There must be a price to pay for such a debacle. In the old days, students would be burning Hillary in effigy. Artists would do unto her the way Diego Rivera did unto the Dulles brothers in his famous painting commemorating the coup in Guatemala.
Even if Hillary wins the contest, a Webb challenge may insure that she'll have to talk to progressives instead of pretending that they don't exist. I'd rather see Elizabeth Warren doing what Webb is doing, but I'm still happy to see Webb doing it.
That said...
This announcement has a scary side. A paragraph such as the following should leave everyone wondering "What the hell has happened to this country?"
Webb, who was Ronald Reagan’s Navy secretary and who has held centrist views on a number of issues, has been bolstered by progressive news outlet The Nation as a potential challenge from the left to Hillary Clinton...Reagan's Navy secretary is challenging Hillary from the left. If the political 50 yard line keeps moving, what will happen? One day, an American election will be a contest between the person who says "I'm the new Adolf Hitler!" and the person who says "Hitler was a softie. I'll kill way more people than he ever dreamed of!"
11 comments:
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/stopme/chapter02.html <-- That's what happened ;-)
Cannonfire, you are drinking the kool aide. During his time on the Senate Armed Forces Committee Webb did exactly nothing to get us out of Iraq and scale back our aggressive policies. Furthermore, these are NOT the words of a progressive.
http://www.jameswebb.com/articles/economic-fairness-social-justice/diversity-and-the-myth-of-white-privilege
notice that NO ONE from Virginia is rallying to this guy? That should tell you something. Hillary will crush him in Iowa without trying.
dcblogger
A 'challenge from the left' from Webb should be a wonder to behold!
Look I think Hillary Clinton needs a primary just like every other candidate. She became much more focused as the 2008 campaign went on. That speech she gave in Ohio in the rain, fist raised was one of her best moments. If she can retag that passion, I don't see anyone beating her.
On the other hand if her campaign handlers focus only on 'the first woman' thing as I read yesterday then she'll be vulnerable. Not that 'first' is meaningless [particularly for women] but Dems went with the 'first' business in the selection of Barack Obama. The shine has definitely worn off that strategy.
Hillary Clinton has to come out swinging on domestic, bread and butter issues: inequality, jobs, student loans, etc. Yes, foreign policy stances will be discussed ad infinitum. But Americans vote their pocketbooks in the moment. The stock market may be going bonkers but the average citizen doesn't feel it or believe things are substantially better than when the GOP made an utter mess of everything. And would love to repeat their failures and ram the whole shebang down everyone's throat.
This need to reach for the next bright shiny thing in Democratic circles will be the party's undoing. And the country's loss. Bad enough Congress is now in Republican hands. We can only imagine the damage soon to be rendered by the Chuckleheads. Democrats need to win in 2016, not spend time dreaming of the perfect candidate. If HRC gets her mojo on, she'll win. And yes, she will woo Wall St. just like all other candidates because that's the system we're stuck with at the moment, a Gilded Age redux. That's why the voices of Warren and Sanders, et al are so vitally important to keep the push and discussion open, prodding for change which tends to be frustratingly slow.
Then the Bush family can go into retirement. For the time being at least.
Peggysue
Peggysue, much of your analysis is solid, or solid-ish. It's a semi-solid, and that's the best ANYONE can hope for at this point. You're right: Americans usually vote based on domestic concerns, not foreign policy. And that is why I would vote for HC over any Republican.
But...two things:
1. Domestically, the state of our nation kind of sucks. Not enough prosperity; way too much surveillance and corruption. (Especially police corruption.)
2. Foreign policy OUGHT to matter. It's all connected. If we hadn't wasted trillions of the Iraq war, we'd be in fine or nearly-fine shape, economically speaking.
The left might rebel against the wars of a Cruz or a Jeb Bush--not so against Killary.
Jim Webb refused to help Dennis Kucinich cut off funds for the Iraq War. Enough said.
