Whether it's fair or not fair, the fact of the matter is that my colleague from New York, Senator Clinton, there are 50 percent of the American public that say they're not going to vote for her. I'm not saying anything that people don't know already. I don't necessarily like it, but those are the facts.
We as a party certainly have to take that into consideration. But let me add, since the matter's been brought up here as well, this situational ethics situation does bother me in a sense, what Bill Richardson has alluded to. My friend John Edwards here, certainly taking money from the trial bar, special interest group, here to be condemning one candidate for taking money from one group as opposed to another.
I happen to believe we ought to have public financing for our campaigns. I've supported that for 25 years. I managed the McCain-Feingold legislation on the floor of the United States Senate several years ago. I won't take a back seat to anybody on trying to reform our political process.
But let's remember what's at stake here. We need to elect a Democrat, a Democrat that's electable and a Democrat that can bring the country together.
For 26 years, I have, in every major landmark piece of legislation, had a Republican as my co-sponsor, because no one party is going to straighten all of this out.
When I started the children's caucus in 1981, I did it with Arlen Specter of this state. When I wrote the Family and Medical Leave bill, I did it with Kit Bond and Dan Coates.
When I wrote the first child care legislation since World War II, I did it with Orrin Hatch, not because I agreed with him on any other issue, but because I knew, in order to move our country forward, we had to have leadership in this country that understood the value of reaching out and finding common ground with people.
So electability and the ability the govern and to do so immediately are important. But don't discount the importance of electability.
It's a very important hurdle...
It was a critical moment with the Iran vote and it’s a critical question now of whether or not a Democrat can get in the White House. And to connect the two, it is almost inevitable that if Democrats support a war with Iran they will lose to a Republican after being labeled a flip-flopper like Kerry was. They will be made to look weak on security by not being sure if they stand against war or for it. And waffling on the issue will mean four more years of utter ruin in America.
Dodd goes after Edwards in this remark and also points out how 50 percent refuse to vote for Hillary. I am going to vote Green Party if Hillary’s the nominee. I do not owe the Democratic Party my vote and Dodd almost gets big points for hitting the key issue in this election: The Democrats have to run a candidate who stands up for the people or else they will lose.
We’re paying attention. The blogosphere and alternative news media isn’t going to let the good candidates become marginalized by the poor candidates. Obama and Clinton are not good enough. We know that and so do most of the people in the Democratic Party. Nobody's entitled to a vote.
Williams: Senator Edwards, do you want to take 30 seconds and respond on situational ethics?
Edwards: I do. First of all, let me be absolutely clear about this. I think I said it a few minutes ago. Nobody on this stage is pure, and that absolutely includes me. I am not perfect, nor do I claim to be.
Wrong. Dennis Kucinich is pure. Look him up on OpenSecrets.org. He’s not getting money from anywhere that would prevent him from instituting real reforms in national security, health care, etc.
It is true that I, like Senator Obama, have taken no money from Washington lobbyists in this campaign and no money from special interest PACs. But I am not interested in patting myself on the back, or actually talking about anybody personally on this stage.
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