I enjoyed reading it, especially since it gave some insight into Senator Webb's response to the Va Tech tragedy and also into his motivations for running for the Senate.  He's doing a great job and deserves a lot of credit for forsaking his comfortable and very private writer's life for the public forum. 

This has been said over and over again but it is worth repeating. The Webb Way is the way for the Democratic party to get back to where we need to be. We have lost because we have not lived up to those principles of economic fairness.

My god but I wish more of the elitist dems would see that. We need the guys in hardhats and women working to support a family in pictures of the democratic party not the people their own little axe to grind or cause to push.

economic fairness is the most inclusive message we can possibly push. Thank God for Jim Webb. he has the balls to say it to the president himself.

Even my Republican family members and arch-conservative former neighbors from my childhood "redneck" neighborhood would find Webb very easy to get along with.  They may not want to vote for him due to that D after his name, but they sure as hell have no complaint about his basic persona.  Someday I think most of them are going to vote for him when it comes time for re-election. 

And it is possible to see him as Obama VP now. He is fully qualified, having served as Sec. of the Navy.

Not that he's not fully (too) qualified to be anyone's VP, but I just can't see him being second fiddle to Obama (or Hillary, or Edwards).  He's not a #2 kind of guy and his powerful voice would be so tamped down as VP.  This man is a champion of the little guy with real ideas and the will to see them through.  Somehow, that role doesn't feel right for him.

It was Jim Webb's populism that got me on board from the get go.  His message is the one that can win for the Democratic Party and not only in Virginia.

I so wish I could have voted for the best Senator in all Congress.  Webb is the man!  Even some of my coworkers up here in PA think the world of him!

Matusleo

Ut Prosim

The Webb story is a great story. I really think they should make a movie about his run for the Senate. It would be terrific. It would be a combination of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and the Abe Lincoln story (Does that make sense?).

His whole life is the stuff of novels. Its no wonder he's a writer.

I'll give you a bye on the Emmy Award for Journalism and the screenplays, but .. . ... .

Shame! Shame! Shame!  Ryan Lizza!!

I could find nothing in your piece about James Webb's 6 marvelous best-selling novels including "Fields of Fire", considered by many as the best of Vietnam fiction.

Now, everyone who hasn't read at least one raise your hand!

Hmm, just as I thought............

"...he said things that Democrats actually believe-or used to believe-but during the Bush years have been too scared to say. His victory became a case study in how Democrats could be."

A great story -- thanks for the link!

Great article, but I'm not so sure how I feel about all this V.P. talk and Webb.

It may be that I'm selfish, and want to keep our Democratic Senator--he just got to the U.S. Senate, for Heaven's sake!--but I really don't see Webb as V.P. material. I mean, a V.P. has traditionally been a cheerleader-type (no dispresepct intended, honestly!) a good campaigner, and someone who doesn't mind taking the back seat. This just does not describe Jim Webb at all.

I don't think he'd be very happy as a V.P. And he would hate the campaigning part.

OTOH, it is kind of exciting thinking of our own Jim Webb as Vice-President. And I have no doubt he's up to the task of BEING if not RUNNING.

Who would take him on, I wonder? I'm thinking too many of the front-runners would be leery of his, shall we say, forthrightness. And they may fear ending up in his shadow.