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But it isn't easy running as a Democrat. There are litmus-test land mines in every audience. At the Montgomery County meeting, a local surgeon named William Epstein showed me his list: drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, abortion, gay marriage. "I'm afraid he's a mini-Republican," Epstein said at first. But later, after asking the candidate directly, he amended his judgment: "He answered me straight and passed every one of my tests." Webb is an outdoorsy hunting-and-fishing environmentalist. He is pro-choice, pro--gay rights. He has expressed nuanced reservations about affirmative action and women in combat in the past and takes careful time to explain his positions now. "If he told a lie, his tongue would fall out," says his strategist, Dave (Mudcat) Saunders, who won't take any money from him. "His sense of honor is a frightening thing."
Webb is a political amateur, and party pros consider him "undisciplined." That means he hates fund raising and isn't very comfortable with the backroom coddling of special interests that is a dismally essential part of the job. He entered the race late and precipitately. His answers are sketchy on some domestic-policy issues; Miller has a Washington insider's grasp of issues like education and tax policy, as the Washington Post pointed out in an endorsement editorial last week. Indeed, Webb may be in serious trouble in the primary. A minuscule turnout is expected, less than 5% of the electorate, and Miller has been working his way through the traditional Democratic constituencies--abortion-rights activists, teachers' unions and minorities--like a threshing machine. "We have one candidate who is appealing and undisciplined and another who is disciplined and unappealing," a prominent Democrat told me. "It's a real problem." It is more than that: a campaign that will help determine whether Democrats have the expansive soul to become a majority party once more. Liberals hunt down heretics, Michael Kinsley once wrote, while conservatives happily chase converts. Webb is a convert in a party that mistrusts converts. His candidacy is a litmus test for a party that loves litmus tests.
> To see a collection of Joe Klein's recent columns, visit time.com/klein