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James Webb: Pro/Con

Chuck Guiteau

Graduate Poster
Chuck Guiteau
Joined
Dec 24, 2007
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Location
Atlanta
I really don't know much about him, other than he has been touted in the press as a possible front runner for the Democratic Presidential ticket. I looked at his website and , frankly, he looked pretty good to me.
Anyone have an opinion on him, pro or con?
 
He fits his party's fundamental rule for viable candidacy: he's not obviously insane. I wish all political parties had such a strict criterion!
 
Look at his creds. Dragnet was good for its time and that telescope named after him rocks.
 
He was my state's senator. He didn't do anything wonderful, and he didn't do anything terrible. To me, that's exactly the kind of politician I like. I don't want saviors or destroyers or people who think their name should be writ large in history. I want elected officials who do their job and leave the place a bit better and no worse than it was when they got there.

Most importantly, he's not Hillary Clinton.
 
Chuck Guiteau said:
I really don't know much about him, other than he has been touted in the press as a possible front runner for the Democratic Presidential ticket. I looked at his website and , frankly, he looked pretty good to me.
Anyone have an opinion on him, pro or con?
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He's an economic populist, which I don't like. He's strong on defense, which I do like. He's got a bad temper, which I think is a very bad quality to have in a President. He has a strong affinity for people of Scots-Irish descent, and has written books about their history, as well as articles claiming they've been discriminated against. Although, his thesis is eminently defensible, if he were still a Republican, I think the mainstream media would be trashing him as a racist, if not a white supremacist.

As President, I think Webb would continue Obama's economic policies, but he would turn 180 degrees on virtually everything else, from illegal immigration to foreign policy. That would be a major improvement certainly.
 
sunmaster14 said:
Although, his thesis is eminently defensible, if he were still a Republican, I think the mainstream media would be trashing him as a racist, if not a white supremacist.
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It's hard to make charges of racism and white supremacy stick to a guy married to someone who isn't white.
 
Chuck Guiteau said:
I really don't know much about him, other than he has been touted in the press as a possible front runner for the Democratic Presidential ticket. I looked at his website and , frankly, he looked pretty good to me.
Anyone have an opinion on him, pro or con?
Click to expand...

This is the place to start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb

He is unique in that he has had multiple careers. He held several government jobs, including Secretary of the Navy, before he was elected to the Senate. He also wrote five well-respected novels about his experiences in Vietnam and won an Emmy as a filmmaker. He was a true war hero, earning the Navy Cross and other decorations in combat as a Marine platoon commander, sustaining severe wounds while protecting his troops (read his citation and shiver).

He has a reputation for not suffering fools gladly, even confronting President Bush face-to-face when Bush asked him about his son serving in Iraq. I don't think he has the temperament for politics. But I think he could be a better President than whoever we'll get.
 
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sunmaster14 said:
....
Although, his thesis is eminently defensible, if he were still a Republican, I think the mainstream media would be trashing him as a racist, if not a white supremacist.
...
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Where does that come from? He has argued that economic inequality hurts poor whites as much as poor blacks, but that's hardly an indictment for racism.
And his wife is Vietnamese.
 
Bob001 said:
This is the place to start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb

He is unique in that he has had multiple careers. He held several government jobs, including Secretary of the Navy, before he was elected to the Senate. He also wrote five well-respected novels about his experiences in Vietnam and won an Emmy as a filmmaker. He was a true war hero, earning the Navy Cross and other decorations in combat as a Marine platoon commander, sustaining severe wounds while protecting his troops (read his citation and shiver).

