Martin O'Malley

Raine1967

(11,652 posts)

1. I think he's a VERY good debater.

Tue Jun 23, 2015, 11:17 AM

Jun 2015

Don't let those polls worry you this far out!

and the following is not a slam against potential candidate Jim Webb (I am still not sure he will run) but he was a republican, a serious republican for most of his life. HE served under the Reagan Administration as Secretary of the Navy and Assistant secretary of Defense. He has a fine military record, I won't detract from that, bur makes no question, he was a staunch republican.

Now he is what I would call a Reagan Democrat. I am of the opinion that he is polling the way he is as he is attracting Reagan Dems, however few there might be. That polling is from the most conservative portion of the Democratic party.

He will not go far in the primary process running alongside O'malley, Clinton and Sanders.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/11/jim-webb-hillary-clinton-exploratory-committee

Webb has at least a few bumps to smooth over, though. He defended the Confederate flag and "the venerable Robert E. Lee" in his book Born Fighting, about the Scots-Irish, and in 1979, he wrote an essay for Washingtonian titled "Why Women Can't Fight"—a spirited case against admitting women into service academies. As a senator from a major coal-producing state, he opposed proposals to combat climate change. And only last month expressed his support for same-sex marriage. Beating an entrenched Republican in Virginia as a centrist in 2006 is one thing—but winning a Democratic presidential nomination requires winning Democratic primary voters.

And while I can only rely on the footnotes from books referenced in this wiki page, there is this:https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Jim_Webb

In 1994 he endorsed incumbent Democrat Charles Robb for reelection to his Senate seat, over Webb's former Naval Academy classmate Oliver North; like Webb, both Robb and North were decorated Marine veterans of the Vietnam war. Webb subsequently endorsed Republican George Allen over Robb in 2000, and then ran against Allen himself in 2006.

He's a very very conservative Dem. And in Virginia that is more a rule than the exception — I think Tim Kaine is doing a fine job overall and I like him much better than I did Jim Webb.

As a side note, I know someone that lives in his neighborhood, they have ears to the ground and will give me more information if she finds out if he is indeed running.