Edwards' Withdrawal is Our Loss and America's Loss
America just lost its best and brightest hope for real change when John Edwards gave up the presidential ghost. Edwards did something that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and certainly none of the Republicans would dream of doing. He made poverty no longer a dirty word in the mouths of many, and that included Clinton and Obama, for a minute anyway. But Edwards didn't stop there. He relentlessly pushed the envelope on America's next greatest crime and sin, the absolute refusal of the nation to provide decent health care for more than fifty million persons no matter whether poor, working class, middle class and even some with a few bucks to spare. He didn't stop even there. He hammered corporate and special interests for their shameless and unabashed pillage, loot, and rape of American consumers.
Edwards was truly a modern day Jeremiah crying in the wilderness against poverty, corporate greed, and the health care abomination, and predictably was bum rushed by the gaggle of ultra-conservative slam artists, the Fox network crowd, talk shock jocks, and the New York Times neo-liberal bunch. They slandered, slurred, and ridiculed him, and ultimately tried to marginalize him as a bare after thought, warm up act to Clinton and Obama.
Edward's much needed and almost never heard populist message didn't mark him as a threat. The fact that he could win and would have been in a position to deliver on his heartfelt advocacy made him a threat. The seeds of the attack were there from the start. He had barely stepped out of the barber salon early in the campaign when the pokes and digs started. He was the butt of laughs and late night TV talk show gags for committing the unpardonable sin of blowing $400 on a haircut.
The barbs and the taunts didn't stop even after he shrugged it off as fun and games stuff. Months later David Letterman took another hair shot at him when he grabbed at his hair and tried to muss it up during his appearance on Letterman's late night show. This slapstick silliness wouldn't have raised an eyebrow since he is a wealthy guy who made millions as a corporate lawyer. But it was the poverty thing that raised the hackles of his rich pals. This was not just a cheap campaign ploy to give him an edge over the other candidates. He made the case that nearly forty million poor people in the world's richest country is an abomination that nobody seemed to want to talk about it, let alone do anything about it. It was irksome enough that the GOP presidents and presidential candidates would stay silent on the plight of the poor. It was downright infuriating that his Democratic opponents would also stay mute on the issue.
Edwards put his body where his mouth was. He barnstormed through eight poor regions of the South in July 2007 with his modern day version of an anti-poverty fact finding campaign. He kicked off his three day campaign in New Orleans 9th Ward. The nearly all-black area suffered the worst Katrina flood devastation and had become the universal symbol of poverty and neglect. Worse it stood as tragic testament to the failed and broken promises of recovery made by corporations and the federal government.
His poverty crusade stirred a mild flutter for a couple of months with Obama and Clinton, but again only a mild flutter, and any talk of a crusade against poverty has disappeared from their campaign lexicon faster than a Houdini disappearing act. And now that he's out of the White House hunt, the chance that it'll reappear in their spiels is zilch.
Edwards became the first Democratic presidential candidate to go where no other Dem or certainly Republican candidate has gone in four decades and talked up poverty disgrace, universal health and economic democracy. He bucked history, negative public and political attitudes, and of course ridicule for championing these populist causes. But here's the deal. Edwards may be out of the race but his message and the reason for that message won't disappear like Houdini. Obama and Clinton will continue to pilfer and repackage parts of his message, while of course giving no credit to the messenger.
No matter. Edwards did himself, us and the nation proud when he boldly stepped up and tried to shame the shot callers into facing up to their sorry and disgraceful neglect of millions of poor and uninsured Americans. We owe Edwards a profound debt of gratitude for that. Here's a guess. Edwards won't and shouldn't go quietly into the night. We still desperately need his voice and we should do everything we can to make sure that his voice continues to be heard.
John, you have my eternal thanks for who you are and what you did. You are truly the better angel of America.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).
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Thank you for your elegant article on John Edwards. Too bad there weren't more like it before he 'suspended'. Using that lawyer word 'suspended' puzzles me. Could he re-enter?
It seems as though the Democrats just don't want to win the whitehouse again. I certainly hope that that either Obama or Clinton can win against that senile war mongering old goat Mc Cain, but I really have my doubts about that happening. I will vote for whoever gets the democratic nomination, but I am afraid that we may be in for another 4/8 years of republican bullshit
On Tuesday night, Edwards spoke to a jam-packed crowd in a union hall in st. Paul. Considering that he had already decided to check out, he sure had us fooled. I've heard him speak three times, and this speech was his finest---he got in a real groove, and touched all the bases.
Next morning, he was out of it. I'm going to try to caucus for RUSS FEINGOLD.
If I may may a suggestion to all the Edwards supporters on this post, I too felt totally disheartened after my candidate Joe Biden lost. Joe Biden was the best of the best and the media gave him no light of day. What was good about all the countless hours of research and reading every trivia on Joe Biden I could find to post on Huffington Post is that at last in my lifetime I had found an authentically honest and intelligent and non-corrupt candidate. It had never been offered to me or America to my memory.
