James Webb, the ex-Republican Reagan administration official running for the Democratic nomination in the Virginia senate race has won. Webb had strong netroots support. Now, someone must not have briefed me on this far-left netroots plan to support candidates like Webb. Or… maybe Webb just matched up better against Allen (who is already carpetbombing the place with tv ads, even though he’s supposed to have coasted to re-election) and the netroots supported the more pragmatic candidate.
Not as sexy for the MSM, but certainly more factual.
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Rise Of The “Netroots”
Shorter Peter Beinart
Second the strong view on Webb…former Marine and Reagan SECNAV. Should have lots of appeal in Northern VA. Also, “A Country Such As This” didn’t suck for a young man (me) preparing for military service. Barring further research, probably one of a handful of Democrats I’d take on specs…not that I’m a constituant in this race.
Webb will be a strong candidate. Va. is an interesting mix with two strong conservative Democrats being very prominent (Warner and Webb). Be interesting to see what the big issues are between Allen and Webb.
Dugger
Call me an unrepentant liberal then. I personally would rather lose a few races than keep buying the DLC approach of going for ‘electable’ guys like Webb.
Yes, his position on the war was right but his longterm record is very rightwing and he strikes me as the sort of Southern Dem I was happy to kiss bye-bye in the post-Civil Rights Act era.
If the netroots is going to go ‘pragmatic’, and both parties keep moving to the right, I’ll be happy to go Independent, Green, Nader, Perot or anyone else. I will not go gently into that pragmatic Sieg Heil.
OK Kev, good luck to you with that strategy, but you can only ensure purity if you yourself are pure. You might find on the other hand that even we are different liberals. This kind of thinking leads to party purges which worked fine in the USSR but doesn’t work so well in a democracy.