John Edwards stock rising for this voter: "no timetable, no funding. No excuses."

John Edwards from 9/2/07:



link:
http://johnedwards.com/news/press-releases/20070902-iraq-civilian-death-tolls/

* * * * *

I will admit that I'm starting to appreciate John Edwards more and more. I've been an ardent supporter of Barack Obama and John has always struck me as a little too polished (the dumb haircut thing etc.); though as we approach 2008, the spin stuff of haircuts and big homes shrinks in triviality to the broader issues.

I have not fleshed it out yet, but there is something about John that simply feels the most representative of Democratic values. His message has always been consistent regarding two America's, he never takes money from PAC's, and his honesty about his IWR vote has always impressed me. He holds no punches when it comes to jumping on Congress for their inaction regarding ending Shrub's immoral war.

I still greatly admire Obama and see him as a visionary with unmatched enthusiasm; though his relative inexperience in some areas makes me wonder if he is as electable as JE? I guess I've quietly found myself moving from the Obama camp to now --- undecided. John Edwards carries enough weight worthy of consideration that I find myself re-examining who I want to support. John or Barack?

Some have said JE reminds them of Huey Long and his populist message. I'm not sure, but I'm sensing that behind the polish, there really is a lot of sincerity, consistency, and experience.

:think:

Disclaimer: In the unlikely event of an Al Gore miracle announcement, ALL my support would immediately defer to Al! JE would make a great VP!

as his running mate but if Al doesn't enter into the race then it is John Edwards for me.

Edwards Veers Hard Right, Supports Escalating Middle East Conflicts
by MICHAEL CARMICHAEL

“This week, during a speech at the Herzliya Conference, a major international gathering dedicated to Israeli security and diplomatic issues, Edwards stuck to his hawkish positions on Iran.”—The Jewish Daily/Forward

In a shocking development, John Edwards cast aside his progressive veneer and veered to the hard right to support the escalation of Bush’s wars in the Middle East to engulf Iran.

During a lamentable speech he made to an audience assembled in Herzilya, a city named for the founder of Zionism that is located a mere 20 miles from Tel Aviv, Edwards sanctioned a U.S. war against Iran, denied the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) and bashed the Palestinian people.

According to a report on the website TotallyJewish.com, John Edwards proclaimed his support for the neoconservative agenda of the Israel Lobby, and he even echoed the bellicose rhetoric of George Bush vis-à-vis Iran — “Hinting to possible military action.” Edwards has now become the official candidate of the Israel Lobby for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In his speech before the Herzilya Conference, John Edwards echoed the neoconservative ideology of George W. Bush, who is threatening to bomb Iran. In Israel, Edwards is now regarded as a strong supporter for American military intervention in Iran and the de facto expansion of the war in Iraq that would then engulf Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan in a flaming arc of war, terrorism and ultra-violence.

In taking this position, Edwards is now in direct conflict with the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate, where both Senator Joe Biden and Majority Leader Harry Reid have promised to set in motion a constitutional crisis if Bush orders U.S. forces to expand the Iraq war into Iran. Edwards’ position on Iran even places him to the right of Bush’s newly installed Secretary of Defense, William Gates, who warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the expansion of the Iraq war into Iran would have “devastating consequences,” for American diplomacy.

Additionally, Edwards criticized Syria for not doing enough to prove they are serious about negotiating the return of the Golan Heights in exchange for their help in fostering peace between Israel and the Palestinians and stabilizing the increasingly turbulent situation inside Iraq. Edwards’ position on Syria places him to the right of the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton ISG that recommended negotiations with Syria for the resolution of both the war in Iraq and a peace settlement with Israel.

To top those blunders, Edwards then criticized the Palestinians for democratically electing the Hamas government.

In the same disastrous speech, Edwards refrained from criticizing Israel for withholding hundreds of millions of dollars of the Palestinians’ funds and creating chaos among the already deeply repressed population. Israel’s deliberate withholding of the Palestinians’ funds exacerbated the already dreadful conditions in the Occupied Territories and the Gaza Strip where the United Nations describes Israel’s harsh repression of the Palestinian people as one of the most egregious violations of human rights in the world today.

At no time in his entire career has John Edwards ever publicly expressed any concern for Israel’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Neither has Edwards criticized Israel for its refusal to acknowledge the existence of her powerful nuclear arsenal that is known to contain over 200 armed nuclear warheads, making her either the third or fourth most powerful nation on earth.

In a statement that tacitly condoned Israel’s repressive policies: targeted assassinations, house demolitions, military attacks on civilian targets, detentions of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, and the persistent violation of the human rights of the Palestinians, Edwards proclaimed his allegiance to the agenda designed by the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC). In their now well-known paper, two highly distinguished American academics, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, exposed AIPAC as the political core of the Israel Lobby. While John Edwards has capably expressed his support for the deconstruction of the premiere project of the Israel Lobby — the U.S. war in Iraq — he leaves the impression that he is now ready, willing and able to launch their next foolish enterprise: a U.S. attack against Iran.

The fact that Edwards condones the humiliating violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people places him far to the right of former President Jimmy Carter, whose latest book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid is now soaring at the top of the bestseller lists in America. All of this inconsistency with Edwards’ pledge to uphold human rights is deeply disappointing. Edwards’s neoconservative attitudes will be a major disappointment to his erstwhile supporters in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Edwards promised to be a progressive candidate, but he now appears to be a devotee of the Democratic Leadership Council who is obviously under the heady ether of the Israel Lobby.

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton declined to address the Herzliya Conference, but Edwards was joined by three Republicans: Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain in addressing the conference of right-wing Israelis by satellite.

Michael Carmichael is a historian and author based in Oxford, England, UK. He is the founder and chief executive officer of planetarymovement.org. This article is republished in the Baltimore Chronicle with permission of the author.

That's what Edwards gave us in 2002 when he thought (wrongly) that was what we wanted to hear. He gave us these then-popular sound bites:



Now, in 2007, he has reassessed what he thinks we want to hear: another set of popular sound bites. The question is, what does he really believe, and what would he really do if he were not simply responding to a campaign strategy? I believe that is a difficult question to answer, given that he has never not been running a campaign. So sorry, these words do not sway me. He could do a total three-sixty again. I need something more solid to hang my trust on ... some past record outside campaign rhetoric against which to measure these words.