I really did. We drove about 800 miles and did 15 events.”

He will have to go much further to mount a real challenge to Clinton.

“Secretary Clinton is the dominant figure,” said former senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), a friend of Webb’s and a Clinton supporter. “But I don’t anticipate her being unopposed.”