Thank you John Edwards; 1-on-1 will make for stronger nominee

I believe John Edwards would have been the best nominee. But Like Senator Edwards, I realized it was not to be.

Had he stayed in the race, we faced the prospect of a nominee who lacked the support of a majority of the primary electorate. And even if it turned out that a majority of us found the nominee acceptable, there would be many on the losing side who would not believe that. By allowing Senators Obama (my choice) and Clinton to enter a two-person race, Senator Edwards has done the party a great service, increasing our likelihood of bringing sanity, legality, and compassion back to the Presidency, no matter who is our candidate in November.

•  If it ends up

  being Clinton 51%-49%, that's not much better.

  by nrafter530 on Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 12:23:49 PM PDT

•  There's still 3.

  Mike Gravel's Alternative Debate tomorrow night, with the network feed on a screen, and he'll jump in with his answers. http://gravel2008.us will provide a link to the live feed.

  by ben masel on Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 12:31:41 PM PDT

•  "Thanks for getting out of our way"

  Yeah, that's the way to win friends and influence people, you ol' honeydripper you.

  by phenry on Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 12:32:23 PM PDT

  •  No, thanks for sticking around

    But not in a way that will give credence to losers' claims of illegitimacy after the convention.

    If you want to vote for Edwards even though he's stopped running, go ahead. If I didn't see much difference between Obama and Clinton, that's what I'd do. (Or I'd do similarly with Kucinich, or whatever.) But even if you do that, Edwards pulling out spares us the cries of 'my candidate would have won except for the splitting of the vote' that would otherwise leave more hurt feelings than we'll get this way.

    by Dvd Avins on Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 01:31:49 PM PDT

•  1-1 risks a bloody, brutal contest with noone ...

  ... ultimately winning ... look up "Pyrrhic Victory".

  In mid January, Obama co-sponsored Lieberman-McCain. In late January, Hillary joined him.

  They helped give this seriously flawed bill momentum both by co-sponsoring it and by snubbing the serious bill, Boxer-Sanders, introduced the following day.

  Then, with Lieberman-McCain safely launched, they both, on the same day in early May, co-sponsored Boxer-Sanders to given themselves cover as they pretended to have a climate change policy that met the IPCC recommendations.

  And the tango is repeated, on issue after issue. Voting for tweedle dee instead of tweedle dum is a wasted vote, unless one of the two campaigns steps to the plate and gets serious.

  I sure as hell am not going to play the game of pretending this is the General Election, which is the trap so many Edwards supporters fell into that they collaborated with the Mass Media in driving him out of the race.

  If neither campaign can show that they are even trying ... well, I certainly am not going to vote for either one in that event. So, vote for Edwards, leave it blank, it is all the same.

  Anyone who wants to create the New Progressive Populist movement, drop by my diary and say where you will be hanging out, if you intend to step over the border from the Daily Kos into the progressive blogosphere.

  by BruceMcF on Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 12:45:23 PM PDT