An Apology to General Discussion.
RE: "How could DU'ers be fooled by John Edwards? Because you chose to be fooled."
I put this together at the height of communication problems with DU3. When I hit post, the page froze.
About ten minutes later I thought better of it. I decided, I finally had bury my feelings about the 2004 primaries. But for over half and hour I couldn't get back onto DU. Each occasion I tried, O go got another time out. Eventually I gave up. I wasn't ever sure, if the OP get posted.
This is the last occasion I will write anything about John Edwards. In my opinion 2004 we had two genuine capital P progressives running IMO, Howard Dean and Wes Clark. I would have been happy with either of them. By progressive I mean classical progressive, people in office who would challenge "invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people". How often do Democrats get a real shot, at nominating a electable progressive for president.
In my opinion we had two. Dean was taken down by media, Clark crushed by narrative to a Kerry vs Edwards two man race. Please, I do not want to revisit Dean v Clark, the only thing I want to say were both were strong social reformers as well.
When ended up with a Liberal - John Kerry who after all those years in Washington had learnt the rules of the game. a firm liberal but not a progressive. And then we also had John Edwards, VP nominee. But JE was not talking about corporate power, and corporate democrats then: that came later in the 2007-08. In 2004, only Dean was explicitly talking taking the system on, and, as far as I know, Clark was the first primary candidate to grace the cover of The Advocate.
My abiding frustration is that I was sure Edwards was a phony in 2004. Every intuition I had screamed fake. When he positioned himself as a firm progressive in 2007, I still felt the same. But in 2004, I was so sure, I was literally screaming it.
I have nothing to say about Edward's affair, or the current politically motivated trial. I believe I will always morn the 2004, but it's time to but those emotions away in a drawer. Time to move on.
So again, my apologies that earlier OP did not get self deleted. Kicking a man when he's down is not what I'm about. You wont see any more posts along those lines again from me
= new reply since forum marked as read