Run Ralph run.
The left might rebel against the wars of a Cruz or a Jeb Bush--not so against Killary.
Jim Webb refused to help Dennis Kucinich cut off funds for the Iraq War. Enough said.
Run Ralph run.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-military-industrial-candidate/
Killary beckons. Jim Webb is closer to her than to Kucinich.
Warren is surrounded by neocons too.
I wouldn't even trust Rand Paul to keep us out of war. Ron and Ralph, yes.
Joe, I agree with you--the foreign policy issues 'should' matter for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the basic morality of endless, pointless war. Doesn't matter whether the continuous war cry is coming from the Left or the Right. You care about the issue. I care about the issue. But the majority of the voting public? DOES NOT CARE. Or even pay that much attention. It's only political hounds that actually read and follow the news whose blood boils with another lame excuse for foreign involvement, ridiculous geopolitical schemes and flat-out lies fed to the weary, scrambling public. As much as like and admire Elizabeth Warren? Her public comments about Israel and Palestine are boilerplate, Beltway cha-cha language. Webb won't be any better. And Bernie Sanders? As much as I love to hear the man rage against the night, he could not win a national election and would/will be twisted every way till Sunday.
In your heart you know that.
People are too busy keeping their families afloat to give a rat's ass about the Ukraine or Syria or whatever new, shocking revelation comes down the pike. Fox News may be able to feed the rage monster but the rest of the Nation is too busy robbing Peter to pay Paul.
For the vast number of middle-class [or formerly middle-class] workers, yes the economy is a stinker. Wages have been so stagnant that workers are neither better off or staying even; they're falling behind. Wages have not increased and overtime, a staple of middle-class existence, has nearly evaporated. There's a comment at Think Progress [I think] on this very question. The comment was written by the billionaire who warned his fellow plutocrats that if they didn't 'see the light' they were likely to see the coming of torches and pitchforks. This could be corrected by POTUS with that well-documented Devil Power: Executive Action. The simple scroll of President Obama's pen could change the fortunes of millions of Americans and spur the economy with extra buying power.
Will it happen? Probably not. Because our elected officials work for the Corporate Cookie Monster.
HRC is not a perfect candidate. But I've always thought she had the potential of being one hell of a leader because she's worked in Washington and will know how to work Washington.
There are no guarantees. But she's the best candidate out there. I hope she wins and has her shot.
Peggysue
Jim Webb could possibly carry Southern States where Warren, as a New England liberal, would have no chance.
Webb's defects are mainly a problem to the careerist Democratic clique, not the average voter. It would be a shame if the Democratic machine destroys him before he can test his appeal nationally, as I expect they will try to do.
I think he's more vulnerable to attacks from Democrats. Therefore, Webb might be smart to run as a Republican, and break off independent when he loses the nomination.
Webb strikes me as too real of a person to get elected President. But one can hope.
*******
Elizabeth Warren has been under fire for supporting the very accounting practices she protested before she became a senator. Curious if she is duplicitous or the attacks on her are not what they seem. Have looked at this controversy, Joe?
So now Hillary Clinton created ISIS?
We need to look at this differently. Sports are not that big in the middle east (one of the best ways to both incite, enflame, and then douse too much male testerone). Women's faces are covered yet anal sex with women or with underaged men is not frowned upon, just don't get caught.
There are too many secrets to keep in the middle east culture and fewer and fewer ways to keep them secret, hence, cradling a gun is the best way to stand out from the crowd and not be humiliated.
Quit blaming Hillary Clinton for cultural inbreeding and hypocrisy in the middle east.
Everything Peggysue said. I was so happy Jim Webb is throwing his name out there. And I'm from VA even tho I don't live there now. I'm thinking he's really running for VP. Fine by me.
Back in the day, with NO help from Obama, Webb partnered with Delahunt (my rep from MA when I lived there) and did their best to reform the prison system.
A Hillary/ Webb ticket would please me immensely.
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