You could also add to this the fact that Webb has explicitly said he doesn't want to be VP.

Jim Webb said "I'm not interested". I think the Vice Presidency should be given to someone who's interested.

This has been a hard-fought campaign and while folks on both sides have poured their hearts and energy into this thing, Webb has contributed ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to either Clinton or Obama. For him to be honored with a heartbeat away from the Presidency is teribly unfair.

When choosing a VP, I think Obama will have in mind the people who have propelled his candidacy and he will pick someone who if anything were to happen to him, will be acceptable to young voters, African-Americans, news voters who have become interested in politics again, women (white and non-white) and Republicans and Independents who have been inspired by his message of change. Webb is NOT that candidate!!!!

Barack Obama is new on the national scene and one relative 'unknown' on the ticket is enough. He needs someone whom America is VEEEEEERY familiar with and confident of; someone who can vouch for him to the American people.

He MUST NOT pick someone who needs introduction to the national stage - there's not enough time to take such a gamble.

In that respect the candidates most likely to help him are Al GORE, John EDWARDS, Hillary CLINTON, Chris DODD and Joe BIDEN.

Early polls don't mean much, but they paint a picture. So it's not surprising that the VP matchups in these polls show Obama-Edwards as the strongest ticket with the LEAST number of undecided voters.

If one were to argue that the Vice President's office, which is essentially a constitutional blank slate, could be remade into a more Senatorial position, then you could make the case for Webb.

But why remake the wheel? Like Ezra, James Fallows and others have said, the soon-to-be senior Senator from Virginia is a damn fine job, and Webb's a good person to hold it.

I can't imagine a job he would enjoy less than the vice presidency.

This attitude suddenly seems sort of odd to me. In one sense, sure, it's obviously relevant: you'd have to really want it to put up with all the shit and work of running an effective campaign, and there's no point speculating about how well Webb would do if he wouldn't take the job if offered in the first place.

But the discussion in recent days about Webb seems to go beyond that. Like "does the man deserve it," as if it's about his personal worthiness of (being a heartbeat away from) ruling over 300 million people. Not of whether his leadership ability and beliefs would make him a good president or vice-president, not even of whether he would be a good representative of the Democratic Party, but whether he's a good person.

And the thing is, so what? As others have observed about the ambition or ego of Obama and Clinton, of course they have far more ambition and ego than most people just because they're running for president, and the same could be said of a Senator. It reminds me of the Douglas Adams quote, "It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it... anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."

Or something. Meh, if my idea here is interesting, I'm not having a lot of luck developing it. I'll try again later today or tomorrow when I'm not writing on deadline.

Totally agree.

Webb should stay put. The best model for VP was Al Gore who basically was ok with waiting until being to asked to speak his mind (which was pretty often) and holding until it was his turn to run for Prez. Nothing says to me that Webb would be happy with that role. VA may be trending blue but the last thing Dems should do is to put any Senate seat in play.

Thw weird thing about all the VP discussion among the Dems is the lack of discussion about who would among the leading VP options would be the best to run for the President in 2012/2016.