Veepstakes

Now that Obama has wrapped up the nomination, the question on the minds of most political junkies is who Obama should choose to be his Vice President. I know this because my email inbox is currently filled of emails from readers asking me who I think Obama should pick.

Among the names that have been thrown about so far, there are a few I find intriguing, including Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana, who I think would fit well with Obama's Western state strategy, his message of change, and his desire to change the image of the Democratic party generally.

The truth, however, is that there is one person who stands out in my mind as being far and away the best choice, and that person is Jim Webb. I've thought this for a long time--as evidenced by this post from January of last year--and I've thought he made the most sense regardless of who ended up winning the nomination.

As the general election nears, its central dynamic is becoming increasingly clear. John McCain is not going to win over swing voters with either his policy positions or his personal charisma. Obama has him handily beat on both counts, particularly in a year like this one where the economy is faltering and a deeply unpopular war rages on. Therefore, the McCain campaign is going to have to rely almost exclusively on an experience-based argument and hope that people's prejudices and fears of the unknown make them hesitant to put the country (and particularly the military) in Obama's hands.

You can already see this dynamic at work. McCain is determined to treat Obama as someone utterly lacking the necessary qualifications to even talk about issues of war. That's why he's challenging him to go to Iraq and bringing up the war constantly, despite the fact that poll after poll show that the majority of America's share Obama's views about the war. It's not about policy; it's about experience. McCain wants to make voters wary of putting the U.S. military under the command of this young guy with a funny name who most of them had never heard of until recently.

This is where Webb comes in. He's the one person out there who has the desire, the personal credibility, and the track record of good judgment to aggressively take McCain to task on this front. Like Obama, Webb was an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq from the very beginning. But unlike Obama, he can easily push back against McCain's experience argument and his claim to exclusive first hand insight into what's happening in Iraq. Webb, after all, is a combat veteran whose own son is currently serving in Iraq. He's also a former Republican and Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan Administration.

But it's not just about his resume. Over the last few years, there has been no more effective advocate of the Obama foreign policy than Webb. His response to Bush's state of the union last year was perfectly delivered; strong, forceful, and convincing. And whenever he appears on Sunday talk shows, he puts on a clinic on how Democrats should talk about foreign policy. In this appearance on Meet the Press last July, he utterly dominated a clearly over-matched Lindsay Graham.

That's exactly the weapon (and shield) that Obama needs against McCain. He needs someone who can say the things he can't, someone who can defend his foreign policy views in a more blunt and aggressive way, and someone with the credentials and experience in military affairs that he lacks.

Moreover, Webb compliments Obama well in other areas. Though he's got plenty of relevant experience, he's relatively new to Washington and can easily run on a platform of change. Like Obama, he was an early and outspoken opponent of the Iraq war (one of the very few). And his status as an ex-Republican also compliments Obama's theme of bipartisanship and moving beyond the old kind of politics.

Choosing Webb might also help Obama overcome, to some degree, his so-called "Appalachian problem." Webb, after all, is from Appalachia and his presence on the tickets seems likely to help bridge that gap.

All of this is secondary, though, to my first point, that Webb is the person Obama needs to help push back against the one potentially effective argument McCain has in his arsenal, the argument that Obama is somehow not ready to be Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Webb will be a huge asset in this regard, someone who is very passionate and well-informed about issues like Iraq and Iran and who has the credibility and the willingness to aggressively respond to any attack that the McCain camp throws Obama's way.

For all I know, Webb doesn't want to be Vice President or Obama's vetting committee will discover something about him that gives them pause. Barring either of those contingencies, however, Webb strikes me as being far and away the best choice for Vice President.