This about sums up the Jim Webb announcement:
Confederate flag loving Democrats who don't want to do anything about climate change just got a candidate: Jim Webb announces he's in.
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 2, 2015
He announced in a poorly formatted blog post, further cementing his wingnut credentials.
Roger Moore
Add Webb and his wife, and they’ll have enough for a bridge game.
raven
Speaking of poorly formatted blog posts, I just posted this from a blog about Tom Petty and the Confederate Flag.
http://blurtonline.com/feature/that-southern-accent-tom-petty-the-heartbreakers-2/
Hunter Gathers
Webb 2016 – He worked for Reagan that one time.
Aaron Morrow
@Hunter Gathers:
Webb 2016: He quit because Reagan wasn’t spending enough on his defense department.
Webb 2016: He only gives about 10% of campaign contributions to his family!
http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-webb-gave-nearly-100000-in-campaign-donations-to-his-family-2014-12
the Conster
OT, but Serta Mattresses just dumped Trump. Was there such a thing as a Trump mattress? Maybe for his hotels? I’m sure they were yoooge, very beautiful, very elegant.
smintheus
Second sentence into his announcement, he starts complaining about how unfair the primary process will be. Hoo boy.
JPL
My wish, is that this is the last post on Webb. As a Senator, he voted with the democrats and that’s all I care about. Now that he is no longer, in office, I hope he doesn’t enjoy his life as a bigot.
srv
Webb is unarguably the only Democrat who can work with Republicans.
It’s funny when liberal hippie punchers choose nihilism and berate a fellow anti-war democrat for being impure.
Southern Beale
Is he running as a Democrat or a Republican? He’d probably win the Republican nomination.
gbear
You say that like it’s a good thing.
Betty Cracker
@the Conster: Yoooodge, very classy and perhaps stuffed with hair reclaimed from shower drains. (It’s my theory that Trump keeps marrying long-haired blondes because he fashions their shower-drain leavings into a homemade toupee.)
Kerry Reid
Born Losing
Gin & Tonic
@the Conster: Posted this last night, not sure people believed me. There’s a line of men’s cologne called “SUCCESS by Donald Trump.” Really. I wonder if we will live long enough to see the logical next line.
raven
@srv: Anti-war motherfucking dying ass. You are always stupid but that takes the cake.
Suzanne
I cannot say I feel inspired. Well, I love me some Bernie, but at this point, I am Ready for Hillary.
BlueNC
@the Conster: And had a VERY weird mattress top.
trollhattan
Time for another bout of eleventy-dimensional chess, from the master. Per Chait:
Taking his overtime initiative to Wisconsin is bloody brilliant.
Mike in NC
Webb is much too thin-skinned for politics, so he’ll probably drop out before anybody knows he’s even running.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Im gonna go ahead and say August shall not pass, as Ian McKellan might say, without a story about how odd it is for a presidential candidate to take a two week (or more) vacation (I’m gonna guess Montana) while running for President, September will bring stories of low fund-raising, October no scheduled campaign events, November ‘background’ stories about his frustration with Democrats afraid of disagreement and different points of view, December colder weather and the Peanuts Christmas special, and January a withdrawal speech, maybe just a statement, that will register a 3 out of 10 on the scale of “Fuck me? Well, fuck you, you losers!” bitterness, where Joe Lieberman is a ten and John McCain is 11,674. Next August a just-before-prime-time speaking spot on day 2 of the Convention, which will be noted for its grudging endorsement of Hillary Clinton. (ETA:) which Chuck Todd will agree with Mika and Joe could signal trouble for HRC with real Americans I mean white male voters.
beltane
Yes, there is a Donald Trump cologne: http://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Trump/Success-13419.html
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: I remember during the Clinton vs. Obama primary when Obama told a newspaper editor he wanted to be a transformative president in the mold of Reagan. Of course, the PUMAs all lost their shit — Obama wants to be the new Reagan!
But of course he meant that he wanted to push the country in a new direction like Reagan did — not the same direction. And if the Democrats can hang onto the White House in 2016, make some progress in Congress, etc., damn if Obama won’t be well on his way to being as consequential in a good direction as Reagan was in the opposite way.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Ocean State Job Lot! (Although I don’t think they carry furniture.)
