I am drawn to Edwards in a way that is inexplicable. I sense in him a deep and abiding

respect for all people and most especially for those who are in need.

I sense in him a "take no prisoners" fight that few leaders have ever had the courage to display and acknowledge.

I sense in him a depth that comes with sorrow, loss, awareness and a a deepening experience of purpose that makes him and Elizabeth want to leave this world a better place than they found it.

Quite different in my book, from just wanting to be POTUS. He wants to do more than just sit in the WH, he wants to help set the agenda that will move this country in a direction that in the past, has only been given lip service. Compromise has gotten us John Roberts and Samual Alito. We cried out for the filabuster and the response was excuses draped in silence.

I am afraid for our country and our people. Our goodness has been diminished by those elected public officials (of both parties) who have put power and ego before the well being of the people and this planet.

i am afraid I will not live to see my most profound wish......a restoration of the working class and middle class families and the return of financial stability.

My father walked with Walter Ruether during the early organization of the Auto Workers Unions. During that time, he was on strike a lot. And many years my parents struggled to put food on the table and pay the bills. But my father would not abandon the cause and saw a bigger purpose and a value in belonging to a union, than in being a single, alone struggling auto worker. He saw the promise of how unionized shops could bring stability to working people. And for the most part, my father was right.

I have worked and voted only to watch with dismay elected officials squander their precious time glad handing, back slapping and making pork filled deals that all but drive nails into the coffins of the working class. NAFTA, CAFTA all brought to you by the back slapping fat cats....GOP and Dem alike.

Basta! I say! Enough is enough and I do not intend to let the likes of John Edwards slip though my voting fingers with out fighting as hard for him as i possibly can.

It seems to me that the working class has been pushed to the back of the line too many times.

This race is far from over.....and those of us who have had years and years of experience fighting for justice....know that it has just begun.

Bless you all dear DU'ers for your passions and loyalties.... I am proud to be among you.

If we don't stand up for each other now....then when?

Women fought for 72 years to get the right to vote. If those Victorian women who started the movement had not stood by their convictions, "that it was past time that women had the right to vote" then I would not be writing this to you today.

Why then, is it not time for the working class and the struggling to have their very own champion? A true advocate?
I can not imagine a force in this country, in 2008, that would be willing to fight for 72 months, let alone 72 years.

Then why not give John Edwards 48 months to make his case?
John Edwards is the only candidate who has said in a way that all of us can understand, that he is willing to fight, and has the knowledge and skills to do so.

His message is not complicated, either we as a people are willing to fight or we are not. It really is that simple.

It's really simple. They will fight the good fight. Thanks for your beautiful post.

more and more to Edwards. When looking at the other two front runners, I just don't see the do-ability that I see in Edwards. There is just something about him that garners respect, and a caring for the little guy... He has me for sure... (Being very honest, I really have been undecided until very recently)

for quite some time. I think it's only been in the last couple of weeks that I chose my second choice. Not that my having a candidate means one whit, since it will be over before it gets here - yay democracy!

Also, I never forgot and never will forget (I've forgiven, mostly) who sold us down the river in the stolen elction of 2004 and who wanted to fight but couldn't because he was running as VP, at a time when VPs were not so powerful (prior to Darth Cheney). He had to defer to his boss and I don't blame him at all and the fact that his thwarted desire got out there was wonderful. I don't think I could support him if he had rolled over quietly like Kerry.

And they by god sound like they mean it.

Great post, Ninga. And at just the right time.

Recommended.

movement, and I am a woman who can not and will not disrespect those women who have gone before me never giving up the fight.

