I caught this on Digby today and thought it deserved a wider audience. Digby was commenting on the MSNBC coverage of last night's Michigan returns and added this gem by the always excellent Rachel Maddow :
Update: Maddow just made an interesting point. She said the difference between the three candidates is how they define change:
Hillary believes the thing that needs to be changed is that Bush needs to be out and the Democrats need to be back in there. Edwards believes the thing that needs to be changed is that the moneyed interests and the lobbyists need to be taken out of the political game. Obama believes that what needs to change is that he needs to be the president because he is a personally unifying character...
Democrats are being asked whether they believe in party, in which case they should be for Hillary, if they believe in power they should be for Edwards and if they believe in personality, they should vote for Obama.
(my bold)
I think Rachel very succinctly described the different appeal our top three candidates offer and the difficulty we have deciding between them.
I have asked myself as an Edwards supporter (no this isn't a candidates diary), why I continue to support him in the face of the difficulties his campaign faces. I think it's because, I do want to feel that I may regain some power in my life and an Edwards presidency offers that to me.
As a life long Democrat, the party argument comes in second for me, any(almost) Democrat will be better than a Republican. But as an aging feminist Hillary's candidacy pleases and excites me.
The personality argument is weakest as an incentive to garner my vote, this is not to disparage the charismatic appeal that Obama has the ability get folks excited about politics. But I'm too much of a political junkie to let that sway my vote.
Please don't let this diary be subjected to 'candidate wars', just curious if Rachel's thoughts agree with any of you.
I will happily cast my vote for any one of the three next November!
Update: third question in poll should be Personality not politics, my apologies...