I voted for Webb, of course, but I've made no secret of my hope he stays in the Senate where he's doing incredibly good work.  

Not a blowout, but definitely a strong lead for Richardson.  Still, Webb made the finals, which isn't too bad considering that a lot of "Kossacks" are not thrilled with him for his FISA vote.  Also, Richardson's kind of a hero right now for endorsing Obama and getting called "Judas" by James Carville...

Then he's in good shape.

He comes in Second Place for the Kossacks, which means he won't piss off the left too much.  And Webb is just the guy Obama needs to court blue-collar voters in PA, OH, and MI.

Webb as VP is starting to look very possible.  As Politico noted, "He's perfect on paper."  The questions are A) would he take it, and B) is his image as a "loose cannon" just too scary for Obama's Campaign team.

n/t

Not to overly belabor this as an admittedly partisan Webb fan, but, as I posted some time ago, Governor Richardson has an inappropriate behavior with women problem that hasn't hurt him in New Mexico, but would be a veritable pinata in a national race.

Other than that, he's a very popular and successful governor in New Mexico and he's certainly got formidable foreign policy credentials.  His voluntary, proactive engagement as a Democratic governor with the North Koreans on nuclear issues was quite remarkable, if not unprecedented.  Unusual for the flat earthers in the Bush regime, his reaching out to North Korea was actually blessed by the White House.

Bill Richardson's probably a worse public speaker than Jim Webb, if that's possible, when it comes to addressing mass assemblages of voters.  He mumbles and strays and thinks out loud and doesn't finish one thought before taking up another.  But Webb is, by far, the better debater within the confines of a one-on-one formal debate.

But in reaching out to the stick-in-the-mud American electorate -- and it's a terrible thing that in 2007 we still have to take this into consideration -- is a Hispanic the right running mate for America's first African-American presidential candidate?

Bottom line, if Richardson gets the nod, he definitely brings good stuff to the ticket.   But not as much good stuff as Jim Webb.  

Thick fingers.

if Obama can manage to incorporate Webb's vision for America into the campaign of hope!!

Much of the Obama campaign could have been lifted from Webb's run ... message wise and I think there is definitely a reason for the two to talk.

Gotta win the next few states so that Team Clinton gets the message ... the new Democratic Party ain't theirs to reign over.

Second place out of 45 candidates and 4 rounds of voting means that Jim Webb is definitely on the netroots' short list. I'm very happy with this result even if Richardson gets first place in the poll.

Personally, I like Richardson for VP as well.

The task for each of us who wants to see Jim Webb as VP is for us to refuse to shut up about it until Obama announces his choice. Shout it out loud as often as possible to keep people online talking about it, which makes journalists continue to put him in their little lists and thus keeps people in the beltway talking about it as well.  Really, what we want is as much mention of Webb for VP in the Washington Post as possible. That way Obama's advisors will constantly be reminded of the idea. It's kinda convoluted, but I think we can truly have some effect.
   

I'm sorry, but I think we worked waaaaaaaaaaaay to hard to get him in the Senate just to have him plucked out from under us after two years. I want him in there at least 2 terms, he's great for Virginia.

I'm with James.  Webb is doing an incredible job in the Senate; I don't think we could ask for anyone better to be trying to set things right, and although I think he'd be a great VP, he can do far more good where he is now.

VP is President of the Senate, when he chooses to exercise that right.

This idea that we'd be 'losing' Jim Webb by his becoming Vice President is just silly. Like every modern Vice President, he'd have a policy portfolio suited to his talents. He'd still be working to straighten out our situation in Iraq and give our combat veterans a fair deal. But he would have the powers of the executive branch at his disposal as well as the ability to author and promote legislation in the Senate.

We'd get a super-charged Jim Webb. He would be serving us more, not less. We would lose nothing.

Hey; does anyone know whether a Vice President, in his capacity as President of the Senate, technically has the right to introduce legislation? Even if it hasn't been done before, could it?

My guess is that Webb would be a powerful VP, relied upon heavily for advice on military, national security, foreign policy, and other matters.

Jack, that's a way of thinking that hadn't occurred to me--I guess I was thinking of the "bucket of warm spit" version of the Vice Presidency.  What I need to remember is that Jim Webb is likely to be effective no matter what he does.

as the Vice President, what we're missing here is that we have seen a skewing of the balance between the three branches of the Constitution.  The VP should straddle the line between the legislative and executive branches, but in the case of Cheney has instead extended tendrils of executive authority into areas which have always been exclusively the province of the Senate.  Think kudzu.  Do we really want an extremely strong Vice President?

Philosophically speaking, I would suggest that it would be better for the country as a whole to leave Webb in the Senate where he can continue his work of restoring some of the balance between the branches while showing the way to an exercise of congressional authority to curb the excesses of the executive.  

Dude, I worked pretty much non-stop from January 2006 through November 2006 to a) draft Jim Webb and b) help elect him, and I don't buy that argument.  The future of this country is what's at stake, and fortunately, Jim Webb understands that probably better than any other American.