"Jim Webb As Obama VP?"

Barack Obama is considering former top Pentagon leaders among his possible running mates, which would address his lack of foreign policy experience and balance the military bonafides of a GOP ticket led by a war hero.

Two senators who consulted Tuesday with the Democratic presidential candidate's vice presidential vetting team said retired military generals were among the names they discussed.

"We talked about many names," North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad told The Associated Press, including "some that are out of the box, but I think would be very well-received by the American people, including former top military leaders."

Conrad would not disclose which names they discussed, and the Obama campaign has been keeping the process a closely guarded secret.

GOP candidate John McCain was a naval aviator during the Vietnam War and spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese after being shot down. Obama has not served in the military.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said the discussion involves a lot of names; he declined to provide any. "Some of them would surprise you, some of them wouldn't," Durbin told reporters.

One name being discussed is retired Gen. James Jones, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, according to a person familiar with the process.

Many former military leaders have been involved in the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign. Some of Obama's most prominent campaign advisers have been retired Gen. Tony McPeak, who was Air Force chief of staff during Operation Desert Storm; retired Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, who flew repeated combat missions and has worked with Obama on a range of military issues since before he began his presidential campaign; and Richard Danzig, who was Navy secretary under President Clinton.

Obama might also look at some of former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's top military advisers in a gesture of unity, retired generals who include Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; or Wesley Clark, who led the war in Kosovo. Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, who served as Navy secretary under President Reagan, also has been frequently mentioned as a possible running mate.

Jim Webb

James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is the junior Senator from Virginia. He is also an author and a former Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

A 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Webb served as a Marine Corps infantry officer until 1972, and is a highly decorated Vietnam War combat veteran. During his four years with the Reagan administration, Webb served as the first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, then as Secretary of the Navy.

After his resignation, Webb earned his living primarily as an author and filmmaker. He won an Emmy Award for his 1983 PBS coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut.

On March 30, 2003, Webb wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times. While he erred in believing that the Iraqi leadership had learned lessons from the first Gulf War that would enable them to stop U.S. troops from taking Baghdad, subsequent events proved correct his conclusion that a protracted guerrilla conflict would be a likely outcome of an American invasion of Iraq.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Webb wrote an op-ed piece for USA Today in which he, as a military veteran, evaluated the candidacies of John Kerry and George W. Bush. He criticized Kerry for the nature of his opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1970s while affiliated with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and accused Bush of using his father's connections to avoid service in Vietnam. Webb also wrote that Bush had "committed the greatest strategic blunder in modern memory" with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In late 2005, a campaign to draft Webb to run for the Senate in 2006 began on the Internet. On February 7, 2006, he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the 2006 Senate race against incumbent Virginia Senator George Allen.

Allen had been expected to be reelected relatively easily, and that this reelection would prepare him for a possible 2008 Presidential candidacy. But Webb's entry into the race and primary victory changed the political landscape. Political analyst Larry Sabato said in May that "Jim Webb is George Allen's worst nightmare: a war hero and a Reagan appointee who holds moderate positions… Allen tries to project a Reagan aura, but Webb already has it." In September, Bloomberg.com's Catherine Dodge wrote an article highlighting Webb and the Senate race, and said "Webb isn't a typical Democrat. His family hails from the rural southern part of the state. He's pro-gun ownership, and he takes a harder line on illegal immigration than many Senate Republicans."

On November 15, 2006, Senate majority leader in waiting Harry Reid assigned Webb to three committees: the committees on Foreign Relations, Veterans' Affairs, and Armed Services.

That same day, an op ed authored by Webb appeared in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Titled "Class Struggle," the piece addressed what Webb feels is a growing economic inequality in the United States, touching on what he feels are overly permissive immigration policies, extravagant executive compensation, the detrimental effects of free trade and globalization, iniquitous tax cuts, and speedily rising health care costs, and attacking the "elites" who he says perpetuate the aforementioned woes for their personal economic gain.

On November 28, 2006, at a White House reception for those newly elected to Congress, Webb declined to stand in the line to have his picture taken with the president, whom Webb often criticized during the campaign. The president approached Webb later and asked him, "How's your boy?", referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq. According to Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia, aides warned the President to be "extra sensitive about talking to Webb about his son, since Webb's son has had a recent brush with death in Iraq."[28] Webb replied "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President." Bush responded, "That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?" Webb responded, "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President." The Hill cited an anonymous source who claimed that Webb was so angered by the exchange that he confessed he was tempted to "slug" the president, but of course did not.

      Presumptive Democrat  Presidential candidate Barack Obama choosing an ex-military man as his Vice President running mate is a very wise and pragmatic course, in my opinion, especially running against the former POW and war hero, Senator John McCain. Barack Obama , who has never been in the military, has little national security experience and is "beta male" in his bearing, needs the complement of a VP that is a war hero, with extensive national security experience and is an "alpha male" in his bearing. Senator Jim Webb, the conservative "Blue Dog" Democrat Senator from Virginia, fits the bill perfectly, in my opinion. An added plus is the fact that Senator Webb is a published author and a very articulate speaker, very much like Senator Obama. Whatever difference in policy the two men may have, I am sure can be compromised. I am not of course on Obama's VP "vetting" committee, but if I was I would sure be pushing Jim Webb as Barack Obama's running mate in '08.

tags: barack obama  jim webb  obama  politics  takebackamerica  us  president  2008  america  democrat  vice president  

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