A few people here might know that I have leaned toward Sen. Clinton for some time as a primary candidate. This is because I have felt, in sum, that she was the most likely person out there to take a progressive agenda like mine all the way into the White House and successfully implement it.
I don't agree with Sen. Clinton on everything.
And she's not perfect, but she's pretty good.
Lately, though, I have to admit that I have been drawn to John Edwards, who seems to be getting more and more relevant as the race progresses forward.
On domestic issues, all weather forecasts right now for the average America are really, really bad.
Consensus among economists is that we're on the brink of a national recession. (Middle and working class folks have been in a recession for years. I suppose this will be one that affects the rich as well.) Housing prices are plummeting across the country. Equities markets where a small number of middle class people are fortunate enough to keep their retirement investments have been very unstable. Inflation is up. Wages are down. Energy costs and supplies are uncertain.
And health care and insurance policy are a disaster.
Here's John Edwards, for example, on health care:
Nice, right?
Here is Barack Obama on health care:
When Barack Obama and fellow state lawmakers in Illinois tried to expand healthcare coverage in 2003 with the "Health Care Justice Act," they drew fierce opposition from the insurance industry, which saw it as a back-handed attempt to impose a government-run system.
Over the next 15 months, insurers and their lobbyists found a sympathetic ear in Obama, who amended the bill more to their liking partly because of concerns they raised with him and his aides, according to lobbyists, Senate staff, and Obama's remarks on the Senate floor.
Same old, same old capitulation to powerful, rich big business interests.
Every once in a while, someone here posts a diary on domestic and economic issues and people in the comments ask, "But what can we do to protect ourselves now?"
People give tips about how to conserve cash, pay off debts, move in with relatives, boil beans and discuss when it's okay to kite and check and when it's not. (Hint: it's never okay. Well, I guess unless your kids haven't eaten for a week, something that seems less and less remote these days.)
But the real answer does not lie in individual households desperately trying to cut costs and borrow against assets and time.
The real answer has to come from collective action using the powers of government with the goal of supporting the general welfare.
John Edwards is telling us that he knows what government is for. It exists to protect the interests of its citizens. It's right there in the Preamble to the Constitution. He knows what government is for and -- by gum -- he's going to use it exactly for that!
Hillary Clinton shares this philosophy, but -- like so many other things in her candidacy -- she has failed to develop a storyline that allows her to communicate effectively exactly what she intends to do, were she president.
Barack Obama continues down the wrong, old road of laissez-faire, trickle-down, free market economics. He is suspicious of the idea that positive government action really can change people's lives to the better. He actually reminds me of many smart, talented, ambitious and successful people who can't understand why everyone else is just average and have little patience for them.
Unfortunately, most of America is just average and we need the government to fulfill its responsibility for promoting the general welfare.
Watching clips from the Des Moines Register debate -- and Edwards's post mortems on the morning shows the next day -- I felt him pulling again towards me. His message is very appealing, especially now with so many dark clouds on the domestic horizon.