:hi:

some real good news around 10:30 p.m. this evening.

receptive.

this kind of supportive comment from obama fans is kind of getting annoying. i haven't had any real resonance with obama yet. his words sound totally vapid to me - underscored by his pep rally tonight - and this is why i am continuing to fight hard for edwards. "believe it"? you didn't say "simon says".

please give me some reasons to believe Obama won't disappoint me or ninga. please tell me why he chose to whine about edwards' 527 support when he clearly outspent edwards by what, 4 to 1 ? please tell me what he has promised to you - other than "change!" - that has sparked this assurance that he will not disappoint me or others who are totally resonating with Edwards' determination to fight the corporations. all i have heard is "i will COMPROMISE with them for you, i will NEGOTIATE with them for you" and I am just not thrilled with that message at all.

happy that he is bringing more people into the party, and happy that he is a candidate. but not happy that he seems to think "CHANGE! Fired Up!" plus his ethnic background plus the spurious claim that he woulda voted against the war, really he woulda adds up to any reason to give him my support (except in contrast to whoever the repugs throw up in november that is - should he get the nod of course he will get my support in the general).

-s

not change hearts and minds here, on this board.

We need to take our passion and fight for Edwards to anyone who has a checkbook.

Keep up the good fight and stay in the game for Edwards...he needs good people like you.

:hi:

... that we need "unity" with the pernicious military and economic forces that have gotten us into this mess.

What we need is to cut them off at the knees, not play patty-cake with them. They are not our friends and you cannot "work" with them.

I don´t trust Obama.

I believe that the biggest problem in this country is the dominance of corporations in public policy. Corporate greed is the seed that has sown the mess that we find ourselves in today, whether it's the war, economy, health care, climate change, the destruction of the middle class and, in my mind, needs to be addressed before we see any changes.
If he is to be believed, and I've become a real skeptic, it appears that Edwards is the only candidate willing to take on the corporate interest and therefore the only one capable of putting things right in this country.
I will support any Democratic candidate (I actually do not have the gene that would allow me to pull a republican lever under any circumstances)but at this junction I have to back Edwards.

recommended

take the tempeture...so to speak. I am nonetheless, cautiously optimistic.

doing other things like work of course, but with over twenty years of campaigns behind me, I see something that transcends the philosophical but also derives from a philosophical foundation: he has avoided the pissing match, and I think Iowans are going to respond positively to that. And I don't have anything against Obama per se, but on top of having been drawn into the negative campaigning in a very slick way by the Clinton camp, I am afraid the Kucinich "endorsement" doesn't help him either--Kucinich says all the right things but acts goofy. I cannot bring myself to forgive Clinton for voting to give Bush unilateral power to enter into a phony war, and it's obvious now how desperate she is to win, for winning's sake. Kind of a sad and seemingly superficial analysis, but I predict a surge, and won't be surprised to see Edwards pull it off.

winning....what that means this time, and with 60% polling in Iowa as caucusing for the first time...if they show or not....too many variables for me to assimilate.

After all, for 230 years we've had white male presidents, and people are used to the idea. The liberal Obama and the moderate Clinton are forced to reach out to the more conservative elements of the Party, since that's likely where there would be more resistance to a black or woman. Edwards already has the votes of anyone who's uncomfortable with the idea of a black or woman president.

intentions and platforms are and how he will not waiver.

His message is so simple, he has not clouded it with exceptions and layers of excuses.

He has declared who he will put first....and it is the American people.

( BTW, I had no idea he was a white male....are you sure?)

is not a race- or gender-based ideology.

It's about a redefining of Bush administration initiatives, a gutting of Bush administration initiatives, and a restoration of American initiatives many of us believe should not be tinkered with.

... and he's using them to his advantage.

narrow it.

That is its tactical design and its hopeful trajectory across all demographic settings.

... because he'll have less of problem than will Clinton or Obama in widening it to his right. I like John Edwards a lot and am not faulting him for being a white man, but I think it will be so damn hard in our culture to elect a black man or a woman to the Presidency that we need to apply affirmative action. I won't be disappointed if Edwards wins. His anti-corporate message and evolving stands on issues are all really good. It's almost enough to convince me, but I think if Hillary or Obama get elected, we expand the pool of potential Presidential candidates by over 50%, which can only mean good things for the Democratic Party and our nation.

running on the Republican side, but more to the point, IMO, is that I see no Republicans likely to represent the poor, the homeless, the marginal, and the unheard.

