Chafee announces presidential bid at GMU

Lincoln Chafee, former governor of and senator from Rhode Island, will be announcing his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in a speech at 5:30 Wednesday evening at George Mason University.

For those who’ve forgotten all about Mr Chafee…

Chafee’s family has a long and storied history in Rhode Island politics. Chafee himself served as the mayor of the city of Warwick until he was appointed after his father John Chafee’s death to replace him in the Senate. Chafee was elected to the seat in 2000 but lost it to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006. He endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and was elected Governor of Rhode Island in 2010 as an independent.

And he declined to run for re-election once it became clear he couldn’t win. So, naturally, a White House bid, apparently based upon his opposition to the Iraq war way back when, was the next, logical step.

Let’s be clear: Mr. Chafee will be lucky to make it through the Iowa caucuses. But the number of challengers to Hillary Clinton — and yes, they are challengers, of a sort — grows a little bit more as her poll numbers begin to slide.

And what of Jim Webb? He’s still selling books gathering support for a possible bid.