Definition of Keeping your powder dry:

"If you keep your powder dry, you act cautiously so as not to damage your chances."

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/keep+your+powder+dry.html

I'm thinking - can Edwards switch to run as an Independent?

It worked for Lieberman (wink, wink).

JE and Gore haven't endorsed anyone, which really surprises me....I wouldn't count either one of them out.

Nader's got his Exploratory Committee up, Bloomberg's still a possibility.....this could get very interesting.

First initial reason for Edwards to step aside - make way for a nominee by 2/5 so the Dem party could rally around the anointed one to beat back the Republican machine. I've seen at least a dozen times in the past two days that there is a very real possibility that we could have a brokered convention - if so, what was the point of Edwards suspending his campaign? As for JRE not endorsing - good. I hope he doesn't and I don't understand why the Obamanites are thinking he's going to endorse the Kool-Aid dispenser. I don't know, I'm still in the denial phase of grief. But, anything could happen!

"...so the Dem party could rally around the anointed one to beat back the Republican machine."

I have never seen that "rallying around the annointed one" ever helps "beat back the Republican machine." It seems to me that the exact opposite is true, again and again.

I think the truth is "rally around the annointed one for the pupose of beating back any hint of threat from the left to the Demcoratic party machine, even if that means being weaker against the Republicans and losing."

It was ever on CNN or MSNBC. He wanted a nominee by Super Tuesday so all of the parties efforts could be put into trumping the Republicans - then like two days later, Clyburn was on, saying that with the three current candidates, it was going to be tough and that all three were going into the convention with leverage and I heard several other pundits talking about a brokered convention. I'm telling ya, either it's situation A - this one, or B, Yael's down thread about the Kennedy's. Either or, it sucks, The American people have been turned into the coffers of the corporations. We are chattel, just waiting to be soaked and I think every maneuver has been played to keep us in line. I want out for when a good man like John Edwards gets marginalized by the prospect of having an American Idol candidate, then there is no hope left for the future.

i have always thought this particular election, we are finally ripe for a viable third party. i hope this is true. my heart wants it to be true. if he's a third party candidate he would get more airtime coverage too, wouldn't he???

interesting story to cover. Plus, as long as he polled a reasonable amount, he should be included in the debates.

Excuse my mouth, I'm just really excited at the idea :bounce:

The current excuse for the D beside the name leaves me a bit cold.

and there WAS one that I recognized... but I wonder if he knows how disillusioned so many of us are??

This Party Now isn't the one I ever knew!! I was thinking of turning NPA, but if HE were to go Independent, I will follow!

What they have done to him is beyond my comprehension! I've been an activist for a very very long time. Since I was about 11, and ALWAYS a Democrat, but I think the TIME has finally gotten here... I ready to leave.

wait till after the Deneral Election to vote write i for John Edwards and then switch

You know that if you switch pARTIES it must be done at least 31 days before an
election

And DOUBLE WOW! :wow:

:wow: Could it be?

He is too strategic for this -- he isn't a spoiler.

Sorry. :(

Catchawave, it just doesn't make sense.

I think Ted Kennedy threw his massive weight into this to appear relevant. No slight against the kennedy legacy, but the timing of the endorsement (his and Caroline's both) is just suspect. She immediately hit the campaign trail and has cut who knows how many ads.

This isn't pro-Obama, imo, it is anti-Clinton and for more reasons than one. Yes, I am sure she pissed him off with her LBJ comments, but it is more than that. I think it also had to do with the risk of the Kennedy's being seen as yesterday's news while the Clintons became THE power family and Teddy wasn't ready for that.

I honestly think he said to John -- Caroline (for the first time ever) is going to endorse, and its going to be Obama. I am going to throw everything I have and call in every marker I am holding to back him. Don't go up against us on this -- it is a speeding train that you will not be able to stop. Back out now and you will land on the right side of this thing.

Concessions were made about "John's Message" and that was that.

I could be very wrong -- but my vote for him will be there if for no other reason than to tell TPTB that they have to earn my support. John did, they haven't.

This kind of scenario is my worst nightmare. :scared:

If the liberal vote is split again this time around, we are fucked, people. I love Edwards and I'm heartbroken that he's not in the race, but if he did something like this, I would have no respect for him. I don't believe he would do this.

I hear you. But, I have to tell you, I've gotten pretty disgusted with my party of choice over the last 26 years. I was so excited to have the Dems take over the House and squeak it by in the Senate, and what have they done? A ton of disappointment - SCHIP, the Iraqi occupation, endless investigations with no determinable outcome. He tried to work within the system, the system is broken and it broke him. If he decided to move outside of it, I would celebrate that. Who will be the next voice for the homeless, the disenfranchised, the environment, the workers of this country? I don't see it happening, not with the current status quo in our party.

It is inevetable.

It like an addict, doing the same shit over and over and expecting different outcomes. It's not working. Something has to give.

Political instability and upheaval runs in approximately 80 year cycles give or take a couple of years. Something to do with generational amnesia - as you get into the 4th generation there is no direct connection to the last crisis.

1610,1690,1770,1850,1930...

Gunpowder Plot, Glorious Revolution, American Revolution, Civil War, New Deal...

We are approaching the next crisis, the next revolution.

even longer!! Maybe we Liberals will can forge a NEW PARTY! Gee Whiz, we don't seem to fit in with the rest of the D.C. Elites.

I said something earlier tonight... they all seem to riding around on bicycles with SQUARE WHEELS!!

I have more to say, but must go beddy-bye!

and other systems are set to pick up key words...and next thing ya know
two guys in dark suits and sunglasses are knocking on your door.

capisce?

