John Nichols: Obama Meets Edwards, Pledges Party Remake

[babylonsister]

Obama Meets Edwards, Pledges Party Remake
by John Nichols


John Edwards won almost half a million votes on Super Tuesday, more than enough to have tipped several states in different directions than they went in the close race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

That was a small measure of the lingering influence of a former candidate on a race that now heads toward two more states where the populist appeal of the Edwards campaign resonated.

So Barack Obama jetted out of Wisconsin, where he is battling for a big victory in Tuesday’s primary, for a Sunday meeting in Chapel Hill with John and Elizabeth Edwards. The Illinois senator left reporters behind to make what he hoped would be a secret trip, but a North Carolina television station was tipped off and got footage of Obama leaving the home where he met with the Edwardses.

Obama asked for an endorsement. But he also provided the former senator and his wife with detailed arguments about why he would be a stronger Democratic candidate in November, and an outline of how he would seek to implement progressive economic reforms as president.

A key part of the discussion focused on a priority of John Edwards: writing a Democratic platform that outlines a genuine change agenda.

“The meeting with John, we just wanted to talk about how we can move the party in a direction that focuses on middle-class issues, relieving poverty, reducing the influence of special interests in Washington,” Obama acknowledged Sunday night.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/18/7126/

[RandomKoolzip]

1. Wow. Can't wait to see the hay DUers make out of this one.

Should be a bloodbath.

[Fovea]

2. Hey RKZ

Haven't seen a post from you for a while.
Good to see you are still here.

[RandomKoolzip]

5. Thanks!

Yeah, I stopped posting on DU for a while - I'm back in school now and working full time. I read DU for about a 1/2 hour every day. though, but haven't felt compelled to post anything substantive (or what, by MY low-ass standards, could be called "substantive") until just recently.


Good to see everyone still hates each other, though! Advisors always counsel politicians to "stay on message;" DU's message seems to be "but they started it!"

[Cha]

9. They did!

:)

[babylonsister]

3. Sigh. I miss the bad ole days. nt

[Fovea]

4. Both candidates have seen the strength of populism

and the need for populist reform in DC.
If anything, it will become more urgent in the GE when
McCain talks about the additional suffering he plans on
piling on the economically terrified, war traumatized
working class Americans.

This election is about the values of Feingold, Edwards and Kucinich.
And getting right with their issues is job one for the winning
candidate.

Edwards endorsement would be like a gold standard for the lucky candidate.

[AnneD]

6. Until Edwards comes out and endorses a candidate outright...

I am still casting my primary vote for Edwards. His message is the right one the DEM should be sending out. It's not about him-it's about his message.

[Fovea]

7. I am ok with that

it is all the right kind of pressure.

[Cha]

8. Glad I came over here

to find out more about John and Obama:)

I really hope Edwards and Obama can come to some agreement on how to work together to get this deal done.