Webb remains neutral in presidential race

BY TYLER WHITLEY
Media General News Service
Published: May 19, 2008

U.S. Sen. Jim Webb said yesterday that he thinks either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton could carry Virginia in the presidential election this fall.

Appearing on the Sunday news show “Meet the Press,“ Webb, D-Va., noted that both won more votes in the Feb. 12 primary in Virginia than did Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

A Democrat has not carried Virginia since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

Obama trounced Clinton in the presidential primary in Virginia. McCain handily won the Republican primary, but he had already locked up the GOP nomination, while Clinton and Obama were still competing for votes, so the Republican turnout was far less than the Democratic turnout.

Obama won 627,000 votes to Clinton’s 347,000. Her total was still nearly 100,000 more than McCain won.

Webb is among the superdelegates who have not committed to either Democratic candidate. He said he remains neutral.

“They would both make very fine presidents,“ Webb said.

Mentioned frequently as a potential vice presidential running mate with the Democratic nominee, Webb said, “I am not interested in doing that” but did not flatly rule out a bid.

“I would highly discourage them if they asked,“ he told moderator Tim Russert.

A former secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan, Webb has made a name for himself as an expert on military security and foreign affairs.

Webb said President Bush’s condemnation of those who would negotiate with Iran “show how out of touch this administration has been with the realities of the region.“

He described the current U.S. military posture in neighboring Iraq as “a classic holding action which is in place so political resolutions can be made.“

What Bush should do is look toward the United States’ diplomatic initiatives with China in the 1970s, “where we had a rogue regime with nukes.“

“By addressing diplomacy while keeping all our other options on the table . . . we were able to bring China into the world community,“ he said.

Webb has written a new book, “A Time to Fight.“ In it, he is critical of fellow Democrats who, he said, since the Vietnam War have become not only the anti-war party but also the anti-military party.

He wrote that the Republican Party “seeks to politicize military service for its own ends.“

“Democrats tended to treat veterans as victims rather than as affirmative figures,“ Webb told Russert. “The Republican Party was the beneficiary of that for a long time.“

Webb said the GI bill that he is proposing, which would increase college education benefits for veterans, could help change that perception.

The benefits would be paid for by increasing taxes on people with incomes of more than $500,000 a year.

While the bill has picked up considerable support in Congress, Bush has threatened to veto it because he said it would encourage military personnel to leave service and not re-enlist.

As for the retention problem, Webb said 70 percent to 75 percent of the ground troops in the Army and Marines leave the service after their three-year tours of duty are up.

Webb said he did not think the Democratic Party would be hurt by its call for removal of combat troops from Iraq.

In his book, Webb referred to himself as the only person in the history of Virginia to be elected to statewide office “with a union card, two Purple Hearts and three tattoos.“

“I can show you two,“ Webb told Russert.

Tyler Whitley is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.