A number of Obama supporters have been appealing to Edwards supporters to switch their support to Obama to ensure that a "Progressive Change" candidate gets elected instead of Hillary. They implicitly suggest that Edwards supporters will get everything they want if Obama ends up being elected instead of Edwards. These Obama fans apparently do not realize that Barack Obama and John Edwards are not black and white versions of the same thing. Obama feels all the right sentiments and speaks about them eloquently, but his political instincts are woefully inadequate for the task at hand. I like Barack Obama and would probably vote for him in any other year based on his pure likability, alone. But I cannot support him as long as John Edwards is in the race. Edwards represents real hope to me, because he sees clearly how we Democrats must approach our political battles with the Republicans and their Corporate sponsors.
Edwards understands that the only time the Republican/Corporate alliance will even begin to consider compromise and concessions is if/when they begin to fear that they are losing the battle. That is when you become open to compromise, not sooner. The single most important reason why Bill & Hilliary failed to achieve significant health care reform is because they offered a compromise solution up front to the opposition. The opposition, of course, shrilly attacked this noble attempt at 'reasonable compromise' as SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and defeated the Clinton attempt utterly! Thus far, Barack Obama has shown me that he plans to rely on nothing more than his eloquence to prevail against the Republican/Corporat firestorm that awaits us next year.
Twice, now, the media has mis-predicted and mis-characterized the contest. They are still firmly wedded to the paradigm that expects one candidate to turn a few early victories into a runaway victory march. They still do not recognize the possibility that both parties may go into their conventions without having the nomination all wrapped up in advance. Edwards does not need to improve his numbers that much in order to achieve a rough 3-way split in the delegates. If something unpredicted happens in the next several weeks that gives him a boost at the expense of both BO and HC, then he will have an equal shot at victory.
In the meantime, he is pushing both Obama and Clinton to the left, and forcing them to talk about the battle we face with the Republican Party in the near future. He is giving voice to a lot of people---like me---who want to see the Democratic Party actually win some of our future battles with the Republicans. There is no more important discussion that Democrats need to be focusing on in this election year than how we are going to bring about the change we desire in 2009.
We need a lawyer, people, to speak for us. One who will put relentless moral pressure on the Republican/Corporate alliance to give up their resistance and join the lower 2/3 of the citizenry in a new identity of compassion and social justice. That is how you 'bring people together' around truly moral aspirations. You don't bring people together by simply caving in when the opposition shows it isn't ready to compromise. I think John Edwards will actually be able to give a Democratic Congress a backbone if he gets in the White House.
Thank you Senator Edwards for staying in the race and giving us that hope.
The Republican Nemesis