Webb withdraws

Former Virginia Senator Jim Webb withdrew from his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. The man is a highly decorated war hero with diverse experience and views that deserve a respectful hearing. He might have been a good fit in the Truman-era Democratic Party. His views have essentially no place in the Democratic Party today, as he noted himself in the announcement of his withdrawal:

“I fully accept that my views on many issues are not compatible with the power structure and the nominating base of the Democratic Party,” Webb told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington. The current Democratic hierarchy, he said, “is not comfortable with many of the policies laid forth, and frankly I am not that comfortable with many of theirs.”

On whether he would continue to call himself a Democrat, Webb responded, “We’ll think about that.”

“The Democratic Party is heavily invested in interest-group politics,” he said, and that could exclude groups it means to include, responding to a question about his reluctance to embrace the Black Lives Matter movement and to call on the removal of the Confederate flag from federal grounds.

Webb says he may mount an independent campaign. He says the money will be there for him if he wants to run. Somehow I doubt it. I think it would make more sense to get in the race on the Republican side. He may have noticed that anything can happen this time around on our side.

I assume based on his service in the Reagan administration that he was a Republican at one time. I would like to see him pull a Churchill and return to home base (assuming he was a Republican at one time). Perhaps he is too eccentric to find a place in either party, and his party line votes in the Senate would be problematic, but he is inarguably a man of enormous talents and many parts.

NOTE: Webb son Jim has an excellent column on Webb in today’s New York Post. Related: Bill Kristol’s Weekly Standard editorial “Enemies list.”

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