Webb Isn't Fitting the Challenger Mold

HOT SPRINGS, Va. If elections are referendums on the incumbent, debates feel like referendums on the challenger.

And so judging Democrat James Webb's performance against that of U.S. Sen. George Allen (R) hinges a lot on one's expectations.

Did he show he can stay on the same stage with Virginia's genial conservative, debating domestic and foreign policy with the commonwealth's master of the quip, a politician with a quarter-century of experience? That he did.

Did he fulfill the challenger's role of putting the incumbent on the defensive, scoring headlines and promising a furious fight to come? That he did not.

It may not be in Webb's sober makeup to aggressively confront his opponent. Webb has been a military man, lawyer, author, screenwriter and secretary of the Navy, but he has never been a politician. He hasn't even learned how to claim victory.

Asked how the debate went, Webb said: "Well, I was a boxer for eight years, and when you first walk out of the ring, you don't know which ones hit him and which ones hit you."

Allen, on the other hand, entertained reporters for a long time afterward. He said he would "leave it for others" to judge whether Webb had a sufficient handle on the issues, especially ones affecting Virginia, but then added, "He didn't really show a depth of knowledge."

The first debate between the two was about as insider and clubby as it gets: middle of summer, no live television, far from the commonwealth's population centers and in front of a collection of lawyers, journalists, consultants and political scientists. Political seasons in the state get their traditional start at these Virginia Bar Association debates, alternating annually between the luxe confines here at the Homestead resort and the Greenbrier just across the state line in West Virginia.

Webb got the crowd's attention first when he walked down the aisle with his visibly pregnant wife, Hong Le Webb; the two married last year and, in December, at 60, he'll become a father for the fifth time.

Allen's family was in tow as well, and the senator acknowledged his politically active and savvy wife several times, asking the audience in his closing remarks to "allow Susan and me to keep working for you."

Allen was full of jabs and jibes for Webb, most based on the challenger's career as a writer, screenwriter and movie producer. He said his own record was based on "fact, not fiction." At one point, he said Webb was more "Hollywood Democrat" than Reagan Democrat. And he laid a trap that Webb fell into headfirst.

In one of the two questions Allen was allowed to ask Webb, he quickly asked the Democrat's position on "Craney Island." Most of the crowd had no idea what he was talking about and, unfortunately for Webb, neither did he. He admitted as much.