I was sympathetic to Edwards because he was the non-corporate backed candidate to whome the media slighted and also was running on public financing. But Edwards totally lost me when he sided with Obama in the NH debate. As it turned out, his ganging up on Hillary Clinton in a "good ole boy" manner was a fatal error for him. He lost the female vote to Hillary Clinton and his campaign never recovered.
When Hillary Clinton found her "voice" she claimed not just her voice but the voice of many women - who are the "poor." If Edwards supporters are really concerned about the "poor" take a look, they happen to be women in this country of whom 95% of women make less than $50,000 a year.
Still instead of looking at the candidate who represents "Blacks" or who represents "women," why not look at the forgotten labor force and the poorest people in America - the 26 million undocumented workers and pick the candidate who would be the most humane and compassionate to that group of workers in this country who are being cheated of their labor.
That is my challenge to Edwards supporters. Let Hispanics and illegal immigrants decide your vote and not Blacks or women. That is the common meeting ground. Which candidate will work to improve the lives of the 26 million undocumented workers in this country, because if their lives improves, so will yours.
And by the way, EOH, this is typical excellence from you, a eulogy for a candidacy that I wish I'd written myself. Nice work.
We just lost the best guy in the race, if you're looking for content rather than identity politics. His two main problems were 1) running in a year when voters sensed their first opportunity to nominate and possibly elect the first female or black president (worthy goals, sure, but why should that be a factor at all over substance?), and 2) not being "inspiring" enough next to people like Obama, in a time when a passive electorate attuned to marketing appeals needs "inspiration" to get off their asses and vote (where was all this turnout in 2004 when Kerry was advocating essentially identical policies and approach to govt?). I also think the accent, esp. coupled with the white-male thing, hurt him unfairly, but that's another story...
I will miss John Edwards being in the race. The man has some fire in his belly--which is rare in a politician. The criticism that his current views are inconsistent with his past voting record in the senate are irrelevant to me. He evoled and changed which only the cynical think is impossible.Senator Clinton on the other hand is disingenuous and not to be trusted--the Clintons are Nixonian in their deviousness. I will not vote for her.While I have some reservations about Senator Obama there is tremendous promise there and only time and opportunity will tell.
American just elected John McCain president by a landslide! The Dems have screwed up yet another presidential election.
The Hillary-haters will come out from under their millions upon millions of rocks to vote against her.
And the racists will do the same against Obama.
What a disaster.
"America just lost its best and brightest hope for real change when John Edwards gave up the presidential ghost."
I could not agree more! We are left with muddled dawdlings from corporatists that have no intention of bringing real change. They will do what the Democratic Party has done since 2006: nothing.
Unless more Dem seats are gained in congress -- then something might happen.
Yes, we should give thanks to him for dragging the Overton window more to the left from the far-right place it's been for too long now. We still need him to help us bring a better way of thinking to our society that has been slimed by the right wing cruelty and selfishness.
John Edwards's past record is far from perfect, but his recent populist campaigning seems to me quite consistent and sincere. If so, that means he's changed and moved in the right direction. I hope that isn't illegal. I hope he will continue with a vigorous noncampaign including speeches in every major city. His voice and that of Dennis Kucinich are the ones we still most need to hear.
How about a write in campaign.? I don't see anyone else to vote for. : (
The issues that Edwards brought to the forefront were very valuable for the party and the campaign. Poverty and the influence of corporations are battles that need to be fought in the next four years.
I think where Edwards failed to go to the next level was in advocating specific plans to address those ills. Granted, he had a very specific plan for healthcare, campaign finance, and the Iraq war, but he needed something bold to highlight what could be done. For example -- lowering what credit card companies could charge as interest (that is, lowering the usury rate), or simply paying the Bush tax cut for the rich directly to the poor for three straight years, or SOMETHING else. Alas, we were only left with the same forceful, eloquent and believable stump speech, but no hooks, nothing to demonstrate how he would achieve these lofty goals.
Americans need to hear -- here's what the problem is, and here are some proposed solutions. Maybe Edwards has those, but I don't think he brought those out well enough.
Keep on keepin on Democrats! Do not despair! Edwards has raised the bar for all candidates. Either Obama or HRC will be obliged to act on those issues. The Repubs, specifically McCain, will be skewered in the fall. 100 more years in Iraq? The failed economic policies of Bush rubberstampers? The party that lost America's respect in the world? The Repubs energy policy -- pro Global Warming? C'mon, you can think of some more.
Another thing I'll bet the average voter did not know: Edwards was the only one to REFUSE corporate contributions. His reasoning: how could he be expected to fight the big pharmas while at the same time having accepted their campaign contributions? Edwards walked his talk. And the corporations knew it. Obama and HRC have already accepted the bait, and despite all words of hope and change, have thus compromised their integrity.
I love Edwards and Obama -- and am sure we will see much more of both.
Cool piece Earl.
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Posted January 30, 2008 | 12:15 PM (EST)