as one of the folks who started this cycle as a supporter of edwards i would be delighted to see him on the ticket. more than any other candidate i felt that it was edwards who drove the agenda of the race early on. edwards was the first to mention health care as an issue along with a plan for how it could work and how to pay for it. he was the one who drove the issue of iraq. first, by admitting his own mistake, and exposing the process that led him to change his mind, both about the issue and his own part in it. there is an inner core of decency that i sense in the man.
his reasons for refusing a spot on the ticket would also be very valid. there are many things that he cares deeply about that he can be more effective in working for as a private citizen. i absolutely admire the work he has been doing in new orleans. i would hate for that to stop mainly because edwards is one of the only guys there doing things like providing free legal counsel to folks who are being disenfranchised and stripped of their property by the republican vision of an epcot center "neworleansland" without all those messy things like poor people and people of color who own property.
his wife's health is also a big issue with him and rightly so.
last year, at the nba all star game i was playing in a luxury box that was being attended by the edwards. in person he really is impossibly handsome. this was right at the time when melissa mcewan and amanda marcotte were being excoriated by bill donahue and his catholic outrage battalion. i managed to sidle up to elizabeth while she was loading up with some boiled shrimp at the buffet. i told her that i was a friend of melissa's and that i felt she deserved better treatment than she had gotten from the campaign and i left it at that.
i saw her talking with john later. i saw them glancing to where i was, back at work on the bandstand. they both smiled at me and i smiled back. later, when they were getting ready to leave elizabeth caught my eye and waved while giving me what i took as a "thanks for talking with me" look.
in person, they are both impressive folks.
i would be very happy to see him on the ticket, but i would also understand and totally back his declining.
I started out as an Edwards supporter as well. And Edwards has done an important job pushing both Obama and Clinton left-ward on class and health issues.
That said, I'm not sure Edwards brings much to the ticket. He has LESS electoral experience than Obama. And I think he'd be wasted as Veep.
I would love to see him as AG. The corportions would be plotzing their pants non-stop for the next 8 years.
LG;
A little off topic, but could you do a future VP Stakes for Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, please?
Edwards for AG: that's the man, and that's the office.
Yeahhh, TaTa.
John at Justice is hot shit! :o)
He doesn't seem to add much to the ticket. He's a one-term senator with no military or foreign policy expertise and he can't make a difference with the southern vote. He'd be better in the cabinet.
I was also an Edwards supporter first, and I agree that he drove the debate with his strong positions and ideas ...
... and that's why I agree with his choice to decline VP. VP is the back seat, not the wheel.
AG is my dream spot for him, but he'd be terrific in Health & Human Services too.
I not only started out as an Edwards supporter, but I got the chance to vote for him in the primary (in Florida) before he dropped out.
I really like the guy. But there's a "but."
I'm a reporter, and I know a lot of other reporters. A few have met Edwards, either in person or in long radio interviews. They say Edwards is two-faced, even moreso than most politicians. There's the warm, friendly public face. And a cold, wrathful, profane face to his staffers and intimates.
If what I'm told is true, Edwards hid Mr. Hyde well in the 2004 campaign, but I wonder how things would play out if his bad side popped out this year, and he were the VP candidate. McSame might use it to neutralize voters' reservations about his temper.
His two-faced personality would be well-suited to attorney general, where he could wield his abrasive side against corporate evildoers. Corporate America would be terrified by Edwards in the AG seat, which is why it'll probly not happen.
I was (and remain) an Edwards for Prez supporter: The only one of the bunch who comes close to have genuine liberal credentials. I agree he'd be wasted as Veep. He's an authentic leader as well as a politician and speaker, unlike the rest, so I'd like to see him in a position of leadership.
The point of the VP position will be to create a stronger ticket than Obama alone and, in a perfect world, help to unify the Democratic party, NOT to "reflect heroic glow" of the candidate or satisfy those who are already satisfied with how the campaign is going. I can't see Obama making a Dan Quayle kind of mistake. He's going to throw red meat to those he can extract deals from, like any career politician. So...so far, none of those listed on this blog fit the bill.
Short of Gore, Edwards is my favorite. Especially since he can hammer the economic issues, which are going to more crucial come November.
Secondly he's been there done that, they couldn't get anything then so I'm pretty sure that they will hit him on his hair, and he'll hit back with the repug economic record. That's bringing a nuke to a knife fight!
Maggie, Dan Quayle wasn't any more of a mistake than Spiro Agnew. Think of both of them as impeachment or assassination insurance for presidents who, for reasons of ego, couldn't tolerate the presence of a competent VP and went out of their way to avoid selecting one.
I like Edwards, but I think he would be more effective as AG (until assassinated?).
I think it's interesting to hear many people say he is two-faced, not trustworthy, and others say he's not like that at all. I wonder what the truth is? I am mindful of people who see ANY show of anger as out of control. To be as successful a lawyer as he is, he has to have good self-control, doesn't he? And there's plenty in this world to be angry about -- and he sees some of the worst of it.
Maybe we need someone not so nice? we are drowning in our niceness -- the right certainly only feels obligated to be "nice" to one's face, in person. It fools the Dems into thinking the Repubs will compromise with them.
Yes, I think "cupcake" would approve Edwards. I agree that Edwards set the tone early for this discussion to reflect the anger of people and their search for backbone politicians. He GOT it. Obama and he are very close and at least in the same chapter if not on the same page. He's not a second fiddle kinda guy and I think he learned that running with Gore.
AG all the way for Edwards!
No, not Edwards. The level of experience is a killer. I also don't think he would bring in any voters who aren't inclined to vote for Obama already. Who does he bring in?
About Edwards as AG - I don't get that, either. He's got no prosecutorial experience and no experience managing an organization larger than his law office. My pick for AG is Patrick Fitzgerald. My fat white ass would be doing backflips if Obama picked Fitz to run the DOJ.
Well, I've been an Edwards supporter all along, so this is a no-brainer for me, particularly since the VP slot is pretty much a shoe in for the candidacy in 2016 (unless they are a total f-up - I don't think anyone REALLY expected Quayle to get the nod...)
Edwards for AG. Carte blanche to go after Wall Street, the junk mortgage brokers, health insurance companies, usurious credit card companies... it makes me dizzy to think about it.
On the other hand, I don't want him to have any job that would prevent Elizabeth from being the no holds barred, no prisoners taken full throttle healthcare advocate she can be.
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