So, I’ve mentioned here before that, if I have a horse in the far-off 2008 Presidential race, it’s John Edwards. Before I get too far into that, I’d just like to mention that the constant presence of the 2008 race, even back before the 2006 mid-terms were over, is more telling of the country’s patience with Bush & Friends than anything else I can think of. More than two years off, people were already itching to throw the bums out.

Now, as far as the candidates go, there are a lot of reasons I like Edwards. I suppose I ought to start out up front by saying that I’m no fan of Hillary Clinton. I used to be – in fact, I cheered her on when she won in New York State. But she’s lost my support and interest by proving to be far too bendable and far too ignorant of who her base ought to be. She pandered her way through her first term at a time when the Democrats needed strong voices. She could easily have been one; she comes from a strong Democratic state and she has national recognition. She could have said whatever she wanted for her entire term and the population of New York City alone would have made sure she stayed in office. Instead, she allowed herself to be bullied. She allowed the other side to frame the debate. Which is a guaranteed loss. Hillary doesn’t understand where her votes are going to come from, either. She’s spent much of her term pandering to soccer moms and religious drones – neither of which are going to vote for her in an open election because their impression of her is forever tarnshied by how badly she was slandered when Bill was President. She will never fully recover the votes she lost due to that slandering, and the more she tries, the more she loses votes she could still have.

I don’t have such harsh criticism for Barak Obama. He’s a sharp politician, no doubt about it. And he brings a personable feel to his speeches and appearances that I think automatically draws people in. And yeah, let’s talk about it. He’s black. And a lot of voters, to say nothing of the media, that otherwise wouldn’t give him a second glance are taking notice because it’s a major accomplishment in the American political system for a black man to run such a successful presidential campaign. I’ll grant that he’s probably come up against more obstacles due to racism – and overcome them due to his perseverance, than most white candidates would ever have to face. And for that I give him all the credit he deserves. But I find some of his platform to be empty. He throws some powerful rhetoric when he doesn’t immediately have to back it up, but I don’t quite think he has the balls to really stand up to the Neoconservatives. That inkling was solidified when he caved in to Bush’s veto threat before the bill even reached the President’s desk. There’s no point in sending the President a bill and daring him to veto it if you promise beforehand to give the President everything he wants once he does. Like Hillary, he was so afraid of not “supporting the troops” enough that it got in the way of him doing his job.

And then there’s the fact that both Hillary and Obama are from the corporate wing of the Democratic party (yes, there is such a thing). That includes the Democratic Leadership Council that was responsible for utterly losing the 2000, 2002 and 2004 elections by refusing to back anyone that wasn’t “Republican Lite”. It’s the DLCers that said there was no point running unknown upstarts in commonly red states because they couldn’t be won. That strategy allowed the GOP to focus all of its money and effort on the races that should have been easy for the Democrats. Races that turned into defeats. In 2006 the DLCers would have given Virginia to George Allen and Montana to Conrad Burns – both red states where first time netroots candidates ousted incumbent Republicans. It is the DLC’s vision – or lack of it – that has turned the Democratic party into a toothless group of uninspiring pansies. An opposition party that doesn’t know how to oppose. It was the DLC that supported Lieberman, which should end the argument right there. This country cannot suffer another Neoconservative. And the Democratic party cannot win with the same group of losers in charge. No one wants to vote for Republican Lite.

Which brings me to Edwards. First off, he is not a DLC insider. He’s not trying to win an election the same way he lost the previous three. But there’s more to my support for Edwards than just the internal Democratic power struggle. For one thing, he is in possession of a fully functional spine. He was the first Democrat that I can remember coming out and saying what was apparent to the rest of the country for a long time. That voting for Bush’s war in Iraq was the wrong thing to do. He didn’t whine about being misled. He didn’t try to offer ignorance as an excuse for his poor decision. He up-front admitted to having gotten a very important decision wrong. Would I prefer that he hadn’t voted for it in the first place? Surely I would. But in the absence of that preference, at least he had the integrity to own up to his mistake.

He also told Fox News to go take a flying leap in front of a truck, and I appreciate that. As the third place candidate, it’s in his interest to get as much exposure as he can. The best way for him to battle his way up into second or even first place is to out-debate his opponents. And as a former lawyer with an astonishing win record, that’s something he knows how to do. So when Fox News said they wanted to host a Democratic Primary debate, the stupid but politically likely decision should have been to attend. Now, obviously, none of the candidates wanted to show up on Fox News, because they knew they’d get spun and slandered from one end of the program to the other, and likely for the next two months on top of that. As a woman who’d already had her personal life steamrolled by Fox News, Hillary was in an obvious position to decline. Because it was the Congressional Black Caucus that was organizing the debate, Obama was the one candidate that could decline without risking some sort of racial backlash. But it was Edwards who stepped up first, who showed the smarts and the balls to call Fox News out for what they are: “[W]e believe there’s just no reason for Democrats to give Fox a platform to advance the right-wing agenda while pretending they’re objective.”

Also, plain and simple, I like his platform. And that’s not a common thing for me to think. Usually, I select the candidate who pisses on my beliefs the least. But Edwards’ clear, populist message that the New Deal is being dismantled, and America is a completely different country depending on which side of the line you’re standing on, matches my own observations and resonates with much of the youth vote. Now, some people would accuse him of engaging in Robin Hood politics (such as repealing tax cuts on the ultra-rich to finance health care for, well, everyone). But maybe that’s not such a bad thing considering the Nottingham-esque salary gaps that have emerged over the last fifteen years. He also doesn’t come from money and privilege, as so many of our politicians do. As cliche as it sounds, his father really was a coal miner in a small town. He’s earned what he’s made for himself, and he seems to remember well the lessons of the economically burdened. Contrasting that fact with Rudy Giuliani’s assertion that a gallon of milk only costs $1.50, that point is all the more relevant.

Of course, my opinion might not be enough for you (and it shouldn’t be). But I’d like to offer the opinions of a wider variety of progressives, liberals, and not-Bush’ers from across the internet. Essentially, the people who pay way, way more attention to the devilish details of politics than most people do. Amongst them (us?) you’ll find that Edwards is at least within a few points of first place (often usurped only by never-will-be candidates like Kucinich and Biden, or else way out in front, up over 40% in a field of seven choices. Not that you should ever let someone else’s poll results make your decision for you. But it’s the disparity between these polls and the national polls (which clock Edwards in at a respectable but trailing third place behind Hillary and Obama) that warrant attention. The people that know want Edwards. The people that took longshots like Jim Webb and John Tester and helped them build victories, the “netroots” or the “blogospheric left” or whatever silly name you want to slap on them. . . the people who have rallied against the Neoconservatives more strongly than anyone else, who have been consistently right on everything from the war in Iraq to the mismanagement of Katrina – those people have listened to every message from every angle and have chosen John Edwards.

And so have I.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.