I have been called "Sparky" or "Spark-plug" too! Some of us "Boomers" knew a different time and it's very difficult to sit idly by!

Just keep "slapping my hand" and I'll try to tone it down. However, I'm very disturbed by the APATHY these days.

I understand what you are saying. You are describing the trap we are in - a trap intentionally set by the party leadership. The liberal vote is split by the party leadership, again and again, and we fall for the "we must beat the Republicans!" fear mongering and get in line.

The problem is that this has been the logic people have followed for over 30 years. I think it is that logic that has gotten us into this mess.

That does not mean I am necessarily advocating voting third party, for the reasons you allude to. But the binary thinking - either we fall in line with the party leadership OR we vote third party, is bankrupt. It is like watching the same boring movie over and over and over again. Why do we think there are only two alternatives? Why do we allow ourselves to be presented with two horrible alternatives again and again and never rebel and instead just go along like timid little mice?

We should be smarter than this. It is insane to go around in the same circles election after election after election after election.

so I don't think this is the time to make that stand. I know, I know: when IS the time? I don't know, but I'm absolutely terrified and disheartened at the state of this country. We have to get these sick cretins out of the White House and we have to do it soon or I'm afraid it may be our last free vote (such as it is).

I'd rather keep trying to stay in the face of the party representatives and hold their feet to the fire (to mix metaphors) and to be a loud voice of the left within the party. That's why I voted for Edwards tonight, to join in with the sea of voices that chose "none of the above" in the primary, and maybe edge them a little more to the left.

That is another aspect to the trap. We are to believe that we are on the verge of fascism only so much as it can be used to drive us into the "lesser of two evils camp" but not so much that we actually take radical action in self defense. We are just kinda sorta gonna sneak into office to head off fascism and then kinda sorta get in the fascists way a little bit.

What is the logic there? In what universe would the threat of fascism mean that we were to select the more cautious path, the least offensive leaders, and to use the same methods that have failed and failed again and opened the door to fascism?

If the threat is great, why are we being cajoled to make the weakest possible response?

Do you think the American people would accept this slide into fascism if they could see it clearly? But they cannot see it clearly because the "opposition" party has out a gag order on talking about it, and then cynically used the fear of fascism to drive people back into the slaughter pen.

If fascism is coming, voting for a wishy washy moderate is not going to stoip it. If it isn't coming, it shouldn't be used to frighten people to going along with the party leadership. It can't be both ways - fascism when we are trying to get people to vote for Kerry, and not fascism when we try to criticize the weak and inept opposition party and its pathetic response to the threat.

The people have the right to defend themselves from tyranny without the "opposition" party tying their hands behind their backs.

I was the dictator "

That was the first year.

7 years and what do you think we have now ?

I got a new passport last May.

Guess what's in it.

A microchip.

signng statements

an all powerful executive branch - euphemism for dictatorship
another euphemism: the imperial presidency

and a population whose asleep at the wheel.

a population who sees a new face, totally different, forgetting that a majority of Africa is under the boot of military dictatorships - black faced dictatorships

I cant put my finger on it, but I have had a very bad feeling about Obama from the first time he opened his mouth. There's something nasty about him - in his snide remarks, in the arrogant hold of his head, literally looking down his nose at Hillary while he was trying to look presidential in the last debate.

Something does not ring true there - and it's beyond his being a phony. I dont know what it is - but it, he's bad.

thing else. I used to hang out at Du years ago...
when this progressive thing came up..du started getting rid of its liberals, welcome mat was pulled in.one by one they were uninvited or kicked off...there are very few left....as I remember there used to be about
300,000 people posting here....1/3 of that remains...am I wrong?

Dr. Dean is a liberal and look how they treated him. Rahm Emmanuel and Nancy
and her crew tried to get rid of him as DNC Chairman in the worst way.

That tells you whose in charge of the party now.

I think the party abandoned him. Like some here, I feel that I haven't left the Democratic Party, it has left me. Damn. Edwards exemplifies the core values of what the party once stood for - and they forced him out.

This should be an night of celebration for us, but I am bereft and disheartened tonight. I wanted a real, true, honest to God Democrat to win the White House and get this country back on track. I don't see that in either of the two currently in the race.

I think I'll have another glass of wine. ("hic!")

falter or run into some unexpected difficulty late in the campaign, then I would hope that John and Elizabeth would keep an open mind. I would hope the same for the Democratic Party.

I do not expect anything like that happening, but I have a long memory and remember many strange events in election years. For now, I will continue to working at the local and state level in the Dem Party, in various charitable and benevolent endeavors, through my church, and where ever else I can make a difference. I hope to see many of you along the way.

dont seem to be willing to comprehend that the party that is calling itself the
Democratic party no longer is the Democratic party - it has morphed into something else maybe since RFK's ass
a nation. I dont know exactly when it happened, but it happened

They're proud of saying the Democratic party is a big tent - but it no longer is
Liberals are not welcome.

A new party is needed and it has to fight both the repugnants and the neo-democratic party.

This is not the Democratic party I was born into 62 years ago.

I used to be a one issue voter (in my 20's) - Pro-Choice and a vote for a Dem. As I have gotten older and have had two kids (ages 6 and 3), I've been looking at all the issues. Edwards touched on every one that to me, represented the ideals of the Democratic Party. Looking at the other two, all I see is triangulation and capitulation toward the right. I understand the need to join us all - but there needs to be a precedent set on how this country needs to move forward. I think if more republicans were exposed to Edwards policies, they would be inclined to agree that the change needs to happen.

While I am not happy with Clinton or Obama, having McCain as Commander in Chief would be nothing short of catastrophic.