The Edwards campaign has specifically sought that emphasis. IMO they've consistently achieved it.

We'll see how Iowa Democrats and Independents feel after 10:30 or so this evening.

I like our chances in the general no matter which candidate we select, but of course in the primaries I'm supporting The Carolinian.

I'm a woman who was in the feminist movement in the late 60's-70's. I was raised not to be prejudiced and I don't believe I am. I see Obama, Edwards and Clinton as three candidates, and like the OP I am drawn to Edwards because of his message.

When I was in the working world, my boss used to have me interview people because I'd give them "the sneaky eye test". I was always right on in sensing the character of a job candidate. I think I still have that touch, and JRE passes my sneaky eye test. I believe he's the real deal and I agree with his message. I resent the assumption that I support John Edwards because he's a white guy. There's too much at stake in this election to give me the luxury of supporting a person because of race or gender.

What utter bullshit.

I supported Obama (after Kucinich) until he started sounding like another corporate puppet to me, and when he said he thought impeachment efforts were a wasted effort. I now support Edwards because he has increasingly and repeatedly made it very clear that he is against corporate control of the legislative process, unlike Obama or Clinton. Nothing inexplicable about it. That said, the unpleasant reality is that Edward's skin tone and gender will help him beat X(R), who MUST be defeated, so maybe not total bull, only total bull as applied to OP.

Beautiful Ninga - :applause:

:hi:

:loveya: For all that YOU do.

I'm thinking - Wash DC in Jan 2009? I can't wait for tomorrow morning, my stomach is bit high in my chest so hopefully it will all go smooth...

:hi:

and I needed a dem to change the White House. I would vote for Edwards even if he was an Independent or a Republican. He is saying what has needed to be said ever since Reagan. He is the hardest working man I have ever seen, and his work ethic is working class. You work your best at a job, and you get rewarded with a pay that was promised to you. And, I think he is pissed because that promise made to the American worker has stopped being fulfilled. It is almost like it is personal with him, like someone withheld his pay or one of his families' pay.

I waited patiently for Clinton's health care plan, it never happened, even with a dem Congress and Senate. It was never brought up again, and I still wait, because I can't afford health care. Edwards says that health care is the number one priority with him, and he is the only one that is saying it.

He is the only one who has said that voting needs to be reformed and that it should be paper ballots. He wants the corporations out of the ballot box. Want run off voting, he may be just the guy who could get us there.

He is the only one who says "I will listen to you". He is the only one who wants to prick the bubble that surrounds DC, and let real people get heard.

He is the only one who says we have to reduce the size of the military expenditures. That we need to make it accountable for the money that it is spending. He wants to close down Guantanamo Bay immediately.

He wants to end poverty, not only in the US, but around the world. Making education and a helping hand a priority in bringing people to see the US in a new light.

He has stirred in this pragmatic hippies' heart, a hope of the way the future could be. I don't think I have ever felt this way about a candidate before. After being ignored by both dems and repubs alike, I feel like someone has finally seen me, the American working class.

zalinda

Ninga, very well written. I agree with you on so much of what you wrote. Our country needs a leader, someone who understands and puts principle foremost. Edwards understands.

coming from....

It is at the end of the day, up to us to reach out and give a hand up.....and one way to do that is to vote for John Edwards.

:hi:

:toast:

who is backing Edwards. Back in the day there was a desire to hear words from the gut from our nominee. HHH, JFK, no doubts and a lot of love. Myself, in college I heard a LOT of what I hear on DU. Eugene McCarthy FINALLY put the screws to the Democratic war debacle when the only other hero of the young was the Senator who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin sham. there was much resentment about RFK who had been cautiously waiting in the wings, already having won some new resentment for having muscled into NY and started criticizing LBJ. All the 'kids" knew about Bobby the hatchet man and the "ambition" and the question about authenticity and trust. It sounded very familiar. Yet one debate between RFK and McCarthy before the California victory changed it ALL around. Their idealistic hero sounded fuddy duddy and old and not so revolutionary. It changed within minutes as I watched them watching the screen.

