WASHINGTON — The Marines, in full dress, perform their summer drills in silence, flipping their rifles in near-perfect precision in front of the Iwo Jima memorial, illuminated by the glow of sunset. One man, the guest of honor, stands, stock-straight, at the center of the pageantry, Marines on both sides, watching as they pass.

Order. Precision. Tradition. Just across the Potomac River from his Senate office, this is Jim Webb's world.

The first-term senator from Virginia has built a life around a deep love for the military. His sons have followed him, with one serving with the Marines in Iraq.

Webb, 62, has had an almost absurd number of careers since leaving the Marine Corps in the early 1970s. But there's one more role he could yet play: Barack Obama's saving grace.

It is widely speculated that Obama will need to choose a vice presidential nominee versed in national security matters, perhaps with a strong military background, to attempt to blunt the edge his opponent, John McCain, carries in those arenas.

Webb seems made to order for that, a character right out of one of the novels he writes. His careers keep evolving. Lawyer. Defense analyst. Journalist. Pentagon bureaucrat. Novelist. Screenwriter. An Emmy-winning moviemaker. Businessman. And now, politician.

Not only is he serious-minded about military matters to the point of preoccupation, he is a former member of the Reagan administration and a decorated war hero who has been a loud critic of the Iraq war.

He also has embraced a form of economic populism, bashing large corporate salaries and lamenting the gap between the rich and poor. He has also called for a new national drug policy that doesn't focus on jailing offenders, said free trade hurts America, and taken a hard stance on immigration.

OBAMA ON ENERGY

Meanwhile, Obama said Sunday that as president, he would strengthen government oversight of energy traders he blames in large part for the skyrocketing price of oil.

His campaign singled out the so-called "Enron loophole" for allowing speculators to run up the cost of fuel by operating outside federal regulation.