John Edwards discovers the common touch

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/15/wedwards15.xml

Mr Warner's decision to spend more time with his family removes a serious contender from consideration and, with the first primaries just 15 months away, leaves Mr Edwards as the leading alternative to Sen Hillary Clinton.

The former first lady is the party's clear presidential frontrunner and has amassed a formidable campaign war chest. But some influential Democrats are convinced that she is unelectable at a national level and want to unite behind a powerful "anti--Hillary" candidate for the primaries.

Mr Edwards, the Democrats' vice-presidential nominee in their narrow 2004 defeat, has staked out a position to the Left of Mrs Clinton as a critic of the Iraq war. Although Mr Warner was a party centrist, it is the former North Carolina senator who now seems best poised to take on Mrs Clinton.

After a trip to China next week, Mr Edwards will make a campaign swing through key states in the mountain west, including Nevada, which will hold the party's second caucus in January 2008.

[chefgirl]

1. I adore John Edwards

He was my first choice in 2004, and I was only too happy to support Kerry once he chose Edwards as a running mate.

Not sure he's electable nationally, either, but a much better world it would be if he were.

Between him and Hillary, I know who I would vote for, without question.

-chef-

[Vinca]

2. Ditto what you said.

He's truly a decent person and would be good for this country.

[ChiciB1]

35. And Me Makes THREE!!!! n/t

[benny05]

37. Three for JRE..

Actually 4 :hi: :dem:

[patricia92243]

3. He and President Clinton are from middle-class backgrounds. They know how

it feels to be a regular person.

I like Edwards and would be very enthusiastic if he runs - and wins.

[citizen snips]

4. K&R

[Catchawave]

5. Thanks for this article !

It's always interesting to read how American politics play overseas. Especially that the article included one of my favorite JRE quotes:

"I grew up in an America where we were the light. Everyone looked up to the United States," he told an audience in Virginia recently.

"We weren't the country of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. We are better than this."

[Odin2005]

6. That man WILL be president someday, but on it.

[Catchawave]

8. President Edwards

It just feels good :patriot:

[benny05]

14. He and Jim Webb

Were "Born Fightin'" ! :patriot:

[benny05]

7. Thanks very much for this article

This is great news for him to make the Telegraph! K & R!

[w4rma]

9. Sen. Edwards rocks. (nt)

[benny05]

51. Agreed

:yourock: John Edwards

[Triana]

10. I'd vote Edwards over Hillary in a heartbeat...

...love that man.

[MontanaMaven]

11. The Status Quoites are now pushing Obama

The Washington insiders which include the DLCers are frightened of a people's movement. They are looking for anybody who can contend with the optimistic Middle Class warrior and son of FDR, John Edwards. They were putting all their money on Hilary, but realize now that she can't win. They just don't know what to do, so their new corporate poster boy seems to be Barack Obama. George Will was raving about him this morning. That should be a red flag to all real FDR Democrats. We no longer have a representative democracy especially in the Senate. They may as well be wearing NASCAR jackets. Big Agriculture, Coal and Gas, Banking all now own a piece of Obama. Obama thinks he can sleep with the enemy and not get herpes. Think again.

[Radical Activist]

25. What a bunch of bullshit.

Obama is a sell out because lots of people say good things about him? You do know that people have to be well liked to get elected at the national level don't you? In the Illinois Senate Obama had a reputation for being gracious and working with Republicans while still holding to progressive values. Just because Obama doesn't foam at the mouth in his speeches doesn't make him corporate a sell out. Site some bill numbers and specific things he's done to sell out if you're going to make an accusation like that.

[karynnj]

54. Well, there is one possible candidate who is a distant relative of FDR.

[Fovea]

12. President Edwards sounds good to me

He gets the importance of education in remaking America.

[ClassWarrior]

13. "Discovers??!" I think he's had it for a long time.

Seeing your handle, I want to change mine.

But I'm not sure if I should change it to "Wishing_I_Was_In_Britain" or "Wishing_I_Was_In_Maui" - both of which are true!

B-)

NGU.

[RamboLiberal]

15. John and Elizabeth Edwards have always had that common touch

I'm another one who would vote for him over Hillary in a heartbeat no matter how much I'd love to have Bill Clinton back in the White House.

[cobaindrain]

16. what worries me

I love Edwards too, huge supporter. But he hasn't had much to do since giving up his seat in the senate. He's very likeable and still in good standing in the party, and probably more seasoned politically after 04. I just wish he was still a senator or something, keep him in the public eye more.

[Auntie Bush]

18. I like him but, I wish he had some foreign policy experience. n/t

[cobaindrain]

20. yea that too...

Hurt him in 2004, made him seem like a lightweight.