Belafon
@trollhattan: About the only think I would argue with Chait about is that unless Obama says it explicitly, I doubt he cares whether it’s Clinton or Sanders, as long as it’s one of them.
the Conster
@efgoldman:
Can’t imagine bringing anything to do with Trump… into my home! where my children sleep! [[in a Michael Corleone shout]]
I don’t think I could sleep on something named Trump. Fucking creepy in every way.
Belafon
The Democrats have a Socialist, two Democrats, a Dixicrat, and a Republican. We don’t even need the other primary.
MomSense
On TWIB the other day Elon called the Republican candidates batman villains which is a perfect description. I think Webb would fit right in with that group.
the Conster
@Betty Cracker:
I remember that PUMA purity shit show when Obama said that. I knew exactly what he meant, but OMG those professional emo self cutters complaining about that made me want to track each one down personally and back my car over them.
catclub
@trollhattan:
Obama had his sights on Romney throughout the primaries. This is something that Walker should point out.
@Belafon:
And they win. If there is doubt on that, he would favor the one who is more likely to win.
schrodinger's cat
Jim Webb’s blog post,TL:DR, plus it has no kittehs, like my latest post on the austerity cat and Greece.
ETA: How many times does he mention Scots-Irish?
JustRuss
@Aaron Morrow: Too wordy. I suggest: Webb!
If he’s going to run as a pseudo-Republican anyway, why not?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The evidence for it came more than a decade earlier (was it the ’95 SOTU?) when Bubba got up and said, “The era. Of Big Government. Is over!”
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Good point. If HW loses then the Reagan revolution screeches to an immediate halt instead of lurching on another four years. Since we’ve no right to presume either house in congress flips in ’16, keeping the WH is not negotiable.
BTW, when Reagan comes up in conversation it’s usually some sepia-tinted fond recollection and my standard retort is, “You mean the criminal organization known as the Reagan administration?” I’m very popular.
Capt Seaweed
He’s no Bernie….
Davis X. Machina
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s like doing a crossword:
14 Across: White (10 letters)
BillinGlendaleCA
@the Conster: You forgot Claaassy.
ETA: Betty, as usual, got there first.
Gravenstone
@trollhattan:
Indeed, because Snotty Walker has made his political bones by fucking over workers (particularly unionized) here. That’s a definite shot across the bow, as it were.
TG Chicago
@Hunter Gathers:
Webb even has a picture of himself shaking hands with Reagan on the site’s biography page. Yeesh.
Does this put Webb in the lead to be the VP on Hillary’s ticket?
boatboy_srq
@srv: Given how b#tsh!t-crazy the GOTea has become, this may not necessarily be an asset.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Hunter Gathers:
As did KThug.
cahuenga
Too bad he’s on the fence about pardoning Manson. That’s a real deal killer.
piratedan
I’ll be succinct, fuck you Jim Webb.
jl
I thought Webb said last week, after his latest Dukes of Hazard level statements on ‘white culture’ that he was not planning on running.
Well, I guess Chaffee won’t have to worry about being last in the Dem primary anymore.
FlipYrWhig
@TG Chicago: Not a chance. I think that’s what O’Malley is angling for: VP and Heir Apparent.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: I think that was true in ’08, when he wasn’t so bothered by Hillary being part of a royal family, but I guess running mates have gotten past worst, voodoo economics springs to mind.
I can’t imagine Webb as Veep. Somebody with his ego wouldn’t want it, and I think even the brain trust that vetted Sarah Palin would see him as a loose cannon.
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If HRC in her wildest dreams considers Webb for VP, she is lost in peak traingularity.
Redshift
@jl: Nah, everybody else said he wasn’t running after that.
I skimmed thorough his post. Webb actually isn’t all bad, especially on domestic policy. He doesn’t really have much in common with Republicans (unless you go back to Eisenhower), and his positions on economic fairness, criminal justice, infrastructure, etc. are fine to excellent.
