Why Senator Jim Webb Should Be Obama's VP

So the question on everyone's mind is, who will Barack Obama pick to be his Vice Presidential running mate for the 2008 presidential election. In Vegas, oddsmakers have named Senator Jim Webb of Virginia the odds on favorite to be selected as VP.

When Barack Obama kicked off his presidential campaign, Virginia was the first state that Obama campaigned in, believing that he can win in Virginia, a state that both Kerry and Gore lost to Bush in 2004 and 2000. Virginia has the upper class suburbs where Obama has flourished and gained many votes and he did very well in Virginia against Hillary Clinton in the primary. Virginia has also been slowly turning into a swing state and has elected a democratic senator and governor for the first time in years. Obama may just be able to take the state's electoral votes by picking Webb to be his running mate.

Webb is also an extremely strong candidate because he was a naval secretary and also served in the Vietnam War. Webb also led the fight for the passage of the GI Bill which he proposed in Congress which was passed by bi-partisan support from both Democrats and Republicans. Obama would do well to pick an up and coming leader in the Democratic Party who shares Obama's views on putting partisan politics aside for the good of the country.

Webb also has the strong military background to counter McCain's strong senatorial experience on the armed services committee. In fact, Senator Webb looked extremely strong when he was able to get the GI bill passed, despite opposition from President Bush and John McCain. Bush had threatened to veto the bill but knew that Webb had enough support in Congress to override the presidential veto. Additionally, McCain was opposed to the bill but voted "present" instead of voting "nay" to the bill. McCain knew that if he voted "no" to the bill, it would come back to haunt him during the general election. Yet it still may very well do that as Obama and his campaign will surely go on the attack against McCain for not voting for the bill. McCain and Bush were quoted as saying that the GI bill was "too generous."