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Sunday, January 27, 2008

"Your voice will be heard": John Edwards as the Democratic Party's conscience
Posted by Jill | 12:28 PM
I don't think even John Edwards believes anymore that he can get this nomination, not after his paltry, if still better-than-expected showing in South Carolina lately. But unlike Hillary Clinton, who along with spouse Bill, is showing that there are no depths below which she'll sink to obtain the nomination for the presidency, Edwards seems to see his role now as the anchor on the other side of the Democratic tug-of-war between the Liebercrat wing of the party, for which no capitulation to the most extreme right-wing position is too great a price to pay for "bipartisanship", and the progressive, Democratic wing of the Democratic party.

With forces from the DLC to the talking heads of the media persisting in the erroneous notion that this is basically a conservative country pulling both Hillary Cinton and Barack Obama towards the right, John Edwards is right there, tugging them back, reminding them that there are still American individuals who need to be represented, not just corporations and their lobbyists. He's necessary to keep the other two candidates at least slightly in touch with ordinary Americans. And he's still necessary in the unlikely event that the escalating ugliness being perpetrated by the Clintonistas succeeds in destroying both Clinton's and Obama's candidacies in the days before SupercalifragilisticexpialiTuesday.

If New Hampshire's result was a smackdown of the mainstream media, especially Chris Matthews, by New Hampshire women, South Carolina's result was a smackdown of Clintonista race-baiting by African-American voters in that state. Obama's solid trouncing of Hillary Clinton in yesterday's primary should send a message to the Clintons: Sorry, Bill, you're not the first black president anymore.

Who would have believed, after black Ohio voters stood in the rain for ten hours in 2004 and still were not able to vote, that it would be a Democratic former president and his candidate spouse who would be the ones to rip open the scabs of race relations in America, all for nothing but pure, blind ambition. If Obama is the nominee, I will support him despite my reservations about his toughness against an attack machine the likes of which the Clintonistas are just a pale imitation. But last night, in a spectacular victory speech, he was simultaneously gracious, grateful, and defiant:





I'd like to see more of this from him, particularly if Bill 'n' Hill's polling in the February 5th states starts to show their restoration slipping away. At a time when the economy is in tatters, were embroiled in a war without end, and in debt up to our eyeballs, watching the Clintons' "Me, me, me, it's all about me" campaign is almost enough to make me understand just what it was about them that the wingnuts hated all those years.

The contrast between John Edwards' carefully worded promise, no longer to win, but to make sure the voices of ordinary Americans are heard, and Clinton's "Let's pretend this never happened and go on to our certain victory on Super Tuesday" stump speech made it clear where all this is going. Edwards is aware that his role in this campaign has changed, and seems to accept it. Clinton will accept nothing less than victory, even if she has to destroy her own or Obama's eventual candidacy and cede the presidency to the Republicans to do it.

On Friday's Countdown, Keith Olbermann talked about the pledged "superdelegates", who could very well throw the nomination to Clinton even if Obama is ahead in state delegates at the time. With the Clintons seemingly doing everything they can to alienate both black voters and the progressive party base, it would be appalling to witness a bunch of party hacks, all of them in thrall to wads of corporate cash, override the will of the people in an effort to retain their own power. That spectacle could do more to convince Americans that democracy is dead in this country than anything the Republicans could do.

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Blogger adam k. said...
I would SO love an Obama/Edwards ticket at this point. Or perhaps an Obama/Sibelius ticket? That might kick even more ass.

I do think Barack will get a big bump out of last night since his margin was so overwhelming, and Hillary so dismissive of what it means. Maybe the party hacks' superdelegate votes can be counteracted by Edwards' throwing his delegates to Obama? I hope he does.
1/27/08, 7:10 PM  
Blogger ricksramblings said...
ONLY A PAWN IN THEIR GAME

Bob Dylan said it best ONLY A PAWN IN THEIR GAME. http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/pawn.html
The media has turned our two best candidates in years or even history into racist petty fighting cats and dogs.
I just heard Leo Terelle"some radio talk show guy" screaming on MSNBC how the black people will not come out to vote if Hillary is the nominee . NOW THAT'S SMART! I watched this unfold. Right after the NH loss by Barack CNN and MSNBC started questioning the TOM BRADLY effect. Michael Eric Dyson and Donna Brazel both questioning whether the people in NEW Hampshire were telling poll takers they voted for Barack but the racist they are couldn't pull the lever for a black man. Then came the Martin Luther King JR. to LBJ comment the media jumped all over saying Hillary was a racist for dissin MLK. Certainly questionable at best and taken totally out of context. Then came the Fairy Tale Remark again HOW was that Racist yet the media was all over it. Then came the drug use by Barack with the Hillary campaign and next BET founder Jhonson.
OK that is the chronology as I see it.

I do have to ask how is any of this racist except in the eyes of the media who want it to be racist to get ratings.
Drug use is racist to whom? I've been to many twelve step program meetings and I will tell you flat out DRUGS DON"T CARE WHAT COLOR RACE, RELIGION OR HOW RICH OR POOR YOU ARE! I fail to see how this is a racial issue. The media wants it to be but how is it? Furthermore the Martin Luther King Jr. needing LBJ to help fulfill his dream is fact not racial or anything but. Hillary was pointing out that Barack was a dreamer not a realist or a doer. That was not racist but questioning his lack of experience. Finally the "Fairy Tale" once again putting in question Baracks voting record since his campaign is based almost exclusively on that one issue. Not racially motivated at all.
So only a pawn in their game but today the pawns are the politicians and we the people, and the chess masters are the major corporations that control the media.
1/29/08, 12:20 AM  
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