Democratic Candidate Might Make Independent Run For The Whitehouse As He Takes Shots At Clinton, Find Out Who

Jim Webb, once touted as the moderate, slightly conservative Virginia Democratic presidential candidate dropped out of the race in October. The Clinton shadow and the popular Bernie Sanders have kept most other candidates out of the race, but the dreaded “I” word that Donald Trump has invoked in the past might just get him back into the race. Fox News reports that Democratic Presidential candidate Jim Webb is going to take an independent run to the White House.

Democrat Jim Webb followed the usual path of most political candidates in attacking his potential soon-to-be former party’s frontrunner, Hillary Clinton.

“Clinton should be called to account for her inept leadership that brought about the chaos in Libya. Our next commander in chief must define a strategic vision for the country and accept accountability for past actions.”

Though many have never heard the name Jim Webb, even inside his own party, he has a very unorthodox Democratic background. He was a Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan, went on to become a Democratic Virginia senator, a failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, and now might become the first candidate to take an independent run.

A spokesman for Jim Webb states that he would make his decision on an independent run by New Year’s Eve. However, the former Democratic presidential candidate had already said he would consider an independent run. In fact, his exit speech sounded very much like the starting of an independent run.

“The very nature of our democracy is under siege due to the power structure and the money that finances both political parities, time for a new Declaration of Independence — not from an outside power but from the paralysis of a federal system that no longer serves the interests of the vast majority of the American people.”

Webb often criticized the Democratic Party’s direction, and like O’Malley and Sanders, the amount of Democratic debates. Since his departure from the Democratic primaries, and his potential independent run, he has further positioned himself as an independent candidate.

“Some people say I am a Republican who became a Democrat, but that I often sound like a Republican in a room full of Democrats or a Democrat in a room full of Republicans. Actually, I take that as a compliment.”

He’s taken his Clinton attacks to Twitter, and just in case Webb, Democratic, or independent fans were curious, it was within the character limit.

“Hillary Clinton’s failed vision in Libya & the Arab Spring are foreign policy leadership at its worst.”

Awfully late to the game, even for an independent run, Webb might also be surprised that it is already a fairly crowded field compared to the Democratic one he just left. According to 2016 Presidential Candidates website, there are already 21 candidates running. Perry Morcom, Mark Pendleton, Daniel Zutler, Benjamin Weigel, Shawna Sterling, Tami Stainfield, Scott Smith, and Jeremiah Pent to name a few.

Granted, there are certainly a lot less people are aware of those 21 candidates taking the independent run, so former Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb would have a better independent run then the others. However, this late in the game, many do not see this as a realistic run. Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, who had more favorable numbers, found out a few months ago that it was too late to mobilize and run.

Then again, in 1992, Ross Perot ran a what appeared to be a successful independent run for sometime. Perot announced his candidacy a month or so later than Jim Webb plans to, but lest the former Democratic presidential candidate forgets, Perot’s independent run was mostly successful because he was considered a political outsider.

Even though Webb speaks like one, Perot never held political office. Though, as many learned from the demise of Ross Perot’s independent run, sometimes it helps to have some political experience.

[Image under CC BY-SA 2.0 Flickr | Courtesy Of Rob Shenk | Resized]