Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb seeks Democratic nomation for president | NOLA

Jim Webb announced Thursday he will run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. Rather than appear in a YouTube video or march into his old high school to break the news, he posted a letter on webb2016.com that tops out at more than 2,000 words but has one curious omission: Webb never comes out and says that he is seeking the nomination of the Democratic party. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and ex- Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, in many ways his r￩sum￩ is best suited to a third-party run because of his independent streak.

“I understand the odds, particularly in today’s political climate where fair debate is so often drowned out by huge sums of money”, he wrote.

A ex- Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum announced his second presidential bid on May 27.

Webb did not mention either Clinton by name in that speech and has generally refrained from attacking her, including in an interview with The Des Moines Register editorial board in the early-voting state of Iowa on June 16.

Webb’s opposition to the Iraq War – his son Jimmy served in the war – played a central role in his surprise Senate election in 2006 against Republican Sen.

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.

“The issue before us is not simply whether the United States should end the regime of Saddam Hussein, but whether we as a nation are prepared to physically occupy territory in the Middle East for the next 30 to 50 years”, Webb argued in a Washington Post op-ed September 4, 2002.

He also reminded voters that he has spent his “entire life in and around the American military”. He served in the US Marine Corps and was awarded two Purple Hearts and several other distinctions in the Vietnam War.

The National Journal’s Bob Moser once described Mr Webb’s politics as combining “Elizabeth Warren’s passion for economic justice with Rand Paul’s itch to reinvent foreign policy”.

“There is a big tendency among a lot of Democratic leaders to feed some raw meat to the public on smaller issues that excite them, like the minimum wage, but don’t really address the larger problem”, Webb said. Webb has four grown children of his own from two previous marriages. After serving as an assistant secretary of defense, he became secretary of the Navy in 1987 under President Ronald Reagan.

“Jim Webb is George Allen’s worst nightmare: a war hero and a Reagan appointee who holds moderate positions…” His wife, Hong Le Webb, an attorney, was born in Vietnam.

Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.