Headlines out of the Democratic debate reckon that Secretary Clinton won by default, and did a right charming job of it, particularly given the lack of gumption among the other candidates. This was well-marked this morning by the Wall Street Journal in an editorial that ran under the headline “Hillary Gets a Debate Pass.” It concluded that the party was back on track to her coronation as the 2016 nominee. Yet we wouldn’t want to let the moment pass without tipping our hat to the jarhead from Virginia, Senator James Webb.

By our lights, the Marine officer (there is no such thing as a former Marine) won this debate on substance. It reminds of what an impressive figure he is and what rich experience he brings to public life. It reminds that the Vietnam War, in which Mr. Webb appeared in arms, handed up its own giants. Mr. Webb was more than gracious when asked about Senator Sanders’s attempt during the Vietnam War to represent himself as a conscientious objector. Everybody makes his decisions in conscription, Mr. Webb noted, saying that if they go through the legal process, he respects them.

What really came through is the connection between character and policy. Mr. Webb is one of those figures who, like Reagan, believes deeply in a few clear principles. Mr. Webb served as Navy Secretary under Reagan. He is the only figure left in the entire Democratic party who has an appreciation of Vietnam and of military strategy. He was the only candidate on the stage who opposes the Iran appeasement. He brilliantly marked the signal it sent for the Russian strongman, President Putin, to enter the Syrian theater.

Mr. Webb used Vietnam to deliver by far the best response we’ve heard on immigration. He wants a pathway to citizenship. He used the example of his own heroic wife, Hong, who escaped the communist conquest of her country — while Democrats in Congress cut off the resupply of our allied government of Free Vietnam — by becoming one of the boat people who risked their lives to get to freedom. Mrs. Webb eventually earned a law degree at Cornell. Her husband conveyed beautifully the promise of a new wave of refugees from the current war.

Incredibly, Mr. Webb was the only candidate who mentioned Israel. The Jewish state wasn’t mentioned once by either CNN’s Anderson Cooper or anyone else in the debate. Only Mr. Webb. He was rebuffing Senator Chafee. “I believe,” the ex-senator said, “that the signal that we sent to the region when the Iran nuclear deal was concluded was that we are accepting Iran’s greater position on this very important balance of power, among our greatest ally Israel, and the Sunnis represented by the Saudi regime, and Iran.”

That may be a glancing mention, but the rest of the Democrats had nothing to say about Israel at all, even though relations between the White House and the government in Jerusalem have fallen to a nadir under the Obama administration. Mrs. Clinton was silent on the question. So was Senator Sanders. No suggestion that things might improve. Zilch. It was an extraordinary moment, pressaged by a page one story in the New York Times the day before reporting that the Democratic Party today is way to the left even of President Obama.

Only Mr. Webb mentioned the strategic problem of Communist China and danger that is gathering at the South China Sea. Mr. Webb gave by far the best answer on gun control, better even than Senator Sanders, who is from the state with both the least restrictive gun policies — known as Vermont Carry — and consistently among the lowest gun-homicide rates. Mr. Sanders boasted of his D minus rating from the National Rifle Association. Mr. Webb, a supporter of robust gun rights, was way ahead of him.

How sad it is for the Democratic Party that Mr. Webb is the only one left with any glint of what used to be the winning formula for the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and even William Clinton. Mrs. Clinton, though she is saner than Sanders, Governor O’Malley, and Senator Chafee, is well to the left of the successful Democratic presidents. Watching Mr. Webb, now, alas, gone from the Senate, we couldn’t help but wonder whether it’s time for him to do what Reagan did, which is throw in with the GOP and announce that it wasn’t he who left the Democrats but the Democrats who left him.