tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post853771487472725029..comments2023-10-24T09:06:30.200-04:00Comments on No More Mister Nice Blog: BAD NEWS FOR THE DEMOCRATS: JIM WEBB WON'T RUN THIRD PARTYSteve M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-35359158745601729202016-02-14T14:58:09.567-05:002016-02-14T14:58:09.567-05:00Strictly anecdotal, but Republicans I know hate We...Strictly anecdotal, but Republicans I know hate Webb for multiple reasons. The single biggest reason was taking out George Allen in 2006, but they also feel he was disloyal to the Reagan administration. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14994450335834554260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-23485453122132979102016-02-12T08:57:39.354-05:002016-02-12T08:57:39.354-05:00Guys like me, Theo, have a bit of an algorithm not...Guys like me, Theo, have a bit of an algorithm not unlike Godwin's: the louder someone talks about 'Nam the less they know about it. I'm not proud of what I did, and you'll neither find me prancing around in a parade or panhandling a street corner. <br /><br />Of all the crimes, the karmonic debt, of the Cheney Administration the worst was dragging back to the surface that which was long buried, opened wounds not healed but not bleeding. That we were spit upon when coming home was a demonstrable myth, that we were spit upon forty years later is not.<br /><br />And continue to be spat upon.Ten Bearshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06594307610015584119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-78674826481134217942016-02-12T07:14:26.039-05:002016-02-12T07:14:26.039-05:00... a guy at least some cultural conservatives rec...<i>... a guy at least some cultural conservatives recognize as a Johnny-come-lately to both conservatism and militarism, particularly given his avoidance of the Vietnam draft</i><br /><br />Really? Perhaps to <i>some</i> conservatives. Having avoided the Vietnam War while praising it is a badge of honor among most conservatives/chickenhawks.Arthur Mervynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17504229544539032232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-86169962892927750112016-02-12T05:08:04.056-05:002016-02-12T05:08:04.056-05:00Won't Bloomberg answer this prayer?Won't Bloomberg answer this prayer?Cirzehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07070125217972397204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-7409889623170764032016-02-11T21:45:24.905-05:002016-02-11T21:45:24.905-05:00Actually a third Republican candidate.Actually a third Republican candidate.Ten Bearshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06594307610015584119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-6584181338926062892016-02-11T20:44:50.714-05:002016-02-11T20:44:50.714-05:00I have plenty of issues with Webb, but there is a ...I have plenty of issues with Webb, but there is a solid lower level beneath which my esteem will not descend: he put paid to the execrable George "Macaca" Allen's political aspirations in 2006. That's a permanent karmic credit as far as I'm concerned.Rand Careagahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04993454654652802173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-75742413988606120722016-02-11T17:56:07.377-05:002016-02-11T17:56:07.377-05:00Okay. I'm 27, so my memory of election madness...Okay. I'm 27, so my memory of election madness doesn't date back as far as some commenters here, but I have to ask: can anyone recall an election cycle as tumultuous as this one at least appears to be?<br /><br />Sure, sure, 2000 gave us the Nader dilemma and the Florida debacle, and Perot made a strong run in '92, but have there been other cases where establishment favorites struggled so much against more fringe candidates? (I don't consider Sanders fringe, but loads of people do, and he's much more to the left than any strong contender in the Dem ranks that made this much of an impression as I can recall.) Are there other cases where there were so many threats of candidates running third party? I don't count Webb in this (obviously), but Trump could very well do it if he winds up feeling he was screwed out of the R nom, and Bloomberg is hinting at it to boot.<br /><br />I know I wasn't around to experience the day-to-day chaos of a lot of elections in the last 40-50 years, but this one feels especially silly. Or maybe I should buckle down and just accept that this is the rest of my life.Orthodoxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16656829847426040632noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-53207478688798874002016-02-11T15:15:31.666-05:002016-02-11T15:15:31.666-05:00I don't know how MUCH of a factor this is, but...I don't know how MUCH of a factor this is, but given Webb's raising, it's got to be one: <br /><br />If you've never read any of Webb's books about war, maybe consider sampling at one. It's pretty okay, if you're into graphic war porn (I didn't quite make it thru the one of his I bought.). He's very strong on descriptions, particularly the pus and shit running out of dying bodies and the sweat and blood splatters that have to be constantly cleaned off arms, ammo and kit in order to get thru a mission and a day alive. He's pretty solid at setting up the sense of tension involved in every mission, regardless if it ends in a firefight, and in the contrast with the assumed, falsely so, safety for rear encampments.<br /><br />But I don't get at all the particular 'dignity' for which his fans buy his books and attend his talks, and even vote for him: his constant efforts to capture some sense of dignity and honor in hopeless, stupid causes. Then, I'm not his faithful audience. That same oeuvre that I like in small chunks, in the right setting, he works right across the var genre, but particularly in bad stupid losing wars, gloriously doomed pointless violence in pursuit of supposed honor, i.e. essentially the Civil War, repeated again and again endlessly. <br /><br />Now, add to those this is not just his living, not just his fortune, not just his ticket, not just his writing niche, but his market: his commercial and related sustenance. One sees all kinds of reasons why Webb expresses his medievalism so publicly: more books sold, more film treatments discussed, more projects invited in on, more sponsored sinecures, more paid speaking engagements, and more Civil War and war porn events. <br /><br />It's not like it seeped into his brain over time - this accords completely with what his thought as naif - but it's been reinforced enough that his brain is pocked with caverns occupied by dead enders.Feud Turgidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05379322096770703017noreply@blogger.com