This is my first diary, so apologies if it comes out weird, but let me have the criticism anyway. Only way I can grow right?
I feel I need to preface this all with context so you can judge where all this is coming from and adjust your b.s. lens accordingly.
I attended my first DFA meeting in Arlington today (Monday, March 13th). I went because the speaker was James Webb. I had read up on him and my gut was to work for his campaign, but I thought that this was a good way to see the man to make sure I knew what I was buying.
While I am well read, I am a neophyte in actual grassroots campaigning politics, so I didn't know what to expect. From the meeting, however, I was very impressed with him, and believe that he would be a honest, solid, progressive (yes, progressive) voice for the Democratic Party in the Senate.
I don't have a beef with Harris Miller. From what I can tell, he is a solid guy as well who has done lots for the party organization in VA in catapulting Warner and Kaine to the Governor's mansion. I was going to work for him if he was the only guy going after Allen, but now that I had a choice, for various reasons I was more drawn to Webb. If people box me into a corner, however, and say "you have to support Miller or Webb and tar and feather the other," then yes, I would still support Webb over Miller.
I also am planning on working for Webb very soon, but have not yet, and thus have no more idea of his platform or views than what everyone else has read on the Internet. The following is my recollection of what he said, and is not his campaign's official position on anything, and could very well be wrong or taken out of context. To the extent I am putting words he didn't say in his mouth, I apologize. Maybe if you ask me in a couple weeks, I can give you a real answer.
The following will be out of order of how he spoke, but it will be a rant that makes sense from my perspective.
Let me start off by saying that Webb has the gravitas. You can tell he spent a good chunk of his life in the military and has that no nonsense aura because of it. He's actually not as polished a speaker as I thought he would be being an author and all (but is still quite good), but I didn't mind that and thought that added a candidness and authenticity quality to him because what he said clearly wasn't stump speeches (if it was, the dude should win an Oscar). He clearly was taking in the question and trying to answer it to make it clear to convey what he really felt. He also uses bullshit a lot in "I'm not going to bullshit you," which I like for some odd reason.
He admitted that it was a tough decision both to enter the race and to enter the race as a Democrat. More on the former later, I liked that he addressed the latter point head on without anyone even asking. I can't quite remember all of it, but he likes the Scots-Irish roots of the Jacksonian Democratic Party and the Democrat Party's greater penchant for "fairness." More on that also later.
One big detractor for him was raising the cash needed and the federal regulations you had to navigate to raise it. He really didn't like it, and thought you had to go to one of two extremes to lessen the influence of big money: complete public financing or no restrictions on giving to let the dollars fall where they may. He lamented how a lot of Congressman now didn't attend subcommittee meetings, which he couldn't believe because when he was an aide on one of those subcommittees, I think veterans affairs, because that is where things get done, because they needed call time to raise money. He believed that was one of the reasons earmarks had risen so much, because lobbyists were filling the gap of writing legislation, I guess in the subcommittees. Someone asked if he would pledge not to take money from a lobbyist, and he said he couldn't make such a blanket pledge, but did say that even if he did, he would not sacrifice his independence.
I liked that he also started off by saying there were a lot of things he didn't know, and that if he didn't know he would tell us, which he did. He fielded a question on energy, and as a follow up someone mentioned a host of alternative energy sources and asked for his position on them. He said he didn't know, and asked for materials from the guy so he could read up on them. He also fielded a question on the No Child Left Behind Act, and said he was not familiar with the Act and could not comment. Someone also mentioned about an alternative energy plan that Dick Lugar laid out at the Brookings Institute today, and he said he didn't know about it and would have to read into that.
I also liked that he said he liked discussions, and stayed true to his word. He spoke for like 5-8 minutes on his stump speech, but then answered questions for the balance of his time, which was supposed to be about 20-25 minutes, but stretched a bit beyond that, and I sensed a reluctance at the end to leave, wishing he could answer more questions.
