Jim Webb stands up for white people, goes after liberals for attacking "Southern white culture"

[Cali_Democrat]

Is this clown going for the Dixiecrat vote? Doesn't he realize most of them became Republicans after the civil rights movement of the 1960's?

Webb needs to switch parties.

-----------------------

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb on Sunday suggested that recent efforts to remove Confederate symbols from public places were as "divisive" as Donald Trump's disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants.

Without prompting from "Fox News Sunday" host Bret Baier, who had been asking questions about national security, Webb asked if he could please talk about Trump, the billionaire GOP candidate who has called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. Webb criticized Trump before pivoting.

"This kind of divisive, inflammatory rhetoric by people who want to be commander-in-chief is not helpful, and we have seen from the liberal side as well this kind of rhetoric as it goes to Southern white cultures," the former Virginia senator said, apparently referring to recent debates over the Confederate flag.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/12/jim-webb-southern-white_n_7779298.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[still_one]

1. He is an idiot, and perhaps a latent racist

[ann---]

2. He's a

southerner stuck in the past. Wouldn't vote for him anyway.

[artislife]

3. Well okey dokey then

I guess he really doesn't want the job...and/or he really is a confederate apologist.

[MADem]

4. Webb's principal appeal, when he ran for the Senate, was that he was better than Allen.

His secondary appeal was that he could win in a state that was purple at the time, at best.

Beyond that, the guy is not so hot. He's backwards when it comes to women, he's insensitive when it comes to race, and he's tone deaf on social issues.

His abiding interest in the civil war, along with ancestors on the rebel team, color his "heritage" POV.

He's just not presidential timber.

[MoonRiver]

18. I really don't understand how he ever thought he had a chance.

Deluded some?

[MADem]

19. The country is always a little more conservative than many think.

I just don't think they are THAT conservative. He could be counting on that.

It could be his inherent bias with regard to women is coming into play--in fact, that wouldn't surprise me at all. He's probably living in a bit of a bubble, too.

[MoonRiver]

20. Yeah, a bubble in his head. Maybe his family also operates as a cheering squad.

His advisors are stupid, imho.

[MADem]

22. Ha ha ha!

I knew a lot of female senior military officers who had quite a bone to pick with him back in the day....

[MoonRiver]

25. That sounds like some interesting stories!

[MADem]

26. Back in the day when women were segregated in the Armed Forces,

the senior ones (0-5 and up, pretty much) would get together and have these "professional lunches" where they would network with one another and get to know people from other services so they could help each other out in DC (the Pentagon is like a large, gossipy town anyway, and there are a lot of military installations nearby...Belvoir, Andrews, Henderson Hall, etc.). They would often get a speaker, and when they got Webb to give a talk to them, he proceeded to lecture them, in condescending style about why women can't fight (he wrote a treatise on this very subject, he was against 'integrating' -- i.e. allowing women into--the service academies, and didn't really like women in uniform unless they were nursing or typing or serving coffee--he was a real...what's the term? Ah yes--sexist blowhard!).

He didn't make it through his little lecture, and even though he was a senior Pentagon official at the time, those women in uniform at this event were all 'F-ck YOU, Jimmy!' and ready to run him through with their dessert forks! They got up one after the other and berated the living shit out of him and called him every name in the book. It turned into a shouting match (he was on the losing end) and he was up against some seriously pissed off women!

I heard stories about it from several women and it was all pretty much the same story--he got his ASS handed to him, in no uncertain terms! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall--it sounded like one of those historical moments that are richer and more meaningful with the passage of years!

[MoonRiver]

34. What an offensive ass! And he thinks he's a DEMOCRAT?

[MADem]

36. In southern VA, he could be viewed as a bit 'liberal' in some corners....

Really. They're a bit regressive in their attitudes down that way in some parts.

He also has that "heritage" attitude towards the confederate battle flag, owing to having ancestors who fought in that war of northern aggression (cough-choke).

Thing is, he was the best hope to win that seat for the Democrats in a changing timeframe, and he only won by a very tiny margin--if we'd run anyone more liberal, we would have lost, and George Allen would probably be the frontrunner for the GOP POTUS nomination. And George Allen is -- to put it as delicately as I can manage--a f-cking MORON!!!

What he did do for Democrats in VA is to make people realize, particularly in the southern part of the state, that Democrats were not two headed monsters. He helped push the reset button in that regard.

My attitude is "Thanks for that contribution to the party, Jim" but POTUS? Ummmmm...NO. Hell to the NO!

[MoonRiver]

42. Hey Jim, you're not playing in VA anymore!

This is the big time. And you are so screwed. Glad he helped us out in VA though.

[MADem]

43. I don't think he's running to win, to be honest.

Maybe he wants a cabinet job, maybe he's selling a book.