[RamboLiberal]

53. Sure didn't hurt W who had to get his education from Condi

and asked Bandar why he should care about North Korea. Edwards could run circles around W.

[beaconess]

58. It didn't hurt W, but it's wreaked havoc with the rest of us

And has made the world a much more dangerous place.

[Radical Activist]

27. He served on the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

[karynnj]

55. No he didn't - He was on the Intelligence committee though

[Hosnon]

52. Why did he go to China? Perhaps he is building his resume? nt

[Radical Activist]

26. I'm incredibly impressed with what he's done with his time.

A center on poverty, anti-walmart tour with AFCW, his trip to Africa. It mostly gets smaller and regional news coverage but he has been doing all the right things.

[Mass]

17. The DC common wisdom has been proven false so often than

you know what I do with articles like that.

[Catchawave]

21. What would you "do with articles like that" ?

I guess it's just a nice article about a very nice man who happens to be a playa in U.S. politics.

The smear against Obama's appearance on the Time Magazine cover has been HORRIBLE today on DU. I don't get that either :shrug:

Why all the negative posts ? Can't we celebrate ONE freaking international story that puts the U.S. in a somewhat positive light?

[Mass]

23. Because the media want to promote people according to how much

they can sell and not according to how the person is competent. So it is glamour, glamour, glamour,

I have said for a very long time that the Edwards supporters (and the Obama for the matter) would be a lot better off saying why their guy is competent to be president rather than to promote him as a rock star. If I want a rock star for president, I will vote for one.

I am often answered that Bush did not have more experience. If this is the measure than we want to take, we will have the type of results than we had with Bush. I am sure than Edwards is better, but convince me this better is better.

This type of article bothers me not only on Edwards and H. Clinton (that I do not like), but on Gore or Kerry, that I like. As long as this country is not ready to choose his president on their experience (and it is probable that Edwards has a lot of valuable experience) and competency, but on a cult of personnality or a vague notion of electability, we can be sure that this country will be poorly lead.

[Catchawave]

30. OK. Convince you an Edwards better is better than a

Bush better? :silly:

I think I agree with you, with all due respect, that experience inside the beltway is NO indicator for a good President. Bush came from OUTSIDE the beltway, so that throws that theory out the door too. That leaves Governors. Bush was a Governor.

How about Vice Presidents? Nixon, Ford, Johnson, Bush 41 ? Sorry if I'm missing any others in history. Kerry was on Gore's short list for Veep in 2000, and I do think that would have made a landslide difference?

I think 2008 is going to be like no other in my lifetime. We have to throw out the old rules and just hope Bush hasn't tweaked the Constitution any more to allow him a third term

:nuke:

[Mass]

19. If a party in the UK presented a PM with as little experience as Edwards,

the English media would laugh at them, and with reason.

We need somebody who has better credentials than Edwards and there are a lot that can be chosen from. So please, not Edwards.

[Catchawave]

22. Who has better credentials than Edwards?

Hot Damn, I've always wanted to ask that question on DU :toast:

[Mass]

24. A bunch of people I like or not (by alphabetical order, not by preference)

Biden
Clark
Dodd
Hillary Clinton
Feingold
Gore
Kerry
Richardson

[Catchawave]

33. My definition of "experience" response:

Biden, No, but he entertains me
Clark, No, but God NO U.S.Generalissimo PLEASE, Fox employee
Dodd, No help in CT w/Lamont
Hillary, No, but stands by her man
Feingold, just No, love him but...
Gore, No part 2
Kerry, No Hell No Sir part 2
Richardson, No

Warner trumped all of the above.

Edwards/Warner still my dream ticky. :hi:

[BruceMcF]

38. Depends on what you mean by credentials.

George Bush Sr. had an extensive resume ... a real go-to guy if you are a prospective member of a Guatemalan death and need some training in torture and other fine techniques.

Of course, if we insist on a resume in government as long as George HW Bush, then we tend to restrict ourselves to the children of established political families.

So the first part of John Edwards resume is a successful career before entering politics. The defenders of the status quo sneer at that as being a "trial lawyer". But it says something for John Edwards capabilities that he was able to take complex issues and break them down to the point of persuading a jury ... and normally up against a bigger corporate legal team.

There is, on a side note, quite a long running corporate public relations campaign against trial lawyers, based primarily on spreading myths and half truths. After all, trial lawyers tend to be the ones that succeed sometime in holding corporations accountable for their actions ... and they hate being held accountable.

And then there is the experience in the Senate, the race for President and the VP campaign. I personally think the Kerry campaign put too many eggs in one basket here in Ohio, given the rampant corruption of Ohio Republicans and the cynical manipulation of his role as Chief of Elections by Ken Blackwell, Sec'y of State. You could argue that the Kerry campaign should have made more use of JRE in Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina, and force the Greed Only Party to spread their defense across more states. However, I'll pass over that, since someone who was in the US at the time will have a better perspective on that than I do.