I further liked that he didn't preach to the audience, and told them positions that he believed most of the DFA people in attendance would disagree with. The most prominent ones that come to mind, some of which will be addressed later, are (1) we should look at nuclear power as an alternative to oil, (2) he came off as fairly pro-gun, and (3) he's probably for making the capital gains tax cut permanent.
He had four talking points. The first was opposition to the war in Iraq. I don't think I really need to elaborate on it, and, in any case, he didn't really talk about it that much. He also said, however, while Allen would probably campaign against him by focusing on his Iraq position, one big reason he was running was another of his talking points: fairness. He said America was roughly stratified into thirds, and I think he meant economic thirds, because he went on to say that the top third never had it so good, and he wanted to change that to make it more "fair."
One question asked for his position, more or less, on making Bush's tax cuts permanent. He seemed to say he would be in favor of keeping "broader based" tax cuts permanent, and specifically mentioned capital gains in the context of "most people have a home."
Asked for a domestic spending priority, he mentioned infrastructure, and how once, in the midst of finishing Born Fighting, he got the urge to visit his grandmother's grave in small-town Arkansas, and as he drove around in the backroads there and into Louisiana, how he was concerned how little had changed in the infrastructure of these communities. Someone mentioned how one corollary side benefit of such programs is it creates local jobs, and he recounted a story he heard/saw/read about where a black elderly woman (I think) in the 9th ward in New Orleans (where his wife was "from" after moving out of Vietnam) was trying to rebuild her house, and the only person helping was two relatives, and, invoking the example of the TVA or CCC under Roosevelt, I can't exactly remember which, why we couldn't help/pay these people to rebuild their own homes.
Someone asked about gay rights, and specifically about an equal rights bill which was either going through Congress or the Virginia state legislature. He didn't know the specifics of the bill, but then more or less said that he supported it (for which he gets kudos in my book for giving a pretty straight answer without knowing all of the details) and strongly premised it on the basis that everyone should be treated fairly, and segwayed that into a "government stops at my front door unless there is a good reason" line, which was why he said he was a gun supporter.
Someone then asked a follow-up question on his views on "don't ask, don't tell." He unequivocally said he agreed with the policy, but then said there have always been gays in the military, that there always will be gays in the military, and that everyone knows who they are but its not a big deal, but that he thought in a military environment it was a good policy. In yet another follow-up, the guy asked whether they didn't say the same thing about blacks, and he seemed to struggle with that one, ending with that the adaption of the military would have to be evolutionary, which I took to mean that the military just isn't ready for openly gay people right now, but that attitudes would change. I give him props for trying to give a straight answer, but then acknowledging points that mess with the straight answer.
He said his father lives in southwestern virginia and that he planned to campaign a lot there, which, for people, who aren't familiar with Virginia geography is the Appalachia (and traditionally very red) part of the state, although Warner/Kaine have made inroads recently.
The people there were definitely the deep blues (they tore into a board of elections person who was the next speaker about paper trails on electronic voting machines in a way that, quite frankly, scared a newcomer like me), and he seemed to acknowledge that fact by saying that he hoped to campaign by holding the blue support and then "reaching out" to voters who used to be or should be in the Democratic Party, which I guess would be Scots-Irish vote in Virginia.
He quoted the Chuck Hagel line about how he was elected to represent the people/defend the Constitution, and not to a party/President. It was in the context of how he wanted Congress to be a co-equal branch of government again as it was when he was an aide on a submcommittee in the 70s. I got the impression he likes Chuck, and seemed to say he thought he could work with the Republicans across the aisle - perhaps some on this site might think he is naively hopeful, but maybe he does have the creds to do it and I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
He called health care a basic right (or should be a basic right) of every American, but readily admitted it was an extremely complex issue, especially regarding costs, and that he did not have a specific plan to address it. He said it almost in an apologetic "yes, I know it sounds like a cop-out answer, but that's just the truth" way. He also said that he had been to lots of different schools from being an army brat, I think all public schools, and that he understood the importance of public schools. This was in the context of the infrastructure question.
Anyways, that's all I've got. Hope people like it and the Webb campaign doesn't stick a fork in me for posting this and not let me work on the campaign, but I felt the people should know.