After yesterday's depression over Gephardt, I'm just delighted by the Edwards veep pick. I may disagree with Edwards on a lot of issues, but he behaved honorably during the primaries--and his "two Americas" speech is the best-phrased argument for economic populism in a long time.
And Kerry looks better, too. He choose a decent guy for veep, made a wise strategic choice, and played the announcement well. I still have concerns about Kerry, but this tips the scales well in his favor.
Edwards doesn't really represent my political values--he's somewhat socially conservative, he co-authored the Patriot Act
[Correction: Nobody can find any evidence that Edwards co-authored the Patriot Act, except for possibly influencing the sunset provisions; see the comment thread], and he voted for the Iraq War Resolution.
But despite my political disagreements, I still approve of Edwards. He's taken clear personal responsibility for the result of his Iraq vote. He's an effective advocate for working folks. And Edwards does offer a lot for many other important Democratic constituencies.
There are some parts of the Democratic establishment I really dislike--the more-centrist-than-thou politicians who spend most of their time attacking other Democrats. This includes Lieberman, the current incarnation of the DLC, and the slimebags at Americans for Jobs, Health Care & Progressive Values.
On the other hand, I have no problem with the New Democratic Network. The NDN shares most of the political positions of the DLC, but they spend their time building the party, not tearing it down. They learned from Dean instead of sliming him, they've been running excellent Spanish-language ads in Hispanic markets, and they've been working overtime to soothe Howard Stern's ego after Kerry dumped on Stern (this is important, because Stern is rabidly anti-Bush and has a big audience of swing voters).
So never let it be said I'm unwilling to compromise on important issues to put together a winning coalition. Convince me that the Democratic candidates are basically decent people--who spend more time attacking Bush/Cheney than attacking their own party members--and I'm willing to cut them a lot of political slack.
I've long been on a knife's edge about Kerry's fitness to be president, but this selection of a relatively honorable, strategically favorable veep tips me stongly into Kerry's camp (and away from the merely ABB camp).
I think I will give Kerry more money after all...