Now we have the Internet where we oldies and very oldies see the same discussions in a new generation, the same emotions, the same good people up against the same old sh*t. The invaluable opportunity NOW is that we can all share this together, whatever happens out in the campaigns and the voting.

back then when Bobby was shot, that roller coaster derailed. The college crowd went back into their distrustful funk with McGovern and McCarthy lost in the shadows of a campaign that simply disappeared. HHH, a good, even plainer more honest liberal than any Kennedy was covered with establishment taint, dedicated but depressed old bases, and the coming ruin of the Chicago debacle. It took all that and his riding over the bodies of desperately impassioned Dems to lose a close election. That was how powerful we were and how good HHH was back then.

It is much easier for us to be sour and to lose now. We have candidates who can be passionate about the party true causes and the truly historic excitement of change and crisis. We have immense and more knowledgeable distrust of the various establishment sectors ruining everything, more personally vindictive critiques of candidates. We have a GOP noticing these old repeated patterns trying to play us off while they do practically NOTHING themselves to win over the people.

Remember that each of these candidates has the heart to do what is right and the ears to hear us and all decent Americans. That the sooner we rally on the people's choice the sooner we can effect them and the outcome. So this is what it comes to. 2004 had its own problems, the one advantage for me being that the top few were all fairly equal, acceptable, vulnerable or whatever. This time I am much more won over by one man and one agenda and much more worried about seeing another cheating of foolish Dems(leaders, people, us). I want the fire and the words and clearest, smartest charge away from the selling of the party and into the future. We never got off the ground. We never revived the old FDR fires after JFK was shot or their brief flash in RFK's campaign. We never cheered the 'wise' corporate sellout that gave things the GOP never dared take, which accepted the thievery of money and fraud and treated the legions of dem voters as something to keep taking for granted and something to silence- like a good GOP majority should be. Should vote party and not be heard.

I gave a lot of inches to the deceived in 2000 who thought Bush was a decent, honorable man. I am supposed to give yards to those who insist Edwards is as untrustworthy as a used car salesman who resemble Tricky Dick. That is all bs, hs and cowchips melted over ice cream. Edwards is a good man on fire with the right message which, even a cold political decision is a trumpet call for the rising of the flame. That fire sent workers out against guns to form unions, in the streets against a evil war, sent women marching for the vote. That is what people want from victory and their own chosen candidates. Should edwards fail, it is something we can carry on from his campaign and something the true supporters of party and democracy can bring from their fallen candidates to Edwards. The miracle is not just in the one man, calculating or pure 100% messiah with a dossier of 100% pure Nation endorsed progressive credentials who never sinned and never was ambitious. it is in all of us with our sulks and anger and misfortunes and vulnerabilities who believe in the heart. That heart, we should remember, cannot be pierced by one bullet or fit in the chest of one nominee.

I believe in Edwards because I believe in us. If we fail- again- to walk that walk- even if it is with the ghosts of the Kennedys or Truman or FDR or Jefferson- then we never believed and never felt, never even had enough in ourselves to make a simple mistake. The "it" candidate seizes the heart of the voters, the "it" voters are those who make it all happen- or nothing. The game plan of the GOP is to render us depressed in our leaders to render us leaderless and to make us stop believing in the possibilities and in our hearts. They have no choice or they lose money and power and go to jail. We have no choice because we love being human and free, and that choice will not end because of campaign madness and the riggings of chance. There is no single Dem who can own this but every Dem is free to lessen it as well.

