Hard to believe the POTUS 2008 campaign season has been so long, yet short in other ways. The Iowa caucuses are upon us in 6 days, and even a year ago, they were to be a week or so later in 2008.
So many candidates, so little time.
My diary is about looking back at the launch a year ago today and how his message has been consistent throughout the year. It has developed though with great substance, and he has provided leadership with his agenda. The launch laid out the foundation for his campaign.
Let's take an abbreviated look back after the jump...
A year ago today, I was en route to Des Moines to meet up with long time supporters of John Edwards but also to hear Edwards at a town hall at the kickoff of his campaign.
While I was driving, John and Elizabeth were live blogging here.
I recall walking into the Iowa Historical Society and meeting Ed Fallon, who had run for governor a few months ago, but had lost to 2 very good candidates. Fallon is now considering a run against Len Boswell (a Bush-dog/DLCer who endorsed Clinton recently) in the Democratic primary 2008. Seeing Fallon greet and direct folks was a positive sign since he is very progressive.
I was invited to a meet and greet of bloggers in Des Moines, whereby I met NCDemAmy, who had traveled with JRE and recorded his NOLA announcement.
Jake Luddington, a native Iowan, and blogger/techie with the Gnomedex crowd, caught our blogger M&G, and heard our questions. I am the voice in the background who asked about the relationship between US-Russia-Iran. Luddington and Scoble were pretty impressed with our questions, in that they were substantive (if not more) than the MSM and we received pretty detailed answers.
It was very exciting to see Edwards at the Town Hall afterwards. He walked down a series of stairs, about 2 flights if I remember correctly. Bear in mind Edwards only had slept a couple of hours himself and he still appeared as fresh as a new carnation and was fired up by the crowd. I was supposed to have a seat in front, but I ended up in the Press Corps section which meant one had to crawl over others in taking pics and notes. Here's a link to the Town Hall videos. Edwards was the only one who took both online and live questions at the same time.
Century of the Common Iowan wrote an excellent synopsis of the event (and was one of the attendees at the blogger M & G I attended) as well as O. Kay Henderson from Iowa Radio, so I am using their notes.
Edwards was introduced and made his way to the stage. I couldn't quite hear what the intro music was, but some was playing (edit: It was Times Like These by the Foo Fighters). Edwards began by asking people to participate and stayed on that theme throughout the event. Edwards said, "We need to bring about the change this country and Iowa needs." He said this cause begins with the grassroots and he wants people to hear our voice and Edwards wants to hear from you. It all depends on engagement and people getting involved.
From Henderson's notes, in which he continued about the problem of global warming:
..We need our leaders to be willing to ask the American people...to sacrifice about something other than just war. (applause) We need to say to America we need to move away from our addition to oil....invest in clean, alternative sources of energy (applause)...but it's not enough. We're actually going to have to be willing to conserve.
....One way to pay for it is to put a tax on the excessive profits of oil companies. (loud applause)
(One will note Clinton later said she would do the same thing)
.We need to change our national housing policy...We concentrate poor people togther...not healthy, not good for our democracy and it just feeds the cycle of poverty. (proposes 1 million housing vouchers not for large-scale low-income housing, but housing anywhere to promote mobility and stability, according to Edwards).
...It is not right for us to just throw money at this problem...what we should do is say to people...that we expect them to help themselves. We expect people who are able to work to work. We have to address some of these hot issues about responsibility (talked about teen pregnancy).
...We've got to make these young men believe again. All of these things...are things that require action from us. The truth of the matter is I've learned a lot...if we want to bring about the change...we cannot stand by and hope somebody else is going to do it for us. The power in America is not in Washington, D.C. It's out here...The government alone can't do it...How long is it going to take us to figure that out?
Edwards took lots of questions, anywhere from the Middle East mess to No Child Left Behind.
Chuckles1 was there at the town hall and later I found out Ezra Klein was his roommate in NOLA. I recognized Erza and introduced myself. They, along with some other bloggers, were on the plane with JRE, just as Edwards said he would do when he spoke at the Gnomedex conference in late June 2006 when Mitch Radcliffe suggested a CJ to be with him (or any candidate) on the bus.
Robert Scoble ended up following Edwards to NH and NV as well during those first 2 days on JRE's whirlwind launch.
You will recall that Barack Obama announced on the Net that he was forming an exploratory committee. Hillary Clinton followed suit.
Since then, Edwards has laid out a very comprehensive, progressive agenda on his web site.
He will also fight against the corporate interests in order to get UHC pushed through, tackle global warming, and encourage legislation that favors the people and small businesses, not the big companies who try to discourage workers from joining a union or ship our jobs needlessly overseas when products can be made here at home, and safely.
And if you look at the other front runners, they have borrowed many of his ideas and have tried to blur the distinctions. Obama claims not to take money from PACs in this campaign. I suppose that the highest form of flattery is imitation.
Edwards was the first to say NO to Fox News debates. Only when he said NO the others followed suit. He was the first to accept the invitation to attend the Yearly Kos. The others followed suit, once again. Clinton almost didn't have a town hall there, but the bloggers made it clear if she didn't, their opinion of her would only decrease further.
But I'd like to point out two difference between the front runners: not once have Clinton or Obama live blogged here at the Kos since they announced their candidacy. Clinton has been to Firedoglake, once. I'm not certain where Obama has liveblogged. But I supposed they didn't need to court us that much since they have so much traditional media coverage.
The other is that John Edwards blog allows anyone to put up a diary and have their voice heard, as long as the diary is not obnoxious or profane. I don't think the other two front runners allow that on their blogs either.
But there is no doubt in my mind that Edwards has always and will continue to be the Netroots candidate, who will go on to the Presidency and be the first Netroots President. After all, he already knows whom he would hire to be his blogger: Elizabeth Edwards, who has blogged here quite a few times herself.
And besides our vote, the netroots is the second highest form of getting our voices heard. John Edwards, who has never taken a single dime from federal PACS, feels strongly that we need to be heard, and that is why he has invested so much of his campaign in the Netroots because he is interested in what WE the People have to say.
Speaking of, I just discovered on his website that he is launching My Voice, My Vote today. How cool is that? Check it out.
Update: I just discovered Edwards' website has launched for Iowans "Ask John". Any Iowan who wishes to submit a question will get a reply by phone if s/he leaves a phone number.
