Only John Edwards Can Beat McCain

I'll be 60 eight days before the election in November. This is a bad thing and a good thing. The bad thing is it ain't going to be a real long time before I'm dead. The good thing is I've traveled a few miles and have picked up something along the way, and that something is called "institutional memory".

As I watched news coverage of Monday night's debate, the ever-escalating "I know you are, but what am I?" fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton suddenly struck a memory from 28 years back. The feud between Teddy Kennedy and Jimmy Carter rushed into my mind like a horrible memory of an old girlfriend. My recollection of their self-destructive hostilities reminded me how their battles went a long ways toward giving this nation Ronald Reagan.

It was 1980, and the Democratic Party had two supposedly strong national candidates--one an incumbent president, the other a scion of America's national family. They were going up against a Republican Party that was searching for an identity and would go deep on the bench to nominate the host of "Death Valley Days".

I remember this as an election we shouldn't have lost. But as we have done so many times in the past, we Democrats figured out a way to step on our Johnson.

In that 1980 nominating battle, our two candidates went after each other like Sherman went after Georgia. The result? Unbelievably, half of Washington is now named after Ronald Reagan--though I'll still say I'm flying into National Airport until the day the Good Lord or the Devil calls me home.

Surely, I'm not the only one who can see this six-foot rabbit named Harvey. John McCain is going to be the Republican nominee. How do I know? Because "institutional memory" also reminds me that the Democratic Party I love can't count. And regardless of what you think of the Republicans, they can.

It should be clear to anybody with over a 50 IQ that my boy John Edwards, with his combination of red state electoral experience and toughness, is the only candidate who can beat John McCain. Whether you believe polls or not, polls from CNN to Rasmussen say just that.

And it should be equally as clear to anybody with over a 25 IQ that Obama and Clinton are going to render each other totally unelectable against any Republican, especially John McCain, by the time we get to the convention.

All the Republicans have to be loving this. Because the Democrat they don't want to face, John Edwards, is getting sandwiched between the coverage of this murderous cat fight between two so-called "historical" candidates who, when all is said and done, will be just that. HISTORY.

Comments

[murrieta]

Well, Mudcat - I must agree with much of what you have said. Where I may disagree is that I do not think any of the 3 will win in November. I see the GOP squabbling now - but solid after their convention. I see the Hillary backers or the Barack backers disillusioned after the DEM convention (depending who does NOT win) and not realizing whoever the DEM nominee is would still be far preferrable to anyone from the GOP. I hope and pray I am wrong...

[jbatch]

Mudcat:

Why can't we Dems see this ... I'm shaving close to sixty myself, but even if I weren't, I can read polls ... And Edwards is the ONLY Dem who beats all Repugs hands down in every poll.

Are we allergic to winning?

Or, on a more paranoid level, does this explain why the "liberal" media simple refuses to cover either Edwards, or issues?

Just askin'.

[KarenZipdrive]

McCain is old, not to mention crazier than a rat in a coffee can. He's also a warmonger and Bush apologist.
He's got no chance. I think any of our top three can kick his wrinkled old ass.

[MichaelTownesWatson]

Edwards is the purest of the three remaining Democrats. He leaves the fewest opportunity for attack from the Republican machine. He has been a populist all of his life, from the time he grew up in a South Carolina mill town to the present. They would attack him as a "wealthy trial lawyer," but the truth is a great response to that attack--the real facts show that trial lawyers don't hurt anybody except the big corporate institutions and the mega-insurance industry. McCain, contrary to being a true "straight-talker," will be mean, monied and will have the wind in his sails from having defeated the others in the race. We should all remember the Democratic party's divisions of the past and unite behind someone--the only one who can win.
Michael Townes Watson, author of "America's Tunnel Vision--How Insurance Companies' Propaganda Is Corrupting Medicine and Law." www.StopMedicalError.com

[voiceone]

Edwards should win because he will clean up washington. He has promised the amerian people that no lobbyist will serve in this white house. The lobbyist in washington are writing the bills that favor the banks, oil companies, tax brakes that send our jobs over seas. It's time to say enough. WE NEED SOMEONE THAT WILL FIGHT FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR A CHANGE.

Hillary has taken so much money from these people, it will take her 10 years to pay them back. www.opensecrets.org where all the nasty details are.

Edwards in 08 It's time to take the trash out in washington the place stinks.

