During Thursday night's Democratic debate, something interesting happened. Brian Williams asked the candidates to raise their hand if they believe there is such a thing as a global war on terror.
MSNBC was so sure that Edwards, Obama, and Clinton would answer 'yes' to the GWoT that they reported that all three raised their hands. After all, George Bush and Dick Cheney have been telling us all for the past 5 1/2 years that the Global War on Terror was the explanation for their psychotic foreign policy.
But MSNBC got it wrong. John Edwards did not raise his hand.
Ben Smith of The Politico
reports that a review of the videotape showed that Edwards dissented from George Bush's framing to explain 9/11 and his administration's incoherent response.
Obama and Clinton raised their hands and endorsed Bush's worldview, but John Edwards did not.
Later in the debate, Edwards explained the situation to Williams:
I believe -- and this goes to the question you asked earlier, just a few minutes ago -- global war on terror. I think there are dangerous people and dangerous leaders in the world that America must deal with and deal with strongly, but we have more tools available to us than bombs. And America needs to use the tools that are available to them so that these people who are sitting on the fence, who terrorists are trying to recruit, the next generation, get pushed to our side, not to the other side. We've had no long-term strategy, and we need one, and I will provide one.
Ben Smith offered this commentary about Edwards' dissent:
It's the most direct challenge to the Bush administration's whole worldview that I can recall from a leading Democrat.
Damn straight.
Eventually, MSNBC went back and checked the videotape and discovered that if they think all the leading Democrats endorse George Bush's worldview, they'd better look a bit more closely at John Edwards.
Of course, I can understand MSNBC's initial confusion. They're so used to absolutely everyone praising the emperors new clothes that it must confuse the hell out of them when someone says the emperor isn't wearing any clothes at all.
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- Read about the British government's attempts to move away from the GWoT framing.
- Discover the Edwards blog.
- Throw $25 to keep the Edwards campaign running strong for all of us.