Edwards "A common sense Progressive"... following in the steps of Howard Dean.

Ninga sez......"When at first you don't succeed....try, try, again".......

This OP is for those of you who are still looking, I recommend that you please take a few moments to read the entire diary at the link below. It is a fascinating read for sure.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/11/7/7575/23634

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Think back to 2002 and 2003, when Terry McCauliff was the Chair of our party and Joe Lieberman was, for a time, favored to be the Democratic nominee. Democratic leaders were still operating under the triangulating strategy that, whatever the Republicans were doing, the responsible thing for Democrats to do was to agree in principle with the repubs and then pick a small issue to quibble over. No Republican idea was too outrageous to grudgingly support. The D.C. democrats lived in a bubble of their own making. They were smug accomplices to our country's shame. They were wrong about almost everything, but they were Very. Important. People.

Well, Howard Dean stood up to them. On issue after issue, Dean spoke the truth while the talking heads and Washington dems enabled Bush. D.C. insiders (and their media enablers) managed to feign outrage at Dean's various "gaffes" while tolerating the most outrageous Bushian lies. Since they couldn't win on the issues, they attacked Dean by focusing on the trivial. The establishment constructed a narrative where Dean -- the moderate Governor of Vermont -- was some sort of a crazy combination of Vladimir Lenin and a pussified Ultimate Warrior.

The establishment won the first round. Howard Dean is not our president, but he kept fighting, and now he is chair of the Democratic Party. And, the FACT remains, Howard Dean was right and the establishment was wrong. The country was heading in a profoundly wrong direction in 2003, and we needed to elect someone who said this, not someone who quibbled.


The press reacted to Edwards in the same way that they reacted to Dean. Dean was destroyed over "gaffes" that were, in reality, molehills that the media turned into mountains. The media is trying to do the same thing to Edwards. We've had breathless reporting on issues like "haircut gate" or "housegate" or, my personal favorite, "he is goodlooking so voters will think he is gay or effeminate-gate." Don't think for a second that the presses decision to exaggerate Edwards miscues is a mistake:

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Will the Very. Serious. People. win? This time around, I think the answer is no. John Edwards is less swiftboatable than Howard Dean. I mean, when the media is reduced to running stories saying "he is too good looking", you know there's not much there there.

I also think John's message is maybe even more crucial than Dean's was in 2004. Our government is fundamentally broken. It needs to be vastly overhauled. This is becoming so glaringly obvious that it's going to be tough for people to believe the Washington narrative. We simply can't afford to let the Very. Serious. People. make the big decisions anymore.

-snip-

return......I will find some interesting comments and well thought out debate.

Bless all of you, who bring thoughtful and considerate commentary.....I will gladly set a place for you at my table....whether you support Edwards or not.

Dean would never attack another Dem candidate the way Edwards has with his continued distorted yammering of Hillary's intentions. Shame on Edwards and I dare say his negativity will be reflected in his poll numbers.

One of the reasons he was painted as an irrational crank is that he dared to criticize Democrats.

God forbid in a political campaign anyone should say anything unflattering about their opponent.

and this reflects more on you than on Edwards, IMO.

'yammering'? how about points out real differences because they need to be understood through the fog of obfuscation and double-talk and insincerity of your candidate?

i'm glad someone has the gumption to stand up to that machine, whether it backfires or not. I wonder if it WILL backfire, given the deep dislike of many for HRC.

In fact, all 110,000 of us DUers will be dropping by for lunch.

and was thrown off of Daily Kos for saying this.
Now I like him less.

I don't like the way his gang has penetrated the blogs and is
initiating a massive attack campaign against Hillary Clinton.

how does that work?

his 'gang' are those progressive democrats who want some backbone in their party. it's not a group of thugs.

'massive attack' is hardly the way to characterize a candidate pointing out differences, and weaknesses and double-talk from an opponent.

and you do realize they are opponents, right?

I wonder why you were thrown of Daily Kos. I seriously doubt it's because you said, "I dislike Edwards'.

That is why she was thrown off of DailyKos. Criticism of Edwards is not allowed there.

Edwards and backbone have nothing to do with each other.

Record means something--Else anyone could just run for office on the pretty things they say.

Joe Trippi--who takes centrist Democrats and repackages them on the Internet as "progressive," though little in their previous records would substantiate that designation.

Edwards was the most progressive candidate not named Dennis well before Trippi showed up on the campaign. Look it up.

I was shocked and appalled at how Dean was depicted as a crazy man, and somehow out of the political "mainstream."

In fact, he was very mainstream -- but he represented the best of the mainstream, rather than the wimpy, triangulating corporate pandering of the so-called "centrist" Democrats.

We lost a great opportunity to make the democratic Party relevant again when dean was so mischaracterized and slandered back then.

And it's sad to see another candidate (Edwards) who could actually bridge the gap being ignored or falsely caricatured.