He's got all those wives, too--the conservatives would go ballistic over that...and the latest one is about his daughter's age, and he married her just shortly before she delivered his latest kid....and (drum roll) ... she ain't "Murican!!" She's VEE-YET-Nam-EEEEZ!!! Grab the smelling salts, Martha!!!

and for the irony-impaired!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

39. He had an issue with blacks and women, it seems. And he was a Republican

when he served under Reagan. How fitting.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. So he's not seriously running for the nomination

He must know that he's just made sure that he has no chance. (Unless he's stupid, and I don't think he is.)

I'm wondering why he really entered the race.

[brush]

6. I'm wondering too.

It's not like we need those racists in the party that he is pandering to.

[Cali_Democrat]

12. Yep

Webb is a relic....from an era where Dems thought racists were needed to win elections.

Obama proved without a doubt that you don't need to cater to these people to win the Presidency.

[Cali_Democrat]

10. I'm not sure what his end game is here

He's gotta know that he can't win the nomination talking like this.

Does he think Democratic primary voters are mostly conservative white people?

[brush]

15. Yeah, it's like where has he been since the '90s? nt

[MADem]

37. He is a prolific author--maybe he's got another book coming out?

Some of his writing is rather...salacious, shall we say...?

[DavidDvorkin]

41. Aaah!

That could well be it.

[m-lekktor]

7. I wonder how big of a "receptive audience" he has for this message.

[Historic NY]

8. He said at one time he was Jeffersonian....

whatever that means, but he acts like a republican

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

40. As in "Jefferson Davis"? LOL!! (That's not funny.) Webb is a joke!

[arely staircase]

9. Ok so much for him nt

[yurbud]

11. he drank the DLC kool aid "If I piss on the Democratic base, I can get the GOP base to vote for me"

[JI7]

13. that's funny considering criticism of dlc from certain people has been their promotion of social iss

issues and claiming it was a distraction from real issues that mattered.

[yurbud]

16. they seem to both depending on what state they are in. MOST DLCers are MOST liberal

on abortion and gay rights, things that cost the financial elite nothing.

The more money is involved, the more compliant they become to those with a lot of money.

[kenfrequed]

17. He was sort of a two-fer

A DLC'er and a Blue Dog.

It allowed him to join with the DLC on economic issues and the Blue dogs on social issues. It does beg the question how he could ever be considered a democrat but...

Well, actually I don't have an answer.

[yurbud]

23. a DLC'er is a Republican who doesn't want to or can't convincingly grovel to racists and theocrats

all the business friendly without the Bible or Klan robe.

[kenfrequed]

24. Yup.

And a Blue Dog is a democrat that gives some minor scraps to theocrats and yahoos.

[MADem]

27. He was well left of George Allen, he had military credentials in a military state, and

he could take the seat--that's really what it was all about. He would sit with our caucus and give us another body on the team.

He got bored, though--he could have won a second term, but he chose to quit the game. Not the first time that has happened with him.

[kenfrequed]

28. We need to choose better candidates.

That is what I am saying.

[MADem]

29. Pragmatically--and I don't think he's a charmer, and didn't at the time he ran, either--we DID

choose well in that instance. We ran a candidate who could win. Just dislodging Allen--who had serious presidential ambitions--was worth it, even though Webb wasn't--and still isn't--all that.

Someone more liberal than Webb would have been FRIED in that contest. Webb was a godsend, and got a boost from the MACACA debacle that stuck to Allen like dogshit on his cowboy boot.

Webb BARELY won--but beating an incumbent is a miracle, and he was able to pull it out. His military background didn't hurt, either. But .4% is a recount-able margin...without MACACA, we might not have won that one.

[Arkana]

31. He wouldn't have.

No one had heard of him and he was trailing Allen by like 15 points until macaca happened. Without it, George Allen would still be in the Senate.

[MADem]

33. And good thing that Democratic videographer, who was taping all of

Allen's appearances, was there to be the brunt of Allen's insults! That was a textbook example of how ground game can make a difference in an election...!

I AM MACACA: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001381.html

This past summer, between my third and fourth year of college, I decided to volunteer for the campaign of Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb in my home state of Virginia. For most of the summer, I worked behind the scenes at the campaign headquarters in Arlington, helping set up field offices statewide and performing other odd jobs. In the second week of August, I was dispatched by the campaign to serve as Republican Sen. George Allen's tracker on a "listening tour" across the state. Tracking was a rather solitary pursuit; I videotaped Allen's public appearances whenever I was admitted into an event and killed time between stops in places I had never been to before.

Then, on Aug. 11, my experience took a strange -- and now famous -- turn. On that day in Breaks Interstate Park, located on the Kentucky border, Allen acknowledged my presence for the first time in one of his stump speeches. I was singled out at a GOP picnic, identified as "macaca or whatever his name is" -- despite the fact that Allen knew my name, as we had been traveling the same route for five days -- and then "welcome(d) to America and the real world of Virginia."

