I want to share a little of the first diary I wrote in support of John Edwards during this primary cycle, and what I felt those long months ago is the greatest challenge to any candidate, and our party:
So the question is could Edwards actually pull this off? Would it be a longer shot than his first campaign that propelled him to the Vice-Presidential nomination?
Despite the consensus in the media that the race has come down to Hillary and Obama there are still plenty of Democrats that find either of these options troubling. I know there are other viable options which include Wes Clark and Al Gore, but could Edward's with his charisma actually unite the party, win the nomination and deal with the division in America which seems to be one of his main concerns?
Just to do the former would be an accomplishment. One thing that I seem to have noticed and I could be wrong, but Edwards ran second on a DLC type ticket that ran a DLC type campaign. Look at his body of work since his defeat in the 04 election. He has seperated himself from Washington and and the "centerist" types by completely renouncing his vote on the Iraq war. To me it showed great courage to be the only one in a large crowd that made a mistake to stand up and say they were wrong. He has championed Progressive causes and candidates and worked to unite our party.
http://www.democrats.com/...
Note that on Dec. 17, 2006 the media had already narrowed our options to two for us. But what I really wanted to point out in this article is that just to bring unity to our party would be one heck of an accomplishmet. Now, sometimes I hate being a prophet, but I think the recent developments in this primary have spelled out just how difficult that one word, unity will be to achieve under our celebrity frontrunners.
Yes, our two frontrunners daily seem to be doing all they can to rip this party to shreds and make it impossible to present a unified party in the fall. They rip each other over racism, sexism, and the things that popular ex-Presidents say. They go in front of our nation and squabble like school children over things that have nothing to do with the myriad of problems that face our nation. They refuse to address our concerns, and have actually spread the poison of disunity through our party in an election year we really need to be together during.
The ego, and selfishness they are showing is very disturbing to this lifelong Democrat. As Edwards has stated, all of these candidates are going to be just fine after this primary. It is the lives of the American people at stake in this election, not the ambition of two celebrity candidates whose ambition to "make history" seem to be outweighing all of our concerns in their minds.
The worst part about all of this is that crap flows downhill. These so-called "leaders" have already caused much disunity and hard feeling in this race with their constant childish attacks and counter-attacks upon each other. They have already supplied our opponents in the fall with tons of ammunition to heap upon the winner of the primary if it is one of the two celebrities. John Edwards alone seems to be the only adult in the race right now, and the only candidate who is putting the interests of the American people before his own personal ego and ambitions.
One of our two celebrity candidates has already stated that he thinks that his supporters will not vote for the other in the general. Note that he doesn't add that he thinks they should, because the Republicans are the enemy, but just that they probably won't. All over Kos and other sites, we see a myriad of comments stating how this supporter of candidate A will never vote for candidate B, and vice-versa!! Is this the Democratic Party we are fighting for? Are not the ideals, vision and goals of this party a lot bigger than our two celebrity candidates, their egos, and the fragile sensibilities of their most over-zealous supporters? Am I as a lifelong Democrat who wants to support our nominee to believe that their personal ambitions are worth tearing our party apart?
Now, you can say what you want, but during all these tirades, temper-tantrums, and accusations and counter-accusations, one candidate has stayed focused on the issues and the unity we will need in the fall. Sure, John Edwards has attacked them both when he thought they were wrong on the issues, and has pointed out the differences between he and the other two, but John Edwards has never made this primary a personal battle between people who don't like each other to shove the interests of the American people into the back seat in favor of his own personal ambition. He knows that he will be just fine if he loses this primary, and that the needs of Americans as a whole far outweigh his ambition to be President. He wants to fight for those needs even if it means his eventual defeat in this primary. I'm sorry folks, but in the eyes of this loyal Democrat, that shows a hell of a lot more character and leadership and seems to be something our ego-driven celebrities refuse to understand, THIS PRIMARY ISN'T ABOUT THEIR AMBITION TO MAKE HISTORY!!! This primary is about US, the American people who are suffering!!!
Think I am wrong about this? Keith Olbermann is the one MSM news reporter who lately seems to want to be fair about giving John Edwards a chance to make his case to the American people. Just listen to Edwards last night on his program:
I think this video clearly shows who is the adult in the race. I think it clearly shows who is interested in leading a unified party in the fall, and which candidate cares about the interests of us, the American people. The other two are dividers, who will say anything to realize their ambitions to be President. Notice how Edwards, although he is trailing in all the polls has no problem telling Keith and the world that he and his supporters should vote for the nominee. He alone feels in this election America has more at stake than his own personal ambitions.
I hope the Democratic voters in SC and the Feb. 5 states are watching all of this and realize as I do that we simply can't afford to nominate either divider, who think their personal ambitions are more important that the problems faced by the American people. Please join me in voting in your primary for a candidate who CAN unite our party, and who puts our concerns and the health and well-being of our party over his own ego. That leader is John Edwards, and I believe the last couple of weeks proves that we need to rally behind him now more than ever.
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