When former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., announced he was dropping out of the Democratic presidential race, possibly to run as an independent, the media were eager to hint that his candidacy had been a sham.

“How often were you out campaigning, meeting with voters?” asked Buzzfeed’s Olivia Nuzzi, a former Democratic campaign volunteer. “Where were you campaigning?” She also asked how many people he had on staff. The line of questioning implied the possibility that Webb had been running a Potemkin campaign as a Democrat, designed chiefly to generate attention for a pre-planned independent candidacy.