RK ARCHIVE - TNR: "Mad Skill - The Upside of Jim Webb's Anger"

Here's the opening paragraph of Eve's TNR article:
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"In the spring of 2006, Jim Webb was not yet a rising superstar. In fact, he was late getting started and low on cash in his effort to win the Virginia Democratic primary, so an admiring Roanoke circuit clerk named Steve McGraw took pity on him and agreed to put him up when he came to southwestern Virginia to campaign. Webb quickly established himself as the model houseguest, washing everybody's chili bowls and shooting pool with McGraw over a bottle of Maker's Mark bourbon. But a worry gnawed at McGraw: The rumor about Webb was that behind the noble-war-hero facade lay a man who harbored a volatile, prideful, and possibly unmanageable anger. "I kept looking for it," confides McGraw. "He started late, with no money. He told me that during the campaign he was sleeping about four hours a night for five months, and he said, 'I just can't turn my brain off.' ... I kept saying, 'Sooner or later, something's gonna happen.'""
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More below the fold...
Later in her TNR article, Eve Fairbanks writes:
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"...In fact, Webb's behavior since reentering politics suggests that, while he might admire the bellicose personality type, his own temperament just isn't as hot as advertised. A friend, the author Bob Timberg, recalls that the first time he thought Webb had a chance to win the Senate race was when he watched him on "The Colbert Report." "I thought he might kill [Colbert]," Timberg admits. "And he was just fine!" Steve McGraw, the man who hosted Webb during the 2006 campaign, reports that the explosion he was waiting for never came; in fact, he found Webb had an "extremely good sense of humor...""
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At the end of her lengthy TNR article, Fairbanks comes to this conclusion:
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"Thanks to their analogous symbolic roles, Webb and Obama have one more politically important and bizarre similarity: They appeal to the same voters, wine-track Democrats who come out in unprecedented droves to vote for a black man or a hillbilly white because they want their party to be bigger than themselves. While you'd expect Webb to attract poor, rural beer-trackers, in his 2006 Senate race he didn't do any better than the previous Democratic candidate had among Appalachian voters in southwestern Virginia; instead, he was propelled to victory by Northern Virginia suburbanites--Obama's base."

"In the end, if Obama picks Webb to be his running mate, it will probably be more on the basis of their affinity than on Webb's power to win white votes--or Webb's capacity to balance Obama's laid-back vibe with some pugnaciousness. It will be a unity-loving, proud-to-be-black man acknowledging just how much he has in common with an anger-loving, proud-to-be-white one."
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Eve Fairbanks has done her usual superlative job of correctly capturing the character and spirit of Jim Webb, and I'm quoted frequently in the article, so it must be accurate and true...

Comments

Lots of pizzazz ... (j_wyatt - 6/6/2008 6:47:16 PM)

and sizzle.

There was an earlier post today downplaying the upside of an Obama/Webb ticket with the peculiar comment that Jim Webb wasn't known nationally.

Apart from Clinton, who of all the touted possible vp candidates is getting more exposure nationally than Senator Webb?

He's on CBS Sunday Morning and Jon Stewart next week.

Still kicking, "Catz"... (cycle12 - 6/7/2008 9:26:04 AM)

...and thanks so much for the comment and the recommendation!

TNR's Eve Fairbanks is an impressive writer with whom I enjoyed some lengthy telephone and e-mail conversations, and I believe that she quite accurately depicted the real Jim Webb whom we all have gotten to know so well over the past couple of years.

For the immediate future, I'm hoping to be elected at this coming weekend's Virginia Democratic Party state convention as an at-large Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Delegate or not, I'm going to Denver in August - wouldn't dare miss this opportunity to see - and be a part of - history in the making.

See you in Hampton on June 14?

Thanks again!

Steve

Unfortunately, I'm otherwise occupied on June 14th (Catzmaw - 6/8/2008 2:26:14 PM)

although I always appreciate an opportunity to head south. I'm going to have to find another time to get in on some of the campaign. My biggest problem is that I work quite a bit on weekends and have a lot of family obligations. But I'm very psyched about the way Virginia seems to be heading in this campaign, and after watching the strong performances of Tim Kaine and Jim Webb on the Sunday talk shows, and listening to the Roundtable on Stephanopolous, with all the commentators discussing Virginia's three good VP possibilities with a certain amount of awe, I think this state is going to provide the turning point in the election. It's a great time to be a progressive Virginian.

Interesting Piece (buzzbolt - 6/6/2008 7:32:00 PM)

Those who are permanently spring-loaded in the ready-to-rage position have a hard time putting together a resume of accomplishments like Jim Webb's. I think the media expected Webb to be more hostile and have outbursts early and often. Certainly Webb has resentments but how many Georgetown Law School contemporaries lost any teeth over it?

another piece that you might find interesting (teacherken - 6/7/2008 9:43:21 AM)

is the review of his new book in NY Review of Books by Elizabeth Drew, entitled The Jim Webb Story. Let me quote the final two paragraphs:

Webb's roots lie in exactly the area in which Obama has shown his greatest weakness so far-in the Appalachian region. Though both are freshman senators, Webb combines substantial government service with close knowledge of the military and the world. One drawback is Webb's inexperienced staff, which may not be up to the challenges he faces. (Politicians are in part judged by the press and others on the quality of their staffs; word gets around, and the effects usually show.)
Like Obama, Webb offers a fresh approach to politics and stirs an excitement that would provide the ticket with more pizzazz than would some of the more conventional figures whose names are in play. (The thinking of some of Obama's advisers and members of the press reflects the old politics of selecting a running mate by geography, or to appease a particular group-which is not the politics Obama has represented in his campaign.) Anyway, picking a male "surrogate" of Clinton, as some suggest, won't appease the women who are insisting that she be on the ticket. For all the recent talk about selecting Clinton herself, this wouldn't be consistent with Obama's concept of change, and could present all sorts of complications, especially when it comes to governing. Obama hasn't tipped his hand, but it's quite possible that even if Jim Webb isn't chosen for the Democratic ticket this time around, the country will be hearing more of him in the future.

Webb's Staff (cycle12 - 6/8/2008 7:47:24 AM)

Thanks so much, "TK"; I can agree with almost all of Elizabeth Drew's conclusions as quoted above except her comment about "...Webb's inexperienced staff..."

Having gotten to know several of Jim Webb's staff members quite well during his 2006 U. S. Senate campaign and thereafter, I can comfortably and knowledgeably report that they are second to none.

When Jim Webb immediately burst onto the national political scene with his amazing election victory in November, 2006 his staff was challenged from that very first day by extraordinary demands placed upon them due to his high profile.

With Webb's continued high energy and many accomplishments over the past 18 months or so, that workload has only increased since Virginia's senior Senator, John Warner, announced his retirement from the U. S. Senate.

I believe that Jim Webb would be the first to tell you that his staff is up to any task, including continuing to work diligently and tirelessly for and with him if he were to become the Democratic Party's vice-presidential candidate.

As always, time will tell...

Thanks again!

Steve