I called for Webb as running mate two months ago. He just solves a huge number of problems for Obama, and puts into play not only VA but also NC, quite likely. And helps out big time in PA and OH. And the reason he beat Allen in 2006 was that when Allen began to launch the Rovian bullshit, nobody believed it because it was Jim Webb he was trying to paint as a pornographer and some sort of radical, and it just didn't wash.
Plus his veteran's education bill poses a major problem for McCain, who has countered with an alternate bill that gives out considerably less money (which matters, because the cost of education is sky-high and going to get higher) by every measure. It promises less money to a 12-year vet than Webb's would pay to a three-year one.
McCain argues that Webb's bill, but not his, might encourage vets not to re-up in sufficient numbers. This might make some sense if McCain's bill matched Webb's in payouts after a longer elapsed period of time, but it never does. And Webb's doesn't kick in until after three years. If the United States military, which spends as much on defense as all the rest of the world combined, cannot hold enough soldiers so that it must refuse veteran's benefits because it's concerned with losing them after three years, there's a problem here.
McCain is saying, in essence, that we have to withhold benefits because we cannot field enough soldiers unless we do. Hey, maybe there are OTHER ways to get people to enlist, like taking away the tax breaks given to rich civilians who would never even dream of enlisting (but bitch and moan when asked to pay for those who do), and giving the money as enlistment bonuses. If we have no draft, we have to make it worth the while of people to put their asses in danger, and it seems obvious to me that Webb is being more respectful of the volunteer here than McCain, who is in essence trying to keep him by short-changing him on an important benefit.
Finally, I think those of you who weren't around after WWII should know that the GI Bill of Rights, which paid for the educations of millions of WWII vets who could never have afforded it any other way, was one of the greatest pieces of legislation this country ever had. And for you fiscal conservatives, it has been calculated that the higher incomes paid to vets who got college degrees via the GI Bill more than paid for its cost in higher tax receipts. In the long run, this is also an economic stimulus package of the highest order, and it's being given only to the guys who deserve it more than anyone else in the country.
Obama can make this argument, of course, and no doubt will. But Webb, who has a son fighting in Iraq (as does McCain), can make it a lot more effectively.
Since the Democrats control Congress, Webb's bill is far more likely to come to a vote first, which means that unless a compromise is brokered, either McCain will have to oppose it or Bush will have to veto it, or it will be a DEMOCRATIC bill that passes. Won't THAT look nice in places where the military is revered?
Obama-Webb in 2008.
