T he political adage, “Would that my opponent would write a book,” is a commentary on the risk that any public figure takes in putting his or her life story, or any part of it, in print. Though most such efforts are patently self-serving, they often can be revealing in detrimental ways.
So it was with a mixture of curiosity and titillation that I picked up the latest literary effort of a man who is both politician and professional writer, freshman Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who also is being mentioned as a possible running mate for his Senate colleague Barack Obama.
Presidential candidates often take pen to paper, or nowadays to computer, to showcase themselves. But overtly working to be somebody?s running mate by writing a book is a long shot courtship of a constituency of one, and it?s unlikely that was Webb?s prime purpose.
A presidential nominee nowadays usually makes his choice on his personal knowledge of his running mate, on compatibility both personal and ideological, on matters of geography and so on. Prospects are vetted by the presidential nominee?s friends or political associates, quietly examining them and their backgrounds through interviews.
It?s customary for prospective veep nominees to disavow interest in being asked, saying they “just want to be the best senator (or governor, or whatever) I can be.” Webb is one of this variety this year.
There was a time when the vice presidency was considered such an insignificant post that leading politicians ducked it, but no more.
The job of late has been such a strong route to later presidential nomination that it seldom is turned down. A ready pool of hopefuls is there no matter what they say for the record.
Having noted all this, I report that Jim Webb?s latest book, “A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America,” is a pretty fair if unintentional argument for Obama?s consideration, going beyond the usual recommendations that fill holes in Obama?s own resume.
Webb is, to be sure, a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War and a senator from a usually Republican state in presidential elections, as well as, like Obama, a sharp critic of the Iraq invasion and aftermath.
Incontrast to Obama?s reputation (somewhat watered-down in recent weeks) as a knee-jerk liberal from Harvard Law School, Webb?s discussion of his service in the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan, first as an assistant secretary of defense and later as secretary of the Navy, gives him an unusual bipartisan card to play with voters, military and otherwise.
Also, his self-identity as a former Reagan Democrat could be well-exploited in Obama?s need, demonstrated in this year?s primaries, of a boost among white, blue-collar workers in states where he was soundly whipped by Hillary Clinton.
The book reveals an unusual depth of historical knowledge not always found in politicians, clearly a by-product of his successful career as a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, and his wide travel in his military jobs and service, and as a civilian. Most interesting to me, and not necessarily a political rationale for his choice to be Obama?s running mate, is a late chapter discussing what he calls “the politicization” of the career military “along party lines,” overwhelmingly in the past in Republican ranks.
Webb cites “the virulence of the Vietnam-era antiwar movement” centered in the Democratic Party and which, despite modern-day denials, specifically targeted the military. He writes that “the denigration of the military during that era still resonates,” particularly “the wrongful treatment of our Vietnam veterans [that] has become a part of the American military?s DNA.”
While the American news media blame Richard Nixon “for ostensibly prolonging the war,” he writes, among a larger percentage of those who served in Vietnam “the enduring villain of that era was and remains the Democratic Party.”
This strongly expressed view by a current Democrat but former Republican may not, after all, make him an ideal Obama running mate. But this self-vetting by Webb reveals an admirable candor that in itself is not a bad recommendation for the job.
Jules Witcover, a Baltimore Examiner columnist, is syndicated by Tribune Media Services. He has covered national affairs from Washington, D.C., for more than 50 years and is the author of 11 books, and co-author of five others, on American politics and history.
