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After re-reading my post “5 Reasons Jim Webb’s Stock is Up” I stand by what I wrote.

For a blog post it holds up reasonably well.

At the same time, tick-tock for #WebbNation in Iowa.

Two weeks later and three weeks until Labor Day, I don’t see the Webb ground game in action, except occasional emails, list-serve messages, and social media posts. Joe Stanley is working, and posts about activities occasionally in social media. Webb has a small number of Iowa events planned. If there is more, it’s invisible.

“There is a lot of work for him to do before Labor Day to catch up with Clinton and Sanders,” I wrote, believing the campaign would make progress. “It’s going to take more than Joe Stanley’s happy face to develop and execute a Webb ground game.”

I’m not the only one who noticed Stanley. On Tuesday Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post tracked me down for a discussion and quoted me in a blog post she wrote.

Stanley was quick to respond on Twitter and proceeded to protect his tweets, as Weiner reported. What gives?

Hillary and her staff know the game, having been through it before. Bernie Sanders’ campaign experienced rapid growth pains, but now also knows the drill. Martin O’Malley seems disciplined and personable, and the first time I attended one of his events, he had caucus commitment cards available and ready to sign. This is what Iowa Democrats expect of presidential candidates. Identification of and turning out your people caucus night is what provides a ticket out of Iowa.

If Webb is playing strategy close to the vest, what could it be if it doesn’t include the block and tackling typical of winning Iowa’s Democratic caucuses? One expects a canvasser from #WebbNation would have called or reached out by now, something the Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley campaigns have already done, multiple times.

There aren’t many other paths for #WebbNation.

There are a lot of veterans in Iowa—enough to win the caucus outright if a candidate can unite enough of them behind him or her. Veterans represent a natural Webb constituency, and a list of Iowa Democratic veterans exists. Webb should be working it. But is he?

Jim Webb ≠Joe Stanley, as Stanley tweeted yesterday. They have known each other and campaigned together for a long time. Stanley is one of the faces of #WebbNation and his antics on social media serve as a distraction from what else Webb may be doing to ID caucus supporters.

Whatever that may or may not be, there is very little evidence of a Webb ground game in Iowa. High profile events like the Des Moines Register Soap Box at the state fair, and the stock and trade of county fair and central committee meetings, yes. But not the political grunt work needed to organize for a candidate in Iowa.

“How different has this time been with the Internet?” emailed a friend from a past campaign yesterday. “I feel like everyone is mini-stalking people in Iowa through Twitter.”

The Internet serves a weird function this cycle, making for laziness among reporters anxious to generate clicks. Yes, some stalking is going on, but to win the caucuses actual people need to show up at a specific time and place. Making that happen takes work that lies outside the Internet.

The clock is ticking until Labor Day when the next phase of the canvass begins: a mad rush to end of year holidays, the new year and closing the deal with Democratic caucus goers.

I like Jim Webb and would like to see him win delegates to the state convention. The question is whether the campaign will emerge from the special ops mode it is in and organize. Today it is an open question and there is time, but not much time, to make it happen.

~ Written for Blog for Iowa

There is no clearer evidence Republicans seek to unravel United States leadership in the world than their failure to understand the countries extending from China to Sub-Saharan Africa

Two things stood out last week: Republican knee-jerk reaction to the United Nations approved nuclear agreement between the P5+1 nations and Iran, and the connection between the rise of Islamic extremism and global warming.

There is plenty of public analysis of these two topics, so this post is not to bring something new to the table. The Economist laid out why the Iran deal is good, calling it “the most intrusive nuclear-inspection arrangements ever designed.” I’ve recently posted about Iran here and here. If you want to follow the topic, join Twitter and follow @DarylGKimball, @Cirincione and the hashtag #IranDeal.

With regard to the connection between the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and global warming, it’s not just me and Martin O’Malley connecting these dots. The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The World Bank, and many others have done so. There have been severe droughts in the Middle East, Asia and Africa which put pressure on crop production. Food prices escalated in the wake of related food shortages, precipitating food riots which in turn contributed to what has been described as the “Arab Spring.”

Republicans are not about resolving these issues, or demonstrating leadership in the world community. Call it austerity, income inequality, or whatever, they have a bill of goods they want to sell us that is not in our best interests. Not only do they want to sell us, they have already sold large segments of the population. It has become routine, in fact, someone recently overheard this conversation in the Senate cloakroom:

Well Mack the Finger said to Louie the King
I got forty red, white and blue shoestrings
And a thousand telephones that don’t ring
Do you know where I can get rid of these things
And Louie the King said let me think for a minute son
And he said yes I think it can be easily done
Just take everything down to Highway 61.