Let me soften my stance on his conservatism. It really depends what we mean by this almost useless word. Webb is stands in the tradition of the Jacksonian Democrats. There is a lot of Jackson in his proud Scots-Irish blood. Was Jackson as conservative or a liberal? By the standards of the civilized, cultivated federalist party of John Quincy Adams he was not. Yet, Adam’s conservatism was a regional conservatism and on individual issues was opposed to the regional conservatism of Calhoun. Both were conservative and yet would see in each other only innovation. What was conservative in Boston would be innovation in Charleston. Conservatism is sentiment not ideology.

Webb is right on the war and wrong on abortion. When he is write or when he is wrong, I have a strong sense that he is carrying on a rich tradition of which his family and his region are deeply rooted.

The truth is that I would not vote for an Obama/Webb ticket. I may well stay home. The present Republican/conservative consensus needs to be beaten at the polls, discredited politically, and sent into the wildness to rediscover its first principles and to thoughtfully consider their application within a 21st century context. In the mean time I dare to hope that an Obama/Webb administration might reasonably restrain the forces of whirl and flux.

Allen may not have been 100% conservative, but overall I would say he is certainly to the right of Webb, even if you count opposition to the Patriot Act as a right wing issue, which the site I linked apparently does not.