I read Lambert's post I really starting thinking about Edwards and the Iraq argument. Looking pretty damned prescient about right now. I wonder if Edwards comes out swinging tomorrow if he can recover from this?

^{"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is, contempt prior to examination."}

Thanks for the kind words. But I've said /much/ more controversial things than Amanda has, mostly relating to the Israeli/Palestinian/Hezbollah situation. I mean, I defended Jimmy Carter calling it an apartheid system. I'd be happy to work for any politician who'd defend that, but Edwards wants that AIPAC money.

On the larger question - Edwards is trying to triangulate things. The truth is his healthcare plan wasn't very good (I've been semi-hibernating or I would have written on it already.) He's pandering to the Likudniks, etc... He's good on domestic issues, mostly, but... he needs to stop trying to triangulate so much, decide what he stands for and go for it.

I haven't written him off yet, mostly because I don't like the rest of the field very much. But he needs to remember that the specifics matter a lot less than people getting a feeling of strength and integrity from him.

And the first primaries are more than one year away.

I don't care whose staffer cussed in a blog, I don't care who smokes, I don't care Idon'tCareIdon'tCareIdon'tCareIdon'tCare.

Count me out of this pre-pre-pre-campaign handicapping until some candidate makes a statement or a real misstep worth pursuing. And maybe not even then.

I listened to NPR most of today on my car trip across the Great Frozen Midwest, and learned that Edwards, Clinton and Obama have all refused public money for their campaigns.

How wonderful for Clinton's and Obama's constituents that their Senators will spend the months from now through the '08 convention raising money rather than doing the jobs they were elected to.

Our system is dysfunctional, and we need to get it changed. Ideas?


_{"Damn right it's loaded, it makes a lousy club."}

Our system is dysfunctional, and we need to get it changed. Ideas?

You could always look at one of those flooding maps that show global warming drowning Washington DC by the end of the century for comfort. I'm getting an Augean Stables sorta image.

A dam across the Patomac might serve the purpose too.

Full public financing with matching funds, no limit. Everyone knows that's the first step. America doesn't have a lot of complicated problems with unknown solutions, only hard problems with known ones, because not enough people have the guts to tackle them.

And that's the issue with Edwards.

Guts.

(Man in the Middle) That was the best post all day.

^{"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is, contempt prior to examination."}

:)

on this. I think this is all diversion crap, right along with the Pelosi plane flap.

I totally agree with you (as usual - except we finally deviated on Obama/smoking) ... I do think there is political room to not triangulate as you say on the Israeli/Palestinian/Hezbollah situation, but it will require a politician with courage and/or the influence of the right people around him to succeed with that strategy. I don't think Dean lost the nomination because he didn't kiss Israel's ass enough or felt he had to validate Bush's axis of evil spiel. Dean didn't need AIPAC to raise all that money he got.
Professional Washington consultants aren't worth a damn for the most part, especially if you're Edwards up against Hillary. They can't craft the kind of message/vision/feedback he needs that people like you or I could. Not much we can do about that I suppose.
If Edwards campaign does whittle away in the ensuing months, it'll be inconceiveable of Al Gore not to enter this race.

Dean was destroyed because he said publicly he would break up the networks. So they found something to destroy him with.

I hope Gore does enter the race. It's beginning to look like he's the only candidate I could seriously feel good about getting behind. (Maybe Clark or Richardson, we'll see).

Odd, because I didn't used to like Gore much. But he seems to have learned from his experiences.

"HMMM, I like this guy." I think the scream came about two days later.

^{"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is, contempt prior to examination."}

Yeah, remember when Howard Fineman wrote that "Doubts About Dean" cover story for Newsweek early in '04? I felt Fineman did as much as anyone to spook Democrat voters on Dean. I was hoppin' mad; I fired off an email to Fineman, ripping him a new one.
Well, I just learned that my Uncle Mike in Miami is one of ten prominent businessmen from Florida to meet with Obama in DC next week about raising money down there. So my family is splitting off .. him for Obama, me and my dad for Edwards (still?), and I unwittingly made my mom a Libertarian.

In a Nominay administration Jimmy Carter would be my Secretary of State.

ambassador to Israel.

Ha ha, now that's funny. Imagine the US really telling Israel to go and stand in the corner.

He's the only President who ever arranged a lasting peace between Israel and any of its enemies. Israel should get down on its knees and thank Jimmy Carter every day for its secure and peaceful border with Egypt.

Especially since the US gives Egypt huge subsidies to ensure that peaceful border.

Nah. She's not the equivalent of Coulter. I don't, for example, remember her calling for conservatives to be killed.

Let's not move to false equivalencies here.

If we want to get into this stuff, various conservative candidates, including McCain have hired people who have said far more objectionable things than Amanda.

Don't get me wrong, I thought Amanda was a brave choice when I first heard it. But she isn't the Coulter of the left. Frankly, there is no Coulter of the left - there is no prominent left winger, including no prominent blogger, who makes the sort of statements that Coulter does.

If we want to get into this stuff, various conservative candidates, including McCain have hired people who have said far more objectionable things than Amanda.

What exactly did McCain's people say? Just one example?
I can't imagine anything worse for most people than to attack a religious institution.

Attacking a religion and a religious institution are two very different things. Let's not conflate them.

Hynes:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701080004

Now let's talk Coulter, since you brought her up - you are saying that what Amanda did is the equivalent to suggesting that all Liberals and Democrats are traitors and guilty of treason (you do know what the penalty for treason is, eh?) The same as suggesting that all Muslims should be converted to Christianity at gunpoint?

You are seriously saying that Amanda Marcotte is the left wing equivalent of Coulter?

Again - there is no left wing equivalent to Coulter. You can't find one (of any prominence, not some random nut off a board) because they don't exist. Let's take, oh Michael Moore - has he said things as bad as Coulter? Nope. How about someone really left wing - Noam Chomsky?

But wait - can Chomsky even get on TV in the US?

Nope.

Sheesh, all I wanted was information. I don't keep up with McCain's staff.

I'll make sure to read your link.

There are certainly Coulter's of the left. You just have to go off the beaten path to find them. They don't get media exposure, of course, because they don't have as finely tuned an image as Dragon Ann, who is targeted at blue-collar men and college-age women, and has a following among both. Her wide media exposure is not all that bad a thing, because she presents her views and demeanor as mainstream conservatism. Good for her.

"Religious institution" is the phrase I meant, but "religion" will do as well. Neither is a good idea to attack unless you got an encyclopedia of facts to back you up.