For Obama's vice presidential ticket, the buzz is on Webb

WASHINGTON

The end of the long struggle for the Democratic presidential nomination has left activists, provocateurs, talking heads, gossipmongers, and even the much-maligned mainstream media with time and space to fill until the fall campaign.

And a good chunk of them are filling it with Jim Webb.

From the Drudge Report to the Huffington Post, Newsmax to The New Republic, there is speculation about Virginia's junior senator and his prospects to become Barack Obama's running mate.

On the web site Donklephant, ("Surprisingly Reasonable," according to its masthead) writer Jennn Fusion last week had this answer to the question "Who is Jim Webb?"

"He's not afraid to bite, if provoked - even if the provoker is President Bush himself! He likes his guns and he's a good Irish Catholic, which may be how he won over Virginia - a traditionally Republican state."

Over at Hot Air, which calls itself "the world's first full-service conservative Internet broadcast network," a headline writer tagged Webb as "Obama's Rebel Yeller."

And on Crikey, an "independent online media service" based in Melbourne, Australia - that's right, Australia - land-down-under readers learned that Webb and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton are "riding high as the favourites for the nominee."

Webb "combines a strong anti-war position with the military experience of being Secretary of the Navy," Crikey blogger Possum Comitatus explained. "He's a popular Senator in a swing State that has strong appeal to working class males and he brings with him high levels of support and regard from military families - an important demographic for any election campaign with a large focus on Iraq."

All this, and much, much, much more, for a man not yet 18 months into his first elective office. When asked, Webb simply laughs off suggestions he wants to move up.

"It's the Internet," said Larry Sabato, the veteran University of Virginia professor long seen by reporters as a go-to guy for insights on state and national politics.

Webb is a particular favorite of liberals online, Sabato said, a powerful symbol whom they helped lift from obscurity in 2006 and who is now challenging the Democratic Party to return to its roots as the tribune of the working class. "He's so blunt-spoken, just like they are," Sabato said.

Sabato has a huge reputation and a stack of thoughtful books and essays to show for his decades of study of all things political. However, he and other media and academic "mentioners" who once dominated the arcane world of vice presidential speculation are being all but drowned out this year.

The numbers tell the story. A Google news search last week for "Jim Webb and running mate," produced 1,717 hits. A "Jim Webb and vice president" query brought 2,413 responses.

Webb's totals eclipsed those of every other Democratic prospect, save Clinton, a special case thanks to her quest for the top spot and status as a former first lady.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, an old Obama friend who also figures in the vice presidential speculation, got 1,238 hits on a "running mate" search, while former governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner got 173.

The talk produces more talk, amplified worldwide now by search engines and blogs. It also helps that Webb's new book, "A Time to Fight," made the cover of the New York Review of Books last week. References to the review quickly sprouted on a variety of conservative and liberal web sites.

The book's timing was his publisher's idea, Webb has said, but its release and his salesmanship on its behalf on mainstream chat shows such as "Meet the Press" and cable's popular "The Daily Show" has produced still more online commentary, plus "You Tube" clips to be replayed and re circulated.

Because of the blogosphere, "this political campaign season has just been many decibels louder," said George Mason University's Mark Rozell, another veteran campaign analyst. "There is just so much more speculation about every nuance of the campaign."

Rozell was vacationing out of state with his family last week but found that the vice presidential buzz about Webb had even reached Myrtle Beach. "I'm surfing channels, and it's everywhere," he said. "You really can't get away from it."

Of course "it doesn't mean anything," said Gerald Pomper, a political scientist at Rutgers University. "What's really happening is happening offstage."

Obama and Republican John McCain are sorting through potential candidates from on and off the much-discussed lists and reaching their own conclusions, he said.

Vice presidents are rarely picked based "on polls of unrepresentative people, and people on the Internet are very unrepresentative," Pomper said. "People on the Internet are the worst people you'd want to listen to."

Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com