On foreign policy, he could fit in on Fox News (though as a Fox News Democrat, not wingnut screecher.) He declares that he wouldn’t sign any agreement with Iran that would let them get nuclear weapons, implying without saying that Obama’s proposal would, a belief that’s popular among wingnuts even though it’s completely false.
And there’s his obsession with the noble Scots-Irish, and his resulting willful blindness to racism.
So yeah, he’d be dreadful as a Democratic candidate or as president. But not quite as dreadful as people are making him out to be.
jl
@Redshift: I think Webb would be dreadful at winning general elections in current political climate, so that is my main concern. On many issues he is pretty good, but on some critical ones he is mess in terms of either policy or electability, or both.
Kerry Reid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I also don’t see what he’d add to the ticket. If we learned nothing else from the Obama elections, it should be that losing the white working-class Southern male vote really isn’t a deal breaker. After his tone-deaf BS on the rebel flag, Webb would be likely to LOSE HRC as many votes as she’d gain. I suspect she will do better with white working-class women than Obama did no matter who her running mate is. So she may as well pick Julian Castro or someone else who breaks the mold.
And yeah, I think Webb has a terrible temperament for VP. That is one of the things I admired about Biden right out of the box in 2008 — he knew he had more years and foreign policy experience than Obama, and that was why he was on the ticket, but he didn’t condescend. He’s been pretty great over all and I think those are going to be tough shoes to fill. Webb just oozes with resentment. In the noble tradition of his petty-minded Albion’s Seed Borderer forebears.
Fair Economist
@Redshift: Yeah, Webb seems like somebody to disagree with, not to mock.
Elizabelle
Maybe Webb is interested in a cabinet position?
I appreciated his defeating George Felix (Macaca) Allen for Senate. And then Webb stood down after one term, and we got Tim Kaine, who again defeated George Allen.
So Virginia’s been pretty good for Democratic senators lately. But I will pass on Webb as a presidential candidate.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: I hope Webb doesn’t even get a cabinet position. He’s wrong on so many things, and I am singularly unimpressed by his attitudes toward women. I don’t think he’s even worth seriously discussing as a candidate.
WaterGirl
Of all the non-laughable choices, I’d like to see Joe Biden as president and O’Malley as his VP.
schrodinger's cat
Your title for the earlier is even more appropriate for this one,
Rich (In Name Only) in Reno
And somewhere in the bowels of the DNC, the brain in a beaker that blessed us with Joe Lieberman as the VP candidate in 2000 just came back to life and beamed out “Say, here’s an idea…”.
TG Chicago
@Kerry Reid: I agree that Webb doesn’t help HRC’s ticket. I just fear that she and her crack team of political consultants will think otherwise.
SiubhanDuinne
Ugly, boring format, impossible to read. At the very least, he needs to define his paragraphs better, either by indentation or (preferably) by double line breaks.
All the photos are on the right-hand side of the page, causing the whole thing to list to starboard (perhaps it’s a subliminal semiotic shoutout to conservatives, although I don’t think he’s that subtle).
Maybe there are some people who have the patience to wade through that mess. I ain’t among them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
I believe you. I heard a mention of it on NPR today, and they wouldn’t lie about something like that.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@TG Chicago:
There is no idea bad enough that Clinton would not embrace.
Jeffro
@efgoldman: No way. It’ll be another woman (Kirsten Gillibrand, please pick up the white phone)
Jeffro
@FlipYrWhig: O’Malley doesn’t add anything to a HRC ticket. Veep picks really aren’t the dial-movers that most folks (myself included) think that they are, but O’Malley doesn’t even give the dial a twinge. Hillary will pick another accomplished woman or an accomplished Hispanic elected official (like Julian Castro)
Splitting Image
@raven:
A crowning moment of awesome for Tom Petty. He is one of the good ones.
Kerry Reid
@TG Chicago: I don’t know why they would. Webb doesn’t seem all that comfortable with women, period, and I don’t think Hillary, who prizes loyalty sometimes to a fault, would have someone she doesn’t trust in that slot.
Elie
@Betty Cracker:
LOL!!! you win the award for funniest (and probably truest) comment about trump…