We are learning a lot more about ourselves so listen well to the past and to the future, because the status quo present is the usual fine mess that cops out by lying about both. Edwards to me is the best.
The others are no slouches. Who I really worry about is us. Sometimes despite this unprecedented opportunity to share among activist generations, I think only evil has learned and adapted to our predictable flaws, to play on our emotions like a harp from hell. It ain't our best song. Ours you can hear in our orators if you tune out the sour grapes and armchair politicking.

political cynicism and anti-intellectualism and anti-union prejudice, and well stated. thanks for sharing.

forgot what it was like to be so passionate about Jack and Bobby and now, John.

You really hit the nail on the head with how you captured all that has passed before our eyes and hearts. Your lesson is "to never forget".

That is why the likes of you and I and the many other "soul brothers and sisters" of a certain age and certain generation must show them how it is done.

With class, with heads held high and with determination that we will fight on no matter who sits at the top.

I felt the violence and smelled the fear during Vietnam and Selma....I will never forget....nor will I ever defer or relent to those who have only walked on the sidewalk and not in the streets.


My children are OK, employed, healthy and can see a future. But they are their Mother's children....voters, givers, and compassionate above and beyond the norm. They know their Grandfather's history and will teach their children well about the struggles and the people that went before them...it is a small but gratifying sense of comfort that I have knowing....

Today is turning out to be a bit too much for me in terms of emotions....but Patrick...I will call you friend from now on.

:grouphug:

:hi:

I want the fire and the words and clearest, smartest charge away from the selling of the party and into the future.

You don't mention DLC and DLC candidates . . . ?

We have to be sure that Edwards isn't intimidated by the DLC --- and that he is able to
stay with his populist message.

I think we have to all be actively anti-DLC --- all the time!

and came to our town. Thanks for a beautiful post Patrick. And the same to the OP. I hope all of use Democrats can get on board and help John Edwards help us. The difference between Obama and Edwards is huge. I like Obama, but if he gets the ticket, we will have wasted the opportunity of a lifetime. Please brother and sisters. Let's not squander this chance, it may be our last.

this is exactly how i feel.

JRE is the best candidate for President I have ever seen in my lifetime. (i'm 35.)

I don't want the democrats to miss this opportunity to not just restore the nation, but propel it back to becoming a beacon for the world.

It feels like a given that the Democrats will win the general this year, and for that I am grateful. Obama has brought in a lot of new voters and that is totally cool. But Edwards is the true progressive in the top tier, and we need a true progressive in the White House to mop up all the slime the Bushmafia oozed all over the Oval Office over the last eight years.

:bounce::kick::bounce:

:kick:

How much did America understand then --- and how much now of all this?
Of suicidal evil and greed --- ?

I don't know if Democrats understand the kind of support that Edwards would need to make it --
and how tremendous the attacks will be -- before and after he would be elected?

Edwards would need a very united America behind him --- a very vocal and active America --- in
order to get where we want to go.

in the world"

The haves must speak for the haves not. It really is that simple.

Why bother to take up space on this planet, use resources, throw around money on remote controls, drink eat and do it over and over and over every day. for what reason? what purpose? It is our charge as humans to help those who are less fortunate.

One way to help, is at the ballot box. John Edwards knows that, and has lived it.

Just look at how Edwards spoke at DAWN TODAY in New Hampshire.....to a sizable group......he just will not give up.

Nor should we

in the world"

The haves must speak for the haves not. It really is that simple.

Why bother to take up space on this planet, use resources, throw around money on remote controls, drink eat and do it over and over and over every day. for what reason? what purpose? It is our charge as humans to help those who are less fortunate.

One way to help, is at the ballot box. John Edwards knows that, and has lived it.

Just look at how Edwards spoke at DAWN TODAY in New Hampshire.....to a sizable group......he just will not give up.

Nor should we

so he can stay in this race all the way.

the one.

he is as cute as a damn button. He has that charm, and if you have never seen him in person and watched you just can't put your figure on it.