Former Virginia Senator Jim Webb launches exploratory committee!

[retromike22]

And so, it begins.

http://webb2016.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oV3RnBaXIlk

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/jim-webb-2016-committee-113055.html?hp=r3_3

“I have decided to launch an Exploratory Committee to examine whether I should run for President in 2016,” Webb said in a four-page letter on his website, Webb2016.

“I made this decision after reflecting on numerous political commentaries and listening to many knowledgeable people. I look forward to listening and talking with more people in the coming months as I decide whether or not to run.”

[IceSpear]

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Uh, okay.

Good luck selling books, Webb!

[Lief 🗽]

I was a big fan of Jim Webb in 2006 when he ran for Senate. He was a good senator too. He was one of the few people willing to talk about issues that are really damaging in this country (income inequality, the need for criminal justice reform). I don't think there's anything wrong with a gaggle of joke candidates running alongside Clinton, and I hope she's smart enough to be willing to debate them. It's been a while since she ran a presidential campaign; she's gonna need the practice.

That said it's kind of pathetic how low budget his announcement video is, jesus christ.

[retromike22]

That said it's kind of pathetic how low budget his announcement video is, jesus christ.

I know! It reminded me immediately of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb6H14gVWjM

[PPT Spiral]

I'm fond of Webb and would vote for him in the primary if I was a Democrat. Go get 'em!

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

While I'm all for challenging Hillary from the left, it might be better to have someone a little more liberal do that.

[Lief 🗽]

Basically if this website is at all representative of the campaign he's going to run, then he'll more like a Mike Gravel than anything else. Unless he finds a wealthy benefactor who is willing to start a Super PAC for him, of course.

[BaconBacon96]

Go Webb! It's clear he's going to try to run as the anti-Washington candidate, a position he might have to compete for with Schweitzer and Sanders.

I do support Clinton over him though. She's a much stronger candidate.

[IceSpear]

While I'm all for challenging Hillary from the left, it might be better to have someone a little more liberal do that.

I don't even see how Webb is to Hillary's left at all. If you look at Senate voting records, he's actually to her right. It shows how desperate "progressive media outlets" are, not out of conviction but out of personal spite against Hillary, that they're willing to embrace him.

I mean, I guess he could pull a Romney and flip flop into being "severely liberal", but would anyone really buy that?

[NewYorkExpress]

He'd be a contender (at least in Iowa) if Hillary/Biden/Gillibrand didn't run, but one of those three (and probably both Hillary and Biden) are going to.... Still could be on the ticket though, especially if 2016 is already looking an inverse 2008.

[Mr. Morden]

Wow, he's actually going through with it.  Well, I guess he's prominent enough that Clinton will feel compelled to do at least a couple of debates, provided that Webb is still in the race a year from now.

[Ljube]

Go Webb!

[exopolitician]

Good, I like Webb.

[BaconBacon96]

Bloomberg's article observed that he doesn't mention if he's actually running for the Democratic Party or any party in his video. It's not very likely but I wonder how he would go as an independent candidate.

[Mr. Morden]

Here's Webb from earlier this week:

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-17/jim-webb-vs-humanitarian-intervention-and-the-clock

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[Vega]

Does he remind anybody else of an older Danny Chung from Veep?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I want to like Webb, but I'm not sure I can vote for him.  I can post a link later if anyone's interested, but I believe I once read that he's written some pretty sketchy stuff about the the run-up to the Civil War and the Confederacy (including that he was at least somewhat supportive of "popular sovergnity" and implying that the South had a right to secede, IIRC).  I hope it was distorted or taken out-of-context somehow because as I said earlier, there is a lot to like about Webb.  However, if the article was right, then that's a deal-breaker as far as I'm concerned.

[H. Ross Peron]

I was pretty sceptical about Webb's run right when I heard about it, until I read his letter and its strong message of economic populism. Here's hoping he gets some traction although I hope the progressives in the party coalesce around one candidate be it him or Sanders or Schweitzer rather than the endless search for the "Great Right Hope" by the GOP in 2012.

[Phony Moderate]

Exploitary committee would be more accurate.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

The question is when he'll get bored again?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

His website is worse than my local school board member's campaign website.

[King]

This is Tim and Eric's strangest project yet.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Well, this certainly is a strange development.

[Bojack Horseman]

And so it begins. That video sucked. He sounds way too much like a Republican.

"The Democratic Party used to be where Americans could go not for a handout but a fair handshake."

[Anonymouse]

Hard-charging antiwar war hero who's actually lasering in on income inequality and has true working-class appeal? I'm not endorsing him but I'm very glad he's running.

And so it begins. That video sucked. He sounds way too much like a Republican.

"The Democratic Party used to be where Americans could go not for a handout but a fair handshake."

He is going to run on anti-elitist, Great Society economic progressivism, and he wants to bring the white working class back home to the Democratic Party. Talk like that is how you reach them, and he knows that. You don't talk down to poor whites like you're giving them charity and then sneer at how "stupid" they are when they vote against you, again and again- you talk about they'e earned a piece of the American Dream, I would really love to see the results in places like eastern Kentucky with Webb as the nominee...