Could it be that there are a LOT of Allen voters out there who are still incredibly bitter about the election? Perhaps the Macaca incident reveals that there are a lot of Republican Men who can never forgive the Webb campaign for revealing the inherent disdain they have for some of our neighbors who don't look like them.

I think there is a lot of residual bitterness, and Webb won't get much above 55% percent for a long time.

I can see where Webb would enjoy more support in the southeastern part of the state with its large population of current and retired military.  His populist message also resonates with the older voters who remember the heyday of unionized labor when a person could expect to raise a family on a 9 to 5 salary with guaranteed benefits like a pension and health care.  Today's younger service industry workers with their two or three part time jobs have no clue what it's like to have a 40 hour work week with benefits.  Most of the ones I know are walking the tightrope without a net - no health care insurance, no disability coverage, no life insurance, no pension benefits - and seem to think that's just the way things are.  

I am not surprised at Webb's popularity among women.  His message is very attractive to women, particularly his emphasis on the need to provide for our military, the dwell time amendment, health care, and prison reform.  For a guy who's been accused of not liking women he actually interacts extremely well with them.  I've seen him in person several times, and when women approach him he doesn't do that thing so many sexist men do - looking past the woman for a guy to talk to or nodding up and down with a vacant-eyed expression - on the contrary, he listens quite intently and gives full attention.  Women are into body language.  They can tell when a man's paying attention and when he does, he'll get credit for it.  As for Webb's lack of popularity among some Virginia men, it seems to me that Allen's campaign was more successful with them than it was with women.  I'm still running into men who think Webb has "lost his nerve" because of his stance on the war.  It's just taking time for the real Jim Webb to overtake the myth created by the Allen campaign.  

Of course, central and western Virginia has a lot people of a strongly religious bent.  Many of them still remember that Allen's campaign told them Webb wrote pornographic novels.  As for the canards about Webb's novels, having finished off the last one last week, I have to say that the Allen campaigns "samples" of Webb's "pornographic writings" were in fact about the only sexual references in all of his writings with the exception of Fields of Fire, which contained a lot of graphic stuff because it was about the dehumanization of young men at war (duh!).  No wonder he got so hot over the pornography charge.  

Webb still does not have a good reputation on constituent services, whether deserved or not. Responses from his office are too often non-existent or slow, and apparently seem amateurish and disconnected when they do occur. When will his office get up to speed, able to respond with thoughtful replies that directly answer the constituent's comments? Even veterans have complained, of all people (so I hear). Good constituent services have saved many an otherwise poor legislator at the polls later, think what it could do for a good legislator. Perception is everything in this sort of thing.

Amen to that.

I write a consumer column here in Charlottesville, and one week I stumbled upon a column about my personal experiences in trying to contact both Warner's and Webb's offices. While neither office performed particularly well, Warner's office at least addressed the issue of non-responsiveness when I called them on it, even though they guy is retiring. Webb's office, on the other hand, failed to return a call to me about why his office failed to return calls.

When I've called Webb's office on other stories, I have not had a single call returned.

Look, it's not like I'm an influential reporter or that anyone does or should care about what I have to say or write, but it is a sloppy operation on the part of Webb to simply not respond.

I think Jim Webb has been really great on a lot of issues, particularly the war, where his personal story provides him with unique credibility. and he has really stood up to GOP bullying that all to often seems to intimidate Democrats on the Hill.

But this kind of behavior will come back to bite him because it shows disrespect for the people who elected him. And I think Webb is particularly vulnerable. He didn't win his election because voters really liked him, but because Allen proved himself to be a racist bufoon.

All that said, it could become academic, because I think Webb will get serious VP consideration regardless of who wins the Democratic primary, but that's another thread...

Alan