John Nichols had a column in yesterday's Capital Times that all-but-endorsed Senator Edwards. Mr. Nichols has gone to Iowa for the last couple caucuses to take in the sights and sounds. I hope to head down there myself this year. I know a bunch of CDems are looking to make the trip too, if you're interested in going and need a ride please let us know! Take a read at the column:
No serious observer of the Des Moines debate between the Democratic candidates for president doubted that the standout performance, and the standout message, was that of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
Indeed, undecided voters assembled in focus groups that watched the debate for the major television networks rated Edwards off the charts. That's going to help the 2004 Democratic nominee for vice president as the Iowa caucuses approach. Despite the intense focus on the campaigns of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, most polls suggest that Edwards is very much in the running in Iowa. And rightly so.
To a far greater extent than Obama or Clinton, Edwards is striking at the heart of issues that should matter most in the race to replace not just George W. Bush, but the Bush agenda of corporate giveaways, job-crushing free trade deals, war profiteering in Iraq, and subprime mortgage profiteering in Indiana, Idaho, Illinois and, yes, Iowa.
Edwards summed up his increasingly aggressive and powerful anti-corporate themes with a declaration: "What makes America America is at stake: jobs, the middle class, health care, preserving the environment in the world for future generations.
"But all those things are at risk. And why are they at risk? Because of corporate power and corporate greed in Washington, D.C. And we have to take them on. You can't make a deal with them. You can't hope that they're going to go away. You have to actually be willing to fight. And I want every caucus-goer to know I've been fighting these people and winning my entire life. And if we do this together, rise up together, we can actually make absolutely certain, starting here in Iowa, that we make this country better than we left it."
But the former senator's most effective statement at the Des Moines Register debate on Thursday was one that reflected his deep level of engagement with working people in the upper Midwest, an engagement born of long months spent in Iowa and neighboring states -- at a time when Clinton and Obama were spending considerably more time fighting over who had better relations with the media moguls on Hollywood's A-list and in the suites of Manhattan's mortgage manipulators.
Edwards got to know workers in Iowa. He stood with them in their struggles.
Turning a broad question about human rights toward the specific issue of trade policy, the former senator said that human rights, human needs and human values "should be central to our trade policy."
"But," he added, "if you look at what's happened with American trade policy, look at what America got: Big corporations made a lot of money, are continuing to make a lot of money in China. But what did America get in return? We got millions of dangerous Chinese toys. We lost millions of jobs.
"And right here in Iowa, the Maytag plant in Newton closed. A guy named Doug Bishop, who I got to know very well, had worked in that plant, and his family had worked in that plant literally for generations. And his job is now gone. The same thing, by the way, happened in the plant that my father worked in when I was growing up. It is so important that we stop allowing these corporate powers and corporate profits to run America's policy, whether it's trade policy, how we engage with China. This is not good for America. It's not good for American jobs. And it's not good for working people in this country."
That's an issue Edwards has taken far, far more seriously than his opponents in what is now a three-way race in Iowa. And that seriousness will benefit the former senator.
Remembering the workers who have been battered by the failed trade policies of the Clinton and Bush administrations matters. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both supporters of recent trade agreements, don't remember. Edwards, who once had a shaky record on these issues but has come to be a passionate proponent of fair trade, does remember. That's why he won the debate in Des Moines. That's why no one should count him out in Iowa -- or in the rest of a yet-to-be-defined race for the Democratic nomination.
7 Comments:
Do you think that the media and so many politicos are not taking Edwards seriously because he is so serious?
I can't help but wonder if we're in a day and age where we don't believe it if our candidates genuinely want to make a difference and are actually talking about issues as un-sexy as poverty and subprime mortgages.
It just seems like he's so real that he can't be for real, so we dismiss him as this hopeful idealist and gravitate towards the Hollywood endorsements.
I'm not saying I support Edwards, and I'm not saying I don't. Just a thought.
I think the whole haircut thing made a big difference. How can a rich man who gets expensive haircuts care about poverty and working people? It's preposterous! He simply must be a phony.
Hey, did you hear! John Edwards is the son of a mill worker. No really, he is!
And guess what! Barack Obama is going to change the world!
Don't forget about Hillary...she has the experience necessary to lead!
If only Edwards didn't always have that smug look on his face. He looks so smarmy. Did he have that look in 2004? I don't remember it.
And just so everyone knows, my word verification is "dikshp" ... seriously, what's up with that.
Haha, Eric you're totally right. I think that everyone has pretty well defined their backgrounds by now, and I'll be honest: it bothers me that Sen. Edwards lives in a 10,000 sq ft mansion.
That said, he's really laid out his policies well and I think he would make an excellent VP candidate. He's a progressive, nobody can deny that.
In response to Suchita, consider this. Edwards isn't "sexy," he's not a minority, he's not a woman, he's not new. He was here doing this four years ago. This is certainly oversimplifying things a bit but I think that it certainly plays a role.
Also in drawing on Oliver's comment, the fact that he has laid his policies out so well makes it difficult for the media to cover because they can't reduce everything he says to a 30 second sound bite.
I love his huge house and expensive haircuts. The guy has been successful so what? If he wants to enjoy the fruits of his labor then let all the more power to him.
Suchita, they don't take him serious, because he's not a serious candidate. The funding issue along with his inability to gain any traction outside of Iowa dooms him.
don't count him out. south carolina is close to home terf for him, and he'll do well in many of the southern states on super tuesday.
also, i bet that a lot of the roughly 15-20% of voters who support richardson, kucinich, biden, and dodd would jump to the edwards camp. something to really keep in mind for the caucuses with their viability threshold requirements.
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