Senator Webb has the views of many people from my hometown (and, in fact, Webb's first wife was from my hometown) in Western PA. People who have been left behind as industries fled the Northern rust belt. They combine a kind of economic populism (resentment that they have playted by the rules but have been tossed aside like the trash, combined with a mixture of hatred and envy of the rich) with a dislike for those who game the system for money without working. For too many of them, this latter group is equated with blacks and other minorities. They say, hey we are hurtiing too but who cares about us. The minorities get all the attention. Like my mom, they buy into the jingoistic populism of a Lou Dobbs.
If Webb were contemplating a true movement of poor people and an alliance of white, black, and brown, he would be admirable. But he is not and will not. I think that for Obama to take him as a VP would signal something very cynical about Obama.
Michael Yates