Jim Webb, John McCain, and the politics of masculine projection
http://boztopia.com/?p=133Dick Cheney, FISA, George Allen, GI Bill, Jim Webb, Kathy G., Lowell Feld, Matthew Yglesias, Mudcat Saunders, Raising Kaine, Senate, spying, surveillance, telecom immunity, warrantless wiretappinghttp://boztopia.com/?p=133#comments
For those of you who don’t follow presidential political byplay, there has been a groundswell of support for Obama to choose Virginia senator Jim Webb as his running mate. This has been hugely boosted by Virginia progressive blog Raising Kaine (they’ve even got a petition!), and supported by such prominent blogerati as Spencer “Attackerman” Ackerman.
The idea here is that Webb can balance every perceived weakness Obama has-he brings national security and military experience to the table, he’s a moderate Democrat representing a still-very-red-but-turning-purple-like-a-bruise Virginia, and he’s a tough, scrappy, tell-it-like-it-should-be populist fellow that would, in theory, counterbalance both Obama’s poised eloquence and his apparent heritage as one of them thar edjimacated folk. The problem is that Webb comes with his own share of weaknesses-weaknesses that are being glossed over by a salivating corps of bloggers in love with Webb’s manly military cred. In point of fact, it reminds me very much of how so many people get hot flashes over John McCain, for similar reasons.
Read the rest of this entry »
For those of you who don’t follow presidential political byplay, there has been a groundswell of support for Obama to choose Virginia senator Jim Webb as his running mate. This has been hugely boosted by Virginia progressive blog Raising Kaine (they’ve even got a petition!), and supported by such prominent blogerati as Spencer “Attackerman” Ackerman.
The idea here is that Webb can balance every perceived weakness Obama has-he brings national security and military experience to the table, he’s a moderate Democrat representing a still-very-red-but-turning-purple-like-a-bruise Virginia, and he’s a tough, scrappy, tell-it-like-it-should-be populist fellow that would, in theory, counterbalance both Obama’s poised eloquence and his apparent heritage as one of them thar edjimacated folk. The problem is that Webb comes with his own share of weaknesses-weaknesses that are being glossed over by a salivating corps of bloggers in love with Webb’s manly military cred. In point of fact, it reminds me very much of how so many people get hot flashes over John McCain, for similar reasons.
Read the rest of this entry »