[oldgringo]

Amen, brother, Amen---Amen---Amen!
McCain=Bus­h=Clinton=­Clinton=Ob­ama=More of the same old BELTWAY CORUPTION, TREASON, and other nasty things!
JOHN EDWARDS IS THE ONLY HOPE "WE. THE PEOPLE" HAVE...and that is why the CORPORATE MEDIA is hell bent on shoving HIM out of the picture much as they have done to KUCINICH....
Go with JOHN EDWARDS all the way or you are gonna be sleeping under the bridge while the FASCISTI IN POWER get even fatter!

[sa]

the question is easy:

edwards, or a republican.



edwards/obama '08

[yodaveg]

Can Edwards beat McCain? Maybe. Can Obama? Maybe. Can Hillary? No way. The only thing inevitable about a Clinton candidacy is a McCain presidency.

[Ides]

Edwards spent months attacking Hillary Clinton and she didn't care. Hillary spent almost two months attacking Obama and he didn't care.

Now Obama has fought back ONE NIGHT and suddenly Edwards is the "grown up" while Obama and Hillary are throwing dirt?

Spare me. The media doesn't care about Edwards, that's how he dodges the bullet. The reality is he's itching for a chance to fight on ANYTHING that doesn't make him look bad. He's the last person to give credit for taking the high ground.

[MPeter]

Here is the truth. Forget Hillary and Edwards. They both lied on the stage.
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=18316965&m=18316945

[JWakkaJane]

I have been ignoring the campaigning and gossip and jibberjabber about candidates up 'til now, but all along Edwards has been the one that most intrigued me.

He is the only one that has a CLUE about environmental issues, and we really NEED that now! It can't wait any longer, yooohooo.

Humanism only goes so far -you fuck up the planet, your fucked. Too many leaders and politicians who should know better fail us by shying away from crossing the line on this superficial conflict between thinking oneself humanistic and DEALING with brass tacks reality. Cowards.

You think no Republican can be reached on this issue? Think again. Think!

Edwards is the only one with a chance to win to take the chance and break the 'funding' taboo and speak aggressively about dealing with corporate power and irresponsibility.

-That is HUGE, and if any of your lib/lefty/­dem/progre­ssive whatever friends are so enchanted and blinded by their own elitist classist bullshit and/or divisive neocon bullshit as to actually BELIEVE

Republicans ain't gonna ever get with that?
Tell them to wake up and smell the coffee!

Edwards is ON.

He's not a creep about the 'private' stuff like choice, the civil liberties, so he's cool enough by me.

Now if I could just hear him slay everything this Administration has done loud and clear, in detail, and what he's going to do about that.

And you think the majority of Republicans don't have a problem with THAT, or at least a great deal of it? Please.

Sick and tired.

[jokerswild1129]

Good morning, all...well I started out writing a long comment then I realized if I started I wouldnt be able to stop so I'll just say...give Hill-billy or Obama the nomination and you will see McCain sworn in as president, I do think the presidency would be humorous if Hillary were elected simply because I dont think Billy would be happy playing second fiddle to his wife so I'd bet he'll have to look ol' Monika. How will Hillary react to that, I guess she could make him an ambassador to some little island in the middle of nowhere. I can guarantee the press will be watching Bill more than his wife. And as for Obama, forget it...he wont be elected because the Republicans will tear him apart. Nominate Edwards, hes your only hope to take the Whitehouse­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!

[aspen]

I would like to see John Edwards as the D nominee. I like his experience as a trial lawyer. He knows how to fight and how to compromise. He should have some respect for the Constitution. He is more seasoned than Obama and does not have the Clinton baggage.

However, I think almost any candidate, including Kucinich, should be able to beat John McCain. All the D party has to do is show the footage of him singing bomb, bomb Iran and his saying we need to stay in Iraq for 50-100 years.
Then there is the footage of him walking through the Iraqi market wearing a flaq jacket, escorted by hundreds of troops and helicopters saying how much safer Iraq was. McCain is as delusional as Bush. There are examples of where the "straight talker" wasn't so straight. Are Americans going to fall for that "straight talk" BS again??

[truesoccermom]

John Edwards is way to far to the left to be elected. His rhetoric takes him even farther. He seems to reduce everything to poor is good and rich is bad. He leaves no room at all for individual responsibility. As such, McCain would get all the Independent votes as well as some from moderate Democrats like myself. I've still got hopes for Obama --the only Democratic candidate who appeals to Independents and the rest of the center.

[nancytheragingliberal]

Mudcat,
You are so correct. The dems will self-destruct, simply because they do not have the discipline the repubs have had for oh, so long. John Edwards was fantastic during the debates (?, keeping his cool, and bringing the topic back to where it belonged....The American people.