Edwards is my guy. A seasoned trial lawyer is exactly what this country needs....someone who can speak clearly and quickly on their feet....(what a freaking concept)....someone who is unafraid of going toe to toe with the big guys in the business world and winning....someone who has the balls to take on a case and fight....I know there are tons of people who whine about how rich he is, but god damn it, he made his money by fighting for people who couldn't fight for themselves. That, compared to the current occupant makes him a man, a good man, in my eyes.
Wow!
abo gato - and that is precisely why the korporate media will slime him like they slimed Gore
Edwards too rich? jebus fu*king christ! did they forget about FDR?!?!?!?
Forget about FDR? Hell, did they forget about every single Republican candidate?
Thanks for sharing this - I have liked his positions on the issues since he began this campaign and his anti-poverty work at Chappel Hill.
And, in regards to his wife - doesn't ANYONE remember Eleanor Rosevelt, let along FDR?
i know that we're all supposed to be way too sophisticated for such things, but my inner joe sixpack just freakin' likes the guy. hell, i'd drink a beer with him, and i've been sober since 87.
Edwards is rich, but he didn't start out that way. He's totally self-made. Isn't that something Americans once respected?
I love this man. He's a working-class Scots-Irishman who fought and clawed and studied and worked until he got all the way out. Now, he's quite operating a few classes above his station. That, as much as anything, is what the corporate and media establishment hates about him. They hated it about Clinton, too. They talk a good game about class mobility in America -- but God help anyone bold enough to actually rise up far enough to challenge their hold on power.
As a working-class Scots-Irishwoman who's made most of that same climb, I feel like I understand exactly what he's made of.
Edwards has the combination of cool, smarts and, I'm sure, knowledge of where bodies are buried to get a place in the next administration.
I'm planning on voting for him in the primary.
Edwards is an excellent man. But so are two of the others.
He's looking a lot better than he did last time.
Dr. James Taylor, PhD --
I or my colleagues will be running video on the others.
Haven't made up my mind personally. And GNB doesn't endorse candidates.
He lost me with the "2013" words crossing his lips in the last debate.
I'm still waiting for Al Gore, but as Edwards is my second choice for now.
Goddammit, Jesse, you WOULD do this to me. :o)
After I saw him up-close and personal, along with the 250-odd head crammed into that little steelworkers hall in Georgetown, S.C. a couple of months ago, my ass was FIRED UP! I sent him $20 and emailed a good writeup of his talk and the GREAT response of the people down there, to what he was saying, to ever goodheart I know.
And then, he had to jump right into the sack with Hillary and Obama (and THE REPUBS, for fuck's sake!) and refuse to commit to get us out of Iraq within 5 GODDAMN years.
It made me physically ill, to read that.
If he wants to be the preznit, he has to start taking a few chances. He has to start speaking the truth about Iraq, and what is going on there, and about what is GOING to go on there, when we leave.
When, as Myrtle June put it, he spoke "2013", he was doing two things;
helping the Hillary wing hand george bush and Co. that lusted-after "get out of jail free" card...
and volunteering the democratic party that he hopes to lead, to take it right up the ass for the denouement of the clusterfuck. And we ALL know that the instant the repubs leave office, they will turn around and start inserting, with a vengeance.
I'm so sorry. Johnny, we hardly knew ye.
Pols have been known to change their tune after being elected.
I love you all, but we really need to calm down about that 2013 thing.
Because that's the only thing any of them could have said.
Edwards at least explained himself. Even if we do a near-total pullout by the next election, there's gonna be troops in the Iraq -- a handful protecting the Embassy, and more standing around the perimeter of the country waiting to jump back in in case things go to hell.
Any withdrawal, by anyone's plan, is going to include at least some presence minimal presence -- perhaps for a while, perhaps for a long while. So for any one of those folks to get up and say, "Yep. I'm bringing every soldier home in time for Thanksgiving next year" would have been an outright lie. If Thanksgiving rolled around, and there were still 500 troops in (or around) Iraq, they'd be crucified.
So they told the truth, rather than blow smoke up our asses.
I may hate the tidings, but I can't fault the messengers.
Nobody in national politics has radiated Actual Human Being (subspecies, smart) the way he does, since -- well, maybe Howard Dean, but I'm not even sure about that one.
Edwards's policies and promises: valuable. When he answers (4:15 from the end) the intrepid interviewer's question-as-statement that he doesn't think it diminishes him if his wife doesn't say what he'd say -- the way, the intonation with which, he says "No!" : priceless.
So John Edwards has gone after Corporate America and said in a speech that; "It's time to tell the big corporations and the lobbyists who have been running things for too long that their time is over."
I remember another Presidential candidate that went after Corporate America too. On December 18, 2003 he said; "...the new social contract must redefine the role of government in establishing appropriate limits for corporate behavior." And; "...in our nation, the people are sovereign, not the government. It is the people - not the media, or the financial system, or mega-corporations, or the two political parties - who have the power to create change."
It was Howard Dean that said that. And he proposed that; "The new social contract must include stricter accountability for corporate behavior, and a return to a stronger role for government in protecting the public interest." He went on giving details on how this could be accomplished...
