Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb took the first step toward running for president last night by announcing that "reflecting on numerous political commentaries and listening to many knowledgeable people," he would was forming a presidential exploratory committee.
"We desperately need to fix our country, and to reinforce the values that have sustained us, many of which have fallen by the wayside in the nasty debates of the last several years. I hope you will consider joining me in that effort," said the Vietnam veteran in a video posted on his personal and
exploratory committee website.
The news of a Webb presidential run is not surprising, as the possibility of a run has been rumored for months. In September,
liberal columnist Al Hunt of Bloomberg called Webb "Hillary Clinton's worst nightmare," pointing to his opposition to the Iraq War and his history of taking a "populist, anti-Wall Street stance."
And in the last several weeks, Webb himself has given several clues, most recently re-tweeting on Nov. 10 a
New Yorker article about Hillary Clinton and the drawbacks of being a primary front-runner and the "unknowns" who could challenge her apparent "inevitability," including Webb.
Webb, who also served as assistant secretary of defense and as Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy, sees himself in the challenger role, telling reporter Ryan Lizza that he is "just going to go out and put things on the table in the next four or five months and see if people support us. And if it looks viable, then we’ll do it.”
While Webb's strength is foreign policy and defense, he took a position to Clinton's left by stressing progressive, anti-Wall Street themes of economic and social justice in his videotaped remarks.
He noted that "the inequalities between top and bottom in our country are greater than at any time in the last hundred years" and that in "too many places it has been lost as our economy has changed its structural shape and whole communities have stagnated."
But he also tried to counter the perception that the Democrat Party today is too reliant on government solutions to the nation's problems, saying the party once was a "place where people like these could come not for a handout but for an honest handshake, good full-time jobs, quality education, healthcare they can afford."
As a senator, the Democrat introduced legislation in 2011 to establish a presidential commission to review the nation's criminal justice system, a measure that was eventually rejected by the Senate,
The Huffington Post reported.
Watch the video here
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