Re Edwards: it's better to focus on principles than on personalities

[Stevepol]

This is a principle itself that everybody interested in politics would be well-advised to consider.

Edwards is not why I'm a Democrat. Nobody's private life has anything to do with why I'm a Democrat.

As soon as we stop voting on the basis of principle and start focusing too much on personality, we are inevitably going to be let down at some point, merely because nobody is perfect if for no other reason.

I supported Kucinich as long as I could. He espoused and expressed (and still does) the principles I most believe in.

I switched to Edwards when Kucinich dropped out because Edwards best expressed those same principles.

When Edwards dropped out, I found that Obama began to grow on me and again I liked the principles he expressed during his campaigning and I felt he was and is the one most likely to put those principles into practice.

If you believe in the principles, you'll find that people will rise when they are called for to take up those princples. How sincere and passionate they are about those princples will be reflected in their lives and personalities. But the principles live on regardless of the individuals who take up the cause at any one period of time. I also think that very often when a person, never mind a politician, makes a mis-step, very often it leads to even greater conviction and sincerity in the future. That depends on the individual.

As for the weaknesses that individuals show, these are personal and private facts. In our private lives we suffer or glory because of the personal decisions we make. In the public lives of politicians, the decisions that are made have tangible and measurable effects on millions of people. I think we should try to keep these two phases of life separate in politics.

I support a politician and I like a politician's personality because of the principles he espouses; I don't support the principles because of his or her personality.

[frazzled]

1. Espousing principles doesn't mean you necessarily have them

And that is why character counts, in addition to the principles espoused.

What always bothered me about John Edwards (and it went back to 2002 at least) was that he didn't seem to have any real principles, only what was politically expedient. Now, I understand politicians have to be politically expedient--but there has to be something in their prior work or life that assures me that the underlying principles are there. I couldn't point to any of that in Edwards's prior life: he'd done nothing of social significance before coming to the Senate; his voting record there was very poor; he co-sponsored the Iraq War Resolution; he abandoned the small-time college education fund he'd established as soon as he dropped out of the race. There was nothing there to hang on to: just words.

In both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (and John Kerry before them), I saw long histories of working for social causes--so when they would have to be politically expedient, I had some sense of their real core to fall back on. With Edwards, that core didn't exist.

I am very sad this had to come out. But in some strange way, it reassures me, that after all the flak I've taken over the years for being critical of him, for sensing he was an egotist and a phony, I feel sadly vindicated.

Now, let's move onto McCain's unsavory personal character.

[bean fidhleir]

2. Principles are better than personalities, agreed. Strongly agreed.

But track record is a far better measure of principles than mere claims.

Edwards was all fine words and crappy track record. So I never even considered voting for him.

Obama seems to be a lot like Edwards: fine words (some of them) but a crappy track record.

DK, on the other hand, both says fine words and has had an exceptionally fine track record once he pulled his head out of his ass about Choice. I can't think of ANY other politician who EVER flushed his career down the toilet to keep a promise - the rest all flush the promise while smothering us in bullshit (Pelosi comes to mind). So DK has my vote any time I can give it.