Jim Webb and the Lost History of the Pre-Obama Left

In post-election stories about Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign—and its discontents—one-term Virginia Senator Jim Webb is sometimes described as a challenger from Clinton's right. The latest example comes from Maggie Haberman and Hadas Gold's sharp story about the left-wing media's approach to Clinton: "Even Webb, who was Ronald Reagan’s Navy secretary and claims to have told President Barack Obama that health care reform would be a 'disaster,' has gotten some love on the left."

But Webb isn't exactly a figure of the right, or even the center-left. In 2006, when he was writing books and columns critical of the Iraq War, Webb was drafted into Virginia's U.S. Senate race by progressives. Virginia's blue blogs (like the defunct Raising Kaine) and the progressive hub Daily Kos were hotbeds of pro-Webb sentiment. As Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas wrote in 2013, community members "raised millions of dollars and generated on-the-ground activism" for Webb and other candidates who were not traditionally left-wing.