And then there was the discovery, right at the end of the campaign, of Elizabeth's cancer, with the attendant realization that his pursuit of his own political career was in the hands of fate. And so, he took the position at the Poverty Center, long before Katrina made poverty a "live" issue in the eyes of the Conventional Wisdom.

And while the focus of the country is on the middle east hot spots created by Bush's combination of lies and bungling, John Edwards is out educating himself about the fundamental foreign policy issues that we must face up to ... with his work on Russia, India, Uganda (just recently, at the invitation of the IRC), he is going out and learning about the root causes of conflicts from the people who are doing the work on the ground level. He is better prepared to tackle the core foreign policy challenge of cleaning up our horribly tarnished reputation on the world stage than George W, Bill Clinton, George HW, Ronnie, or Jimmy Carter were when they took office (that's as far back as I can go ... I basically started paying attention to Presidential politics with the Watergate hearings).

[benny05]

40. Welcome to the DU, Bruce McF

Good, solid comparisons about political portfolios.

:hi:

[Catchawave]

44. Bruce! Welcome to DU !!!!

:toast: :bounce: :toast:

[citizen snips]

46. Good post

and welcome to DU :hi:

[BruceMcF]

48. Thanks Benny05, catchawave and Mattman ...

... though I'm afraid I am going to get into trouble if I drop in often enough to collect 1,000 posts. Yowza.

[benny05]

50. Don't have to have a 1K of posts

Just need to visit a little more often when you have time and post on all kinds of news.

[Radical Activist]

28. So what? The American public doesn't pick experience.

That's why Bush beat Gore, Clinton beat Bush I, Reagan beat Carter, and Kennedy beat Nixon. In each race, the person with less experience won. The person with a better message and ability to connect with the public will win over the person with experience. That makes Edwards a great candidate.

[1932]

34. ...and it's why FDR beat Hoover?

[Catchawave]

39. Thank you Rad !

That's what I've been trying to say, sometimes my heart gets in the way :hi:

[citizen snips]

45. ding ding ding

we have a winner folks

[1932]

32. Qualifications, once the golden rule,

are now just pieces of paper, eh?

Blair had fewer years as a lawyer, doing good things for people who were wronged, and more years as a MP, doing good things for people who were wronged?

[benny05]

36. Interesting that you say that

JRE met with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown last year on a visit to the London School of Economics. Why would Tony Blair and Gordon Brown meet with him on a private visit unless they didn't think much of him?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b8c814cc-cf16-11d9-8cb5-00000e2511c8.html

The article says it all: JRE stands by his values.

[Mass]

47. I stand by my values too.. This certainly does not qualify me to be

president. Of course, it is important to have a president that has all the values that we have, but this is not enough.

[benny05]

49. But you haven't met Tony Blair or Gordon Brown Have You?

Up to you, but I hope you read the article I posted. It matters because Edwards is being noticed in the non-US press. Most of the US press he has picked up is more on the regional or local news. This article is significant to anyone considering voting for a 2008 candidate, but as anyone, including myself would say, it's early.

I'm interested in what and who Edwards will meet in China, and if the NK situation appears in their talks. I don't think Edwards will disclose that, and shouldn't, but his foreign policy experience has grown since he left the Senate.

[Clark2008]

41. Thank you.

I guess his "looks" simply don't overcome his lack of experience for me.

I mean, the guy didn't even work in a profession prior to being senator that would warrant any sort of worldly experience either.

I have never got the adoration Mr. Patriot Act co-sponsor gets on this board.

[benny05]

42. Who invited this snarky comment?

How about just saying that one wishes Clark were more in the MSM too these days instead of acting like someone at FP.com and commenting on Edwards' photogenic presence as his only asset?

[T_i_B]

56. Wrong

If a party in the UK presented a PM with as little experience as Edwards, the English media would laugh at them, and with reason.

You only need to take a look at the current leader of the UK Conservative Party (an Old Etonian by the name of David Cameron) to know that this statement is false.

[omega minimo]

29. It will be the Corporatist vs. the Populist

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bronxiteforever]

31. he is the real deal-i will work for him to be our nominee-he is smart

Kind and a Class warrior Democrat-the anti-Hillary

[Catchawave]

43. You are so right....

Edwards is magical, he brings us hope and an inspiration to make ourselves better. And yes, he's smart enough. Most important, he knows his supporters will not only watch his back, but slap him from here to tommorrow if he screws up :evilgrin:

Hi bronxiteforever, I'm from Brooklyn :hi: :toast:

[AtomicKitten]

57. Elizabeth was on Hardball yesterday

She is really delightful.