CHANNELING WEBB: Product or Leader in ‘08?
24 January 2007 12:11 pm by Taylor Marsh
CHANNELING WEBB: Product or Leader in \’08?
Stoller is asking,
Why can\’t our \’08 candidates talk like Webb?
Our \’08 candidates can\’t do what James Webb did last night because Webb doesn\’t care
what anyone thinks. They are vying for Mr. or Mrs. Congeniality.
Webb is following his heart, while our candidates are trying to pass the Procter
and Gamble sniff test.
Clinton, Obama, etc. have calculated what they\’ll look like if they come out
and take money away from funding the escalation and decided image is more important
than substance. They\’re all stuck in Vietnam mentality, not realizing Iraq isn\’t
Vietnam where the escalation is concerned. They don\’t want to be left holding
the blame, either.
But the bottom line is that most of our candidates for \’08
are not leaders. They are products. Webb isn\’t a product. He is a leader.
The other obvious issue is that you can be on all the committees you want and
hold all the meetings you want, travel to Iraq any time you want, but there is no substitute for a soldier who\’s
been in war and knows what it means when the war we\’re in has gone bad. He or
she can see it in their mind\’s eye and know the importance of stopping the carnage.
Our candidates are auditioning for the part of president, thinking about themselves
first. Webb has nothing to lose and isn\’t trying to win a national beauty contest.
He\’s just trying to get his son home before he gets killed.
I think we all have to go after our candidates hard on their spineless rhetoric
on Iraq. No one is worse on Iraq than Senator Inevitable, Hillary Clinton. She
talks about our troops not having the right equipment, but then won\’t commit
to using the power of the purse to force an end to escalation, as well as force
the issue on redeployment. God forbid Senator Clinton would lead and stick her
neck out. Not her. She\’s too busy vying for Miss America, the post middle aged presidential
version. Her idea about cutting funding for the Maliki government is even worse.
Senator Obama is not fully credible on Iraq, but he\’s still better than Clinton.
However, he still hasn\’t committed to using the power of the purse against the
war. However, he did support Dodd\’s bill, so that\’s something.
When Senator Chuck Hagel is sounding stronger on Iraq than the leading or inevitable Democratic \’08 contenders we\’ve got a big credibility problem brewing.
At some point leading bloggers have to decide to do the right thing on Iraq, especially when
it comes to calling out our candidates, and then let \’08 fall where it may.
Otherwise, we\’re just the blogger version of them.
James Webb isn\’t worried about \’08. James Webb knows what to do and is ready
to lead to get the job done. So far, when it comes to the serious \’08 contenders,
only Edwards is passing the leadership test
on Iraq. He deserves our unqualified support until that changes.
