Vietnam War Hero Fighting Low Name Recognition Run for President?

"Fighting low name recognition on the national stage" seemed really odd to read after years of hearing about Jim Webb. After all, if you're a veteran receiving a college education, he's part of the reason. He's done a lot for veterans and not afraid to fight against the establishment. So why would this man with his record be such and unknown? Is it the press? Is it the Super Pacs?

Jim Webb: Money 'screwing up' political process
Richmond Times Dispatch
BY MARKUS SCHMIDT
August 21, 2015

RICHMOND — Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb said Friday that Super PAC money is "really screwing up the political process" and that it affects his campaign's ability to get his message out.

"The challenge that we have right now in the current political environment, money dominates the process like it never has before," said Webb, who served as a U.S. senator from Virginia from 2007 until 2013, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Webb said he was concerned with the buying power of Super PACs that are funneling most of the $388 million spent on the election this year into the race. Unlike the candidates, PACs are allowed to accept unlimited contributions in support of candidates from almost any source.

"I don’t believe that Super PACs are ethically supportable concepts," Webb said. "That money ... is affecting our ability to get out and talk."

Webb also cited reports that less than 400 families nationwide are responsible for almost half the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign — an unprecedented concentration of political donors.

Webb, 69, a highly decorated Marine rifle platoon and company commander in Vietnam, former Navy secretary, lawyer and book author, announced his White House bid in early July. Since, he has run a quiet but focused campaign, offering a sometimes moderate and at other times hawkish alternative to his fellow Democratic contenders, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland.

Fighting low name recognition on the national stage and struggling to move beyond his single-digits in the polls, Webb is still optimistic that he will become a more visible candidate once the dust from Trump's bombastic entering into the race has settled.
read more here

UPDATE
Webb 'proud' to see female Rangers
2 women recently became first females to earn Ranger tabs
Author: By Eric Bradner CNN
Published On: 1 h

"I am totally comfortable now with the military being able to make these decisions in a way that goes to performance," he said, "and I am very proud to see -- these two women are West Point graduates, and they went through the rigorous training, and the military should be able to decide how they are used."

WASHINGTON (CNN)
Former Sen. Jim Webb says he is "proud" to see the first two female Army Rangers, even though he'd opposed women in combat positions in the wake of his experience in the Vietnam War.

Webb, who's now a Democratic presidential candidate, told CNN's Jim Acosta in an interview Sunday on "State of the Union" that he no longer believes the position he took in a 1979 op-ed in The Washingtonian.

"I came back from a very hard war where more than 100,000 Marines were killed or wounded. I had my views about how the political process should be dictating to the military that they make changes," Webb said.
read more here