Feb 19, 2008

Edwards and Obama

Edwards Meets Obama - From John Nichols at Common Dreams (and The Nation)

EXCERPTS
So Barack Obama jetted out of Wisconsin, where he is battling for a big victory in Tuesday’s primary, for a Sunday meeting in Chapel Hill with John and Elizabeth Edwards. The Illinois senator left reporters behind to make what he hoped would be a secret trip, but a North Carolina television station was tipped off and got footage of Obama leaving the home where he met with the Edwardses.

Obama asked for an endorsement. But he also provided the former senator and his wife with detailed arguments about why he would be a stronger Democratic candidate in November, and an outline of how he would seek to implement progressive economic reforms as president.
A key part of the discussion focused on a priority of John Edwards: writing a Democratic platform that outlines a genuine change agenda.

“The meeting with John, we just wanted to talk about how we can move the party in a direction that focuses on middle-class issues, relieving poverty, reducing the influence of special interests in Washington,” Obama acknowledged Sunday night.
...
Obama has framed his Wisconsin campaign against Clinton as a fight over trade policy, but Obama’s record is not a whole lot better than Clinton’s on this issue. Edwards, who ran for the Democratic nomination this year as an ardent advocate for fair trade policies, has earned credibility with key unions — especially the United Steelworkers and to a lesser extent the United Auto Workers.

If an Edwards endorsement were to help break loose endorsements from those two unions, which remain powerful players in Ohio, it would be a dramatic boost for Obama.

Additionally, Edwards remains a particularly popular figure in rural and southern states. In Oklahoma, for instance, the former senator took more than 10 percent of the vote on February 5, after he had withdrawn from the race.

Parts of Oklahoma are a lot like parts of Texas, and Obama would love to have Edwards take a swing through the Lone Star state before the March 4 primary.

Will it happen?

Thoughts?

I notice my No-Civil-War post hasn't made anyone more civil by the way... More political name-calling by progressives on both sides. Bushbots, and Hillbots, and Obamabots, oh my! From Kos to No Quarter, there is some ugliness out there. I was going to link the specific posts, but I decided not to give the divisiveness any more publicity. Forward, not backward, guys and gals...

Again, progressive posts that viciously attack Obama OR Hillary and insult the people who support them with derogatory terms are just self-defeating. And to use the "Repubs will say this, too" defense is ignorant, as well. Watch where you guys are chucking those stones, after all, we all have to live in this big glass house in the end.

Keep your eye on the prize, people- Hillary AND Obama are both iffy candidates that could mean a close election in what should be a landslide. What makes either of them electable is that the Republicans have destroyed their credibility on the economy and the war (two matters intrinsically tied together, by the way...) and being all attack and no substance, time and again.


Namecalling Obama and Hillary supporters isn’t going to help your chosen candidate, it just demeans the Democratic side as a whole.

This is the only real chance Republicans have to win in 2008: that the Progressives fall into infighting. I hate to see this shit on No Quarter, from people who have seen firsthand just how bad the Repubs are, and what lengths they will go to. I can't say much about Kos, I rarely visit that site...

Hillary isn’t some super liberal, as you well know. Neither is Obama. But both are better than the alternative. The more attack posts there are among progressives, the closer we are to having McCain as a President. Please, PLEASE focus on the positives on the candidates, if you can, and refrain from attacking the Democrats who have thrown their support to 'the other side'
.
If the only “support” you can dredge up for your candidate are these attacks - then you will end up helping another piece of shit Republican get elected. Please, take a minute before you go into attack mode. If you are just mudslinging on another Democrat, who you don't like as much as your candidate, - or worse, ridiculing progressives and liberals who support the other Dem, then maybe it's not worth posting.



7 comments:

Me said...

Kills me that so-called Liberals and/or Progressives have become repukes in their zeal to tear the Dem Party to shreds.

Excellent post, my Lubbock friend.

:)

~~~~~~~~~~

Bow

You know who I am, baby....

:)

C.J. said...

A-freakin-MEN!!

I am personally SO OVER the Hillary bashing, I almost WANT her to get the nomination just to piss off those supposedly on "our side" who hate her so much. I mean shit they are even dredging up the old skeletons. (insert giant bored eye roll here).

This is how we could end up with President McInsane. Well, that and Diebold.

Elmo said...

Check this out, Fade...

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5819935&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

stands tall and proud with a big ass smile on his face

Comrade Kevin said...

I'm as guilty as anyone else. It's tough not to fight back when your champion is being ripped to shreds.

It's tough not to play us versus theme, particularly when that's so central to human nature.

It's tough not to smirk when your team wins and gloat a bit.

I certainly was not immune from that over at my blog.

I just wish Hillary would concede, with some decency, and then we could attack John McCain and reveal him for the fraud he is.

I'm already moving on on my blog.

I ain't gonna study Hillary bashing no more.

Targa said...

Well, I've steered clear from that type of post on my blog. I'll read whatever anybody has to say. I've stopped commenting about it on other blogs... I just don't want any part of it anymore.
I will vote for the Democratic Nominee. Simple as that. No qualifiers, no asterisks, no waffling.
This divisive expostulation of which you speak, is a tactic akin to, in my opinion, a literary opinionated waterboarding-esque republicanist derivative.
Probably.

Faded said...

to All: We HAVE the moral high ground. Let's keep it!

Elmo- saw that earlier today. Very very proud indeed. It's getting harder for the powers that be to push their racist crap.

We are winning. Make no mistake. But this struggle, for democracy,freedom and equality is a LIFETIME one.

We ARE Winning. We don't need to Storm the last bastions of power. We just need to walk calmly into them and become them.

"If you want to live like a Republican, vote like a Democrat"

Randal Graves said...

Exactly. Like you, Fade, neither would be my top choice if we lived in a wonderful fantasy land where only uber-progressives could win, but, when the choice is McCain, fucking yikes.

The thing that gets me is how quickly a legitimate criticism of any candidate morphs into a bare-worded brawl. Human nature? Heightened by the mores of American society? Hell if I know. But since it'll likely be Obama, let's concentrate on gutting the bullshit narrative that surrounds The Maverick®.