There has been a lot of talk around here lately about John Edwards; talk concerning his past, present, and future. There are many people who support the former North Carolina Senator, and there are some who do not. I respect and understand that. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and I most certainly will not ask you to silence yours to please me. Debate is good and needed for the selection process and, in turn, the country. But when debate turns into petty attacks not just on the candidate, but on his/her supporters too, then we have a problem. Recently, some people have begun attacking Edwards' supporters, referring to them in a variety of insults and insulting their intelligence. As a Edwards supporter, I am offended. I may not agree with your candidate at times, but I have never resorted to personal attacks on said candidate's supporters. To those of you who wish for true debate, concerning facts and not vendettas, I thank you. To those of you who wish to attack me, I have all but one thing to say to you: I don't care what you have to say on the subject, I plan on voting for Senator Edwards in the South Carolina primary and later on in November, as well.
I supported John Edwards in 2004 when he ran for President. And the only reason I had any faith in the Kerry campaign was because John Kerry selected Senator Edwards to be his running mate. I am currently 17 years old, but I will turn 18 in April. As I stated earlier, my first vote ever shall be for John Edwards in the South Carolina primary. Many people say he is not seasoned enough, or they simply can never forgive him for voting for the authorization to use force. To those people I respectfully say I don't care.
I don't care if you can't forgive him for his vote. I can. We need to remember that at one point most of us supported this war to some extent thanks to Bush and his false intelligence. We all were not apart of the 20% who disagreed with Bush. He is doing what is needed now to fix the error we all accepted. He is one of the only candidates calling for troop withdraw now. And can someone please explain to me how a person who initially disagreed with the war will somehow have a better plan to get us out than someone who once agreed, but now disagrees? Is there some test one has to pass in order to have a credible plan?
I don't care if you feel he doesn't have enough experience because experience can have a different meaning to different people. To me, experience isn't 20 or 30 years in the Senate, making Washington your permanent residence. Experience is getting out among the people, understanding their problems, and finding a solution. John Edwards does that better than any candidate.
And, finally, I don't care what you think about me. I am excited about my candidate, and I will defend him. Despite some of the claims, Edwards supporters do see the facts. And the facts say John Edwards is the best choice for President in 2008.