Allen's actions that day stood out because they were not representative of how I was treated while traveling around the state. Everywhere I went, though I was identifiably working on behalf of Allen's opponent, people treated me with dignity, respect and kindness. I cannot recall one event where food was served and I was not invited to join in the meal. In southwest Virginia, hospitality toward me was at a high point.

....The larger question that this experience brings up is: How far has society progressed on the issues of race and openness? By 2050, according to most projections, the United States will be a minority-majority nation. But the fact that Allen believed I was an immigrant, when in fact I am a native Virginian, underlines the problems our society still faces....

[Ken Burch]

14. So, Webb sees no difference between wanting the Dixie Swastika kept away from state capitols...

...and accusing the Mexican government of flooding the U.S. border with rapists?...

Maybe he's setting himself up to pull a Zell Miller at the next GOP convention

(or worse, using the implicit threat of that to force the party to give him the second slot on the ticket.)

[Orrex]

21. Finally, someone with the spine to stand up for the white man!

[Arkana]

30. The Martha Coakley of national politics.

[MADem]

44. In what way? nt

[Arkana]

45. He's giving us a primer

on How Not To Run a Campaign 101.

Martha Coakley is a sad story, because if she knew how to run for office she'd have been a really good Senator/Governor. But she just did not grasp the intricacies of how to run a competitive statewide campaign.

[MADem]

46. Martha could not catch a break. EVER.

And she was funded, but not like some. And she got help, but not the same amount of help. In ways that counted, she was left to her own devices. She needed better management, and more sophisticated strategists than she had on her team. She's never going to be a smiley, touchy-feely type, and were she not female, that would have been FINE. But people spent as much time crabbing that she didn't smile enough or they didn't like her hair do as they did listening to what she was saying. She was a decent AG. She just couldn't catch a fair break. And bullshitter Charley Charm Baker just kept smiling, boys-clubbing, and bullshitting. People bought it. He's an empty suit, running the state on the Bush model (let everyone else worry about the details).

It's pretty obvious that had it not been for ENORMOUS out-of-state funding, a huge amount of "advisors on loan," huge GOTV efforts (that I was a part of), and dogged assistance from the DNC and the DSCC, that Liz Warren would still be teaching at Harvard.

MA voters are prejudiced against women candidates. They refuse to cut them a fair break or give them a level playing field. It's a real disconnect in an ostensibly "liberal" state. If you don't believe me, check into the vast number of women senators we've sent to DC before Warren (that would be none) and then check and see how many female governors we have elected (not served when the Big Guy ran off to do other things, but elected--and that would be NONE, too...). It's a sick embarrassment.

I am grateful to Warren for pulling it out, and helping to put a small ding in the Bay State glass ceiling, but anyone who has the idea that she cruised in, held aloft by cheering crowds, and her candidacy was a cakewalk didn't see how ugly it got or how difficult it was--and a lot of it had to do with her GENDER. And they didn't see the MILLIONS spent on ads, oppo work, dirty tricks, all the Worst of Politics. It was a shit-fling throughout the general election process.

Had not that moron Scott Brown 'overstepped' with his 'regular guy/beer drinking/truck driving/barn coat' persona, and thought that Massachusettsians would get into mocking Warren with Pocahantas name-calling, Tomahawk chops, and Pow-Wow, the Indian Boy sing-songs, he would have gone back to DC. He had no backup plan, either, which is why he had to sell his house, move to NH, and fail running as the GOP candidate there, too. Now he's selling Pyramid Scheme diet pills, and his wife is working at a third-tier TV station. Oh, how the mighty have fallen....

[Herman4747]

32. DINO. Sigh. At least he beat Macaca when it mattered

[renegade000]

35. was happy he represented VA from '06-12, but yeah... he's a bit of a relic

You have to respect his background and personal history, but IMO he's not 21st century presidential material. I've kind of gotten the sense that he's the sort that doesn't really fully respect you (and especially not as a "leader&quot unless you share his particular brand of masculine/martial history and ethos. This was great when we needed someone to stick it to a chicken-hawk like GWB, but it cuts both ways. He's always struck me as being unduly cool on President Obama and his administration, which I suspect has to do more with this (admittedly hypothetical) reading of his character, rather than any particular policy disagreement.

I suspect these odd comments arise out of this too. The political battles of 1968 are still being waged in his mind. Someone has to stick up for the anti-hippy wing of the Democratic party...or something

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

38. He used to be a Republican under Reagan. And he said nothing different

from what HRC said during the 2008 Democratic Party primaries.

She's championing the cause of "hard working white people". He has said virtually nothing different from her.