Part of the Problem with American Democracy

I’m usually cynical enough to not worry about these things, but a search of John Edwards (without quote marks) turns up the psychic before the Presidential Candidate. Please google bomb this and restore my faith in democracy. So John Edwards

Hell, I wouldn’t mind if it was the 18th Century Preacher even

Here’s the full announcement by Edwards:

As I’ve said, I like John Edwards a lot, but the cheap shot about hope was particularly annoying given his history versus Obama’s.

Sirota covers the quote here:

“Identifying the problem and talking about hope is waiting for tomorrow.”

I don’t begrudge Edwards being a trial lawyer–I think it’s great and think it’s a great service. However, Obama spent five years as a community organizer in the 1980s and directed Illinois Project Vote in 1992. He’s been doing it for a long time and he devoted several years of his life to it when he could have been doing work as a lawyer and making a lot more money.

7 thoughts on “Part of the Problem with American Democracy”
  1. Arch-
    Have you read Obama’s book at all? I’m about halfway through. And, upon reading the book you discover something. He has a plan. He has his platform sketched out, sometimes in pretty good detail, in the book. Domestic policy is covered in the “Opportunity” chapter.

    So, the people who think that he doesn’t have a plan are a bit off. Maybe he doesn’t have an exact package of bills ready to send to congress the day he is inaugurated yet, but he has a plan.

  2. I haven’t made it all the way through, but I’m getting there–and a previous post kinda made that point in response to Sirota. It quotes a couple of the paragraphs about outsourcing and such.

  3. John Edwards knows a lot about poverty, after all, he’s helped throw a lot of people into it with:

    – his co-sponsorship of H-1b visas,

    – his support for illegal aliens,

    – his vote for MFN-China

    but what about stuff like iraq war and the patriot act?

    well, he voted for them too

    About the only think you can say for Edwards is, he spent so much time running for president that he didnt have time to do more damage as senator

  4. Larry, c’mon – if that is an attack by Edwards on Obama, it’s the gentlest of jabs. And if it’s a criticism at all, it’s a criticism of any number of Democratic presidential campaigns, including Kerry/Edwards 2004.

  5. Clark, I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but I do think it deserved a response. It’s great that Edwards is organizing and I’m impressed by that, but the slap was pretty clearly at Obama–the one guy who spent a significant portion of his life doing just what Edwards is now doing.

  6. Fair enough, but I don’t think the comment deserves to considered a slap. I think Edwards likes Obama and has pretty clearly encouraged him to run. There’s a practical side to that wish, but the respect for Obama’s accomplishments are genuine.

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