Win-ability
Polled head-to-head against each of the leading Republican presidential nominees, John Edwards wins each match-up by 5 points more than Hillary Clinton. As there must be no margin for error this time, that is truly significant.
In the most recent Republican forum (one couldn't call these burlesques a debate), every one of the Republicans - who were at this particular event to woo the "values voters" by proving their bona fides in misogyny, homophobia, and the need to pack heat invoked the name of Hillary Clinton - as though she were the only Democrat they face - 29 times! Evidently, they are armed and ready for only one opponent, and we mustn't give them her to chew up. She, meanwhile is cautiously trying to sound like them.
Corporate pirates' worst nightmare
Big business has been given a free pass by the supply-side globalization crowd since Ronald Reagan got into office, and in those 26 years what they have achieved is the ruin of the American middle class, the destruction of trade unionism, and the creation of a wealthy class that functions beyond law, beyond taxes, and beyond recourse. One percent of our population now lives lifestyles that the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire couldn't even have dreamed of. While Bill Clinton did much good, he also, working most of his term with a Republican congress - favored the very economic policies that have got us to this point. Hillary hasn't proven she doesn't have identical economic philosophies. Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover would be smiling, as the policies they advocated were much the same, and look where that got us. Similarly, the media elites want to expand their oligopoly of ownership, and therefore define our entire national political and cultural discourse.
No more! It is now time, as in 1932 for Franklin Roosevelt, to bring in a leader who not only knows how to call large corporations to the mat for their misdeeds and abuses, but is willing to ASK THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO SACRIFICE AND PARTICIPATE IN THE REBUILDING OF THIS COUNTRY. It is time for those companies that have "moved their corporate headquarters offshore", usually to a post-office box in the Cayman Islands, but sometimes - like Halliburton recently did -to Dubai, to be taxed where their real offices are, here in the United States. If they don't like it, they lose their government contracts.
I have followed the campaigns closely, and while I don't agree with every point Edwards makes (Civil Unions for gay couples? C'mon John, just go the extra step..), I have said for several years that after the utter disaster visited upon our country, our constitution, our treasury, our military (where does the list end?) we need an FDR to recreate a middle class, to restore social safety nets, to recalibrate the balance of wealth, and to reinvigorate the populace; to make us feel we are united again. And restore our goodwill in the world community.
The media have decided to tell us that Hillary Clinton is the next President, and that may yet happen. But those same media - print, television, and radio, specifically - have not yet heard from the people. John Edwards inspires me, and, while it certainly would be nice to see a different kind of face in the oval office, neither Clinton nor Obama have the courage, it seems, to come out and tell the American people what John Edwards is saying, which is the kind of message that recalls the participatory pleas of FDR and JFK: Putting this country back together is going to take something from all of us - me and you - together and individually. In return for the sacrifices, we will get a reborn America, with energy independence, universal healthcare, adequate education funding, and a return to world leadership; the kind of leadership that comes from earning the world's respect rather than its disdain.
This is a snippet (maybe 4 minutes) of an interview Edwards did with Bill Maher, in which Edwards talks about the importance of a leader asking the people to sacrifice (in this case for energy independence). Wanna see what a President looks and sounds like? WATCH...and consider the importance of this vote. Electability is key, and he's got it, and we need it.
One last thought: Elizabeth Edwards would make the best First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, but I'll discuss her in another article.
Michael Fox is a writer based in Los Angeles. He has no connection to the Edwards campaign.