Thirty days later Corporate Media showed who really has the power by making sure Dean would never win the nomination. Corporate Media's coverage of Dean's speech to 3,500 cheering supporters in Iowa consisted of an out-of-context, sound edited, and cropped so as not to see the crowd video clip in what has become known as the "Dean Scream." The video clip was aired repeatedly for days and weeks to make sure ( like over 630 times in four days sure ) that Howard Dean and anyone else for that matter would learn not to challenge Corporate America!
Of course after it was a done deed Corporate Media offered public apologies and admissions that they indeed may have "overplayed" the "incident".
So now John Edwards wants to; "...end the game." and says that Corporate America; "...will not give up their power -- you have to take it from them." And I wholeheartedly agree with him when he says that; "...it is because we were not vigilant against the forces that have taken it from us. That their
game has played on for so long is the fault of each of us -- ending the game and returning government of the people to the people is the responsibility of all of us."
Let's see to it that Corporate America doesn't win this game again and call Edwards out!
See Also:
To Build One America; End the Game - John Edwards, 8/23/2007.
( http://johnedwards.com/news/spee...hanover-speech/
)
Keeping the Promise of America: Creating a New Social Contract for America's Working Families - Howard Dean, 12,18,2003.
( http://www.crocuta.net/Dean/
Tran...rary_Speech.htm )
Q&A - Part 3, Corporate Greed and Globalization - Howard Dean, 1/03/2004
( http://www.crocuta.net/Dean/
Summ..._IA_Remarks.htm )
Statement of Former Governor Howard Dean After Placing Third in the Iowa Caucus Vote - Howard Dean, 1/19/2004
( http://www.crocuta.net/Dean/
Tran..._Jan19_2004.htm )
Dean's Scream: Not What It Seemed - Eric Salzman, CBS News, 1/26/2004.
( http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2...ain596021.shtml )
A couple of additional observations...
John Edwards, with his own independent financial resources, can not be so easily ignored like Dennis Kucinich by the Media.
It's no question that Kucinich has the most consistent record on both the war and progressive issues. But the Media ignores him constantly. In fact they often don't even including him in their polling efforts (no wonder he is usually listed last)!
Can John Edwards avoid being out maneuvered ( including the dirty tricks ) and/or out organized in the Iowa Caucuses like Howard Dean was by John Kerry? Dean did a good jobs of mobilizing attendance, but then failed to organize effectively within the Caucus process and was bested by Kerry.
Hillary Clinton seems to be following in Kerry's footsteps so far as fundraising and organizing is concerned. Will she stoop to the same dirty tactics that Kerry pulled in Iowa in 2004?
These dirty tricks included Push Polling, spreading false information on Caucus locations/times, robo-calling "for Dean" at all hours of the night, etc. all well documented after the fact. Of course some would say that if you can't compete with tactics like Carl Rove's then you wont be able to win the general election...
However, I for one, would like to see my candidate rise above such slime and stick to the issues -- progressive ones like what John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich embrace.
"I love you all, but we really need to calm down about that 2013 thing.
Because that's the only thing any of them could have said.
Edwards at least explained himself. Even if we do a near-total pullout by the next election, there's gonna be troops in the Iraq -- a handful protecting the Embassy, and more standing around the perimeter of the country waiting to jump back in in case things go to hell."
Much love to all on here as well, however, I disagree.
The "2013" talk by Edwards was a clear opportunity for him to make clear he would stand up to the purveyors of perpetual war and stick with his original statements of "ending george bush's war" starting the day he takes office. He did not do that. He joined in the chorus of ligitmizing the need for ANY troops in Iraq. Ever.
When I say I want this illegal war ended, I mean just that. I want the troops out of there. Embassy be damned. Let Iraq have the Embassy for their new government offices and/or housing. They've got a lot of work to do and I say that's a good start on their "rebuilding" of infrastructure for their country. Let them develop their troops to guard their borders, heavens knows they have the guns and money to do it.
In my view the only way Iraq will come together as a country and eject whatever terrorists our presence there has attracted, is for there to be NO American presence there at all. The faster we accomplish that exit, completely and totally, the faster they will start working together. bushco is playing so many sides against the middle and fucking up at every turn of the bend which is meant only to continue this insanity.
John Edwards speaking those words, "2013" tell me his intent is no longer where it should be, "to end george bush's war". His intent is to start buying into the bullshit that our presence in Iraq was or ever will be of some benefit to those people. If he's against the war, he needs to be consistant in what his intent is, to END the war and bring the troops, ALL the troops, home beginning the day he takes office. He's said that and his "2013" means he's starting skipping down the road holding hands with Hillary Bush.
Very soon now, Edwards and Obama need to be saying this, or something VERY similar to it, to Hillary:
"Do you think it was a mistake to vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq?
Because, if you don't think it was, then that means that you don't think the invasion itself was a mistake, and if you don't think THAT, Sen. Clinton, can you tell us how you expect to be elected president in 2008?"
They could also ask her:
"Can you please tell us SPECIFICALLY how your future policies on Iraq differ from george bush's?"
(In fact THAT question needs to be asked of ALL of the "2013" club.)
And if Edwards and Obama still want to keep handling Joe-Lieberman-in-a-pantsuit with kid gloves, then we'll know the fix is in, and they were nothing but stalking horses for her, and the beltway democrats, from the gitgo.
I am really gung-ho for Chris Matthews. He will probably run for the United States Senate from the state of Pennsylvania. I wrote a book about him entitled I Call Him Christopher. It is available from Amazon, among others, worldwide. You can read an extract by clicking on the link.
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