Webb. He’s a freshman senator, less than 2 years experience. He had no other elected office before that.
He was a military man. He’s been a military man. He taught in a military college, where he harrassed women and maybe slept with one of his students.
He was Secretary of the Navy for a couple of years, did nothing of note in that office, and then was “resigned” out because nobody would listen to his opinion.
That was in the 80s. Since then he wrote books and I presume did something else other than live off his pensions.
He’s probably the only VP they could think of that makes Obama look experienced.
Webb won because Allen was successfully labeled as a racist who used the N-word throughout his career but was unwilling to admit it. The Democrats would vote for anything with a “D” after it, and in the end, attacks against Webb, especially for his books which were loved by the military, turned off the military vote for Allen. I don’t know if they voted for Webb, but they didn’t vote for Allen.
There’s no way the military vote in Virginia abandons McCain to vote for Webb. And that’s how Webb won, holding the democrats while getting enough of the military vote to swing. And as I said, that only worked because Allen’s campaign attacked salty language used in books as if Webb was some sort of pervert (books that McCain had recommended — one had a forward by McCain).
Allen only lost by 10,000 votes. He probably lost 5,000 when he denounced the confederate flag. He probably lost the other 5000 at least when he said military people should be ashamed that they read and enjoyed Webb’s books.
McCain won’t make those mistakes. Virginia could have been competitive for Democrats this year, with just about ANY republican candidate — except McCain. I just saw a poll that says McCain is up 10 to Obama here. Webb can’t make that big a difference.
As long as we're clear that those attacks were fabrications.
I blame Wadhams much more than Allen. Yes, Allen said the "m-word." But Wadhams didn't understand Allen or Virginia. And his recent comments underscore that.
That said, you're spot on about Webb. The military won't go for him over McCain. It may be that McCain is the one candidate who can keep Virginia in the red column.