Look, I’m sorry about this, but Jim Webb is no more going to be the Democratic nominee next year than Rick Santorum is going to be the Republican candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Indeed Santorum, who has no chance, has a better chance than Webb of succeeding Barack Obama.
Which is annoying, I know, because it means the search for a pundit-worthy alternative to Hillary Clinton goes on. Webb, the Marine Corps veteran, novelist, historian and one-term Virginia Senator, is neither the first nor the last candidate to inspire could-he-really journalistic prayers for a competitive contest for the Democratic nomination.
It is true that Webb’s biography is the kind of thing you find in the movies and it is also true that he speaks to – or at least represents – a tradition and a constituency that’s not a large part of the modern Democratic party. Nevertheless, if he runs, he loses.
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