Edwards staying in the race is good for the Party regardless of who becomes the nominee.

Recently, I heard Ari Fleischer on the tele spewing on about how a long competition between Obama and Hillary is good for Republicans. A drawn out cantankerous competition between our two front runners will essentially do the Republicans dirty work by increasing candidate negatives and pitting supporters against one another. Thus, if Edwards were to give up his run, we'd be left with Obama and Clinton taking part a possible political murder/suicide. With Edwards in, they have to be careful not to elevate him by taking out the competition with reckless abandon.

As an Edwards supporter, I feel that not only should JE stay in to win, he must stay in this race for as long as possible as it's good for our eventual nominee. ;)

Feel free to disagree, but that's my take. :hi:

they are in a duel with pistols and they both win.
Someone needs to captain the Democratic Party's Cruise Ship of Love, and steer us to a win in November.
Edwards would make a great Captain. The other two, hey, great marksmanship.

I love your analogy "Democratic Party's Cruise Ship of Love" :rofl:

Indeed. Perhaps he can play Barry White at the inauguration?

Off to watch tape recordings of "shock and awe" with my pre-schooler. :hi:

For decades, the public discourse in america has been devoid of any real class dialog and challenge to the meritocracy rhetoric. Similarly, the idea of the "public interest" was pushed aside during the cold war socialism/capitalism in which supply-side economics ideology won america over.

Edwards is fundamentally challenging the discourse over the peoples' public interest.

He's not going to win, but he's doing a fair job in trying to change the discourse to make these issues and concerns "authentic" and legitimate again. I'm not saying we should turn our backs on moderate economic theory or even the rhetoric of capitalism.

However, we need to allow folks to argue that schools matter, government matters, middle class interests matter... and that big business and even big lobbyists are harming the public interest at times.

He's making this case in a very "old school" manner but with fresh energy.

He's needed in this race.

because he is raising the issues you mention. NOW Hillary and Obama are coopting part of the message, and they'll have to deliver on it.

had to have an agreement from a federal prosecutor before he would agree to testify to a grand jury. I think it is safe to say that he would have difficulty picking the truth out of a police line-up, as he has never really seen it face to face.

John Edwards is raising many important issues in this campaign. Some of them are issues that no other candidate has addressed in the primary. Some are issues that haven't really been discussed since 1968. The democratic party, and the nation, benefit from that.

Good grief! I must finish my coffee BEFORE posting. ;)

I will say that Ari did not mention the Edwards buffer effect that I noted above. He simply noted how we can hurt one another going into the GE.

:hi:

And Edwards staying in is good for Clinton, in my opinion.

under the circumstances. However, it's up to the voters to decide if "Clinton" is good for the "Party."

;)

which made it clear that his all about Iowa strategy failed.

I understand that the party that picked Dukakis could very well pick Clinton. We have a mediocre track record in the nomination process, in my opinion. It will be no surprise if we continue the trend.

....taking part IN a possible political murder/suicide... ;)