In an interview on Monday's Diane Rehm Show to promote his new book I Heard My Country Calling, former Senator Jim Webb, after prodding by a couple callers, said that he was mulling a run for President in 2016. This puts him in the company of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, MD Gov. Martin O'Malley, and former MT Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Democrats know to be considering a run to replace Barack Obama.
As he told the Washington Post yesterday: “Let me clarify it…I'm not saying I’m not” running for president but added that such a non-denial is often interpreted as more of a declaration than it is. He called it “kind of . . . a default answer.”
The relevant transcript:
Caller Louise: Thank you. I want you to know, sir, that I have admired you for a long time. I used to leave little messages on your answer machine when you was in the Senate, whenever you did wonderful things for the veterans. But—and, of course, I want you to run for president, but I don't know. I talk about it a lot around here anyhow. I'm taught—I was born and raised in Norfolk, Va., which, you know, the military is everything there. And I taught children, when I was teaching in 5th and 6th grade, whose parents were at the college there, the war college there.
…
Caller Laz: Hey, I just—first I want to say that I think it was your—one or two callers ago who mentioned the presidential run. I just want to sort of underscore that and put my camp on that as a citizen. I also wanted to know as—thank you for your service in the military. And as a public servant, what did you walk away from the Senate—what were your most proudest (sic) moments serving your constituents? And perhaps share with us what—maybe what are your most frustrating or—yeah, one of your most frustrating experiences in the Senate. And I'll take my answer off the air.
…
Guest Host Susan Page: We've had two callers, Laz and Louise, say they hope you run for president. Would you consider doing that? Is that something that you think, maybe that'll be in my future?
Sen. Webb: We're—Hong and I—my wife and I were just thinking about what to do next. And I care a lot about where the country is, and we'll be sorting that out.
Guest Host Susan Page: So that, I would say, is not a denial of interest in running for president. In fact, that would be, I think, (word?) seen as—given the question I'd asked, an expression of interest in the possibility of running for president.
Sen. Webb: Well, if you look at how I ran for the Senate, you know, I announced nine months to the day before the election with no money and no campaign staff. When I—it takes me a while to decide things. And I haven't—I'm not going to say one way or the other really.
Guest Host Susan Page: What about the idea of being vice president?
Sen. Webb: No. I had some discussions in 2008 about that, and I just really don't care to—you know, just it wouldn't be a good fit for me.
…
Guest Host Susan Page: So if you were going to run for president, you mentioned before that Larry Sabato said you were pretty apolitical. In fact, there were any number of commentary when you ran for the Senate that you seemed to not be in some ways that interested in getting elected. I think that you were asked once, why did you want to be in the Senate? And you said, well, it wouldn't be that big a deal one way or the other or some kind of (word?) like that.
Sen. Webb: I don't think anybody ever—I never said that. And, trust me, once I stepped forward and said that I was running, I always believed that I could win. When I started, we were 33 points behind an individual who had just gotten the highest number of votes for president at the conservative political action conference…George Allen who was the incumbent at the time. So I wouldn't have gone through all of the—you know, the difficulties of campaigning if I thought I was—or if I was indifferent or if I thought that I was certainly going to lose. The most important thing to me right now is rejoining the debate in this country on where we need to go in terms of our national interest strategically.
Webb then went into a bunch of hawkish statements on foreign policy.
I think that—you know, when people say that we have become more isolationist, I think—I don't think we've become more isolationists. I think we have become frustrated because people can't see a clear expression of what our national security interests are, which would calm a lot of people down in terms of what we're doing around the world. And I think that same principle applies here at home.
The thing that concerns me the most is that we are kind of bouncing from issue to issue without a clear articulation of what the national security interest of the United States actually is. And when you do that—and I just had a dinner last week with the foreign minister from Singapore and some other people in his entourage. And there were some concerns expressed about, is the United States going to remain a viable ally in Pacific Asia, something I worked on for many, many years.
The ascension that you're seeing now in the Spratly Islands, the Paracels, the Senkakus up around Japan, I've been writing about them and talking about them for years. And my comment to him was the same that I'll make to you, and that is, if you have a clear expression of the national interest in not only your allies, but your potential adversaries will be able to adjust and know clearly what—you know, what you're going to do or not do. And we don't have that.
Webb running to Hillary's right someone, not named Warren, on her left will help Hillary seem more reasonable.