Would-be presidential candidate Jim Webb was in town to talk to the press, and he appears to have made a hash of his nascent campaign even before it is officially launched:
Webb said that the fact that several prominent politicians in his own state — including Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Webb’s replacement in the U.S. Senate, Timothy M. Kaine — have already expressed their support for Hillary Clinton if she decides to run, will not affect his decision.
“Frankly, no,” he told an audience of Virginia-based political reporters assembled at the Richmond Times-Dispatch for the annual AP Day at the Capitol.
“We are making this decision based on our own analytics,” he added.
Kaine and McAuliffe have already cut the legs out from under Webb in Virginia, regardless of what his personal analytics say. But let’s press on…
While he declined to expand on the topic or draw comparisons between himself and Clinton, the former senator was not at a loss for words to articulate the “concerns I have for our country.”
An ancient rule of politics: define your opponent before your opponent defines you. Declining to do so before an audience eager to write stories on the topic is a free opportunity Webb will never get again. Though, to be fair, he may simply not want to bring down the wrath of the Clintonistas on his head before he has the resources to fight back.
And then, there’s Obamacare:
He said that voting for the Affordable Care Act was done because he thought “doing something was better than doing nothing,” but he also stressed that the law needs “cleaning up” and a number of fixes.
It’s the Mark Warner approach, but with the addition of a rationalization that is laughable on its face. Passing a bad law was better than passing no law at all? Right…
Webb also fired a missile at the party whose nomination he seeks:
And the prospective candidate delivered a harsh message to his own party, saying the Democratic party has “lost its message” and “turned into a party of interest groups.
This is a very old charge, and one that is arguably true. It is also very unlikely to get Democratic super delegates flocking to Webb’s banner.
But on the upside, it may also help him sell more books. And that’s really what all of this is about.
