Jim Webb delivered the Democratic radio address and he was tough, tough, tough. Webb's opponent, George Felix Macaca Spitter Allen, has been a staunch follower of the failed Bush "stay the course" strategy":
"Since 2003, President Bush has laid out nine different plans for victory in Iraq, none of them serious and none of them workable. And most seriously, this incompetence has hindered our ability to fight international terror," Webb said.Unlike Webb, Allen has no military experience. He just likes to pretend he's tough. Just like he pretends he's a cowboy. The image that sums up this race is their boots. Webb wears his son's combat boots. Allen wears his costume cowboy boots:
It marked the second time since July 1 that Webb, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, has given the Democrats' address. Both times, his focus has been Iraq.
Webb warned in a newspaper column in 2002, the year before Bush ordered the Iraq invasion, that a war there would destabilize the oil-rich Middle East and mire U.S. forces in a bloody and protracted conflict. As of Friday, 2,810 American troops had died in Iraq.
"It gives me no great pleasure today to be saying `I told you so,'" said Webb, whose son, Jimmy, is a Marine on active duty in Iraq. "It pains me as an American that our casualties are again escalating while this president and his followers are still incapable of bringing forward an intelligent, commonsense approach to ending our involvement there."