He has a reputation for not suffering fools gladly, even confronting President Bush face-to-face when Bush asked him about his son serving in Iraq. I don't think he has the temperament for politics. But I think he could be a better President than whoever we'll get.
Click to expand...
I didn't know it was the same Jim Webb (my bad). As to his war record, I don't need to spend much time on it, as I served with the 1st Btn, 11th Infantry Regt. We took over for the 5th Marines when they pulled out of I Corp, so Sen. Webb and I have probably slept in the same mud. If you want to read and shiver, look up CPT.Marvin Roberts, the CO of my company (Co B). I never had the honor of meeting CPT.Roberts (he was KIA just before I got there) but he was a legend to the men who served with him and Sen Webb is obviously cut from the same cloth. I like him even more now.

http://www.virtualwall.org/dr/RobertsMJ01a.htm
 
TragicMonkey said:
It's hard to make charges of racism and white supremacy stick to a guy married to someone who isn't white.
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I would ask you what country you've been living in for the last 30 years, but that wouldn't be nice.

In any case, Asians are honorary white people, at least in the minds of racial grievance-mongers.
 
Bob001 said:
Where does that come from? He has argued that economic inequality hurts poor whites as much as poor blacks, but that's hardly an indictment for racism.
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Of course it shouldn't be, but it is for white Republicans.

And his wife is Vietnamese.
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Whom you decide to marry has no bearing on this kind of thing. Breitbart editor Joel Pollak is married to a black woman, but that doesn't stop him from being accused of racism. Phil Gramm and Mitch McConnell are married to Asians, and that affords them no protection from such accusations (nor should it). I'll admit that if you're a Republican who is actually black, that does provide you some protection against accusations of racism against blacks. Of course, instead you just get accused of being an Uncle Tom (e.g. Condi Rice, Clarence Thomas, Tim Scott).
 
sunmaster14 said:
I would ask you what country you've been living in for the last 30 years, but that wouldn't be nice.

In any case, Asians are honorary white people, at least in the minds of racial grievance-mongers.
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Do you call everyone who calls you a racist a "racial grievance-monger"?
 
TragicMonkey said:
Do you call everyone who calls you a racist a "racial grievance-monger"?
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I don't believe I've ever been called a racist actually, at least not directly, but I reserve the title "racial grievance-monger" to those who earn it.
 
Chuck Guiteau said:
I really don't know much about him, other than he has been touted in the press as a possible front runner for the Democratic Presidential ticket. I looked at his website and , frankly, he looked pretty good to me.
Anyone have an opinion on him, pro or con?
Click to expand...

James Web was Republican until a decade or so ago, his politics has always stayed the same. Fiscally conservative, socially fairly conservative (right leaning centrist), globally right leaning, wall-street friendly. He is, at best, A blue-dog Dem. none of his policy positions have shifted between when he was Republican and when he became a Dem. Probably a bit too far right for many Dems especially those that don't live in red states (Homeland security issues, immigration issues, a little regressive on some gay issues, a little shaky on progressive gun laws - but not crazy, wants to expand the military and the use of the military, most other issues are a mixed bag) His actual policies and legislative record indicate that he is a right leaning moderate which isn't always a terrible thing but it isn't inspiring or even desirous in the current political make-up of congress.
 
sunmaster14 said:
I don't believe I've ever been called a racist actually, at least not directly, but I reserve the title "racial grievance-monger" to those who earn it.
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Oh, I'm totally calling you a racist. You brought race into a thread that had nothing to do with it. You set up a strawman where "the mainstream media would be trashing him as a racist, if not a white supremacist" if he were a Republican. When two people pointed out he's actually married to a non-white person, you started in on "honorary white people" and "racial grievance mongers". If anybody here deserves the title "racial grievance monger" it's you, and the reason for it is your blatantly obvious racism displayed in this very thread.
 
Sounds like he might get a bunch of Repub votes, where as Hillary...
 
Myron Proudfoot said:
the repubs in Virginia are mad at him for switching parties and defeating George Allen. To them Webb is a RINO.
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It's typical of Virginia politicians to be middle-of-the-road. A few crazies, like that attorney general, but the more sober positions tend to go to conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans. Irritates their parties, but the people like that.
 
Myron Proudfoot said:
the repubs in Virginia are mad at him for switching parties and defeating George Allen. To them Webb is a RINO.
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kinda hard to be a Republican In Name Only (RINO) when, in name, you are a Democratic candidate?
 
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