Bloomberg Politics: Jim Webb Announces Presidential Campaign

Webb won an upset victory against Republican Sen.

While he is likely to be a part of the Democratic presidential debates that will feature Clinton, Sen.

Vowing to bring an outsider’s voice to the 2016 race, he said the USA needed “to shake the hold of these shadow elites on our political process”.

Webb also prescribes an aggressive domestic policy. He supports gun rights and abortion rights, and has expressed deep suspicion about USA intervention in the Middle East. “Jim always plays things close to the vest”, said David “Mudcat” Saunders, the longtime Webb strategist who is helping out the presidential campaign on a volunteer basis.

But he said he “would make it clear to our friends and our potential adversaries that we will retain vigorous relationships with our treaty partners and our allies, and that we will meet and defeat any worldwide terrorist movement that threatens our national security”. The message came in the wake of a bipartisan call to remove the Confederate symbol from the South Carolina state capitol grounds and elsewhere.

Webb will need to raise enough money to mount a viable campaign, something he’s acknowledged will be a challenge in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling that helped super PACs spend millions from corporations, unions and wealthy people. “It should not be used in any way as a political symbol that divides us”. For most black Americans, the history is not that complicated.

Analysts say Webb will try to build his campaign off his vast military experience.

In other words, Americans who are already sick and exhausted of the campaign news and political process stories will be forced to endure another 18 months. In 1964, Webb earned appointment to the United States Naval Academyin Annapolis, Maryland.

The Falls Church-area resident launched an exploratory committee to run for president back in November. He warned in 2002 before the war began, “those who are pushing for a unilateral war in Iraq know full well that there is no exit strategy if we invade”.

Webb’s military service in the Vietnam War has infused every aspect of his career: his time on Capitol Hill as a counsel working on veterans’ issues, his novels and stints in journalism and his tenure in the Defense Department.

Webb understandably dislikes the nitty gritty of politics, but his objections have alienated him from some Virginia Democrats, several operatives said.

Jim Webb announced the move not through a lengthy press conference like Donald Trump did, but through a rather lengthy posting on his official website.

By his own admission, Jim Webb is a loner, which is particularly interesting given the fact that he spent six years of his life in the U.S. Senate-an institution often described as “clubby”, where a member is only as good as his ability to schmooze his colleagues.

Webb decided not to run for re-election in 2012 after serving one term in the Senate.