The dilhemma for Edwards supporters

by Don Wheeler

A childhood friend recently emailed me. He had supported Clinton, then changed to Obama. The occassion for the first contact was an attempt to raise funds for Senator Obama.

We managed to hurt each other's feelings, but when the dust settled I tried to explain why thing were tough for Edwards Democrats right now. The questions alluded to in my note were: The request for money, whether John would endore and whether that would make a difference to me.


Hi Bri,

Glad to shift things to a more analytical plane.

I think if John were planning to endorse , he'd have done so. He and Elizabeth are involved in another project at the moment, and my sense is that he's content to let the voters do their thing.

I've kept in touch with folks in "my group" - people within ten years of my age (either way), who blogged a lot, had a deep familiarity of the Edwards agenda and did actual campaign work. Interestingly, we all seem in the same spot. With us there is a simple question: "Who is more likely to effectively advance and enact progressive policy?"

Since both candidates are solid centrists, there's no obvious choice. Clinton's policies and her approach are more consistent with the Edwards way. But John's comment that "it's no good to replace corporate Republicans with corporate Democrats" is not lost on us. We fear Ms. Clinton is likely to bring us such folks.

Obama's rhetoric sounds better to our ears, but we're both not sure we entirely believe him and unconvinced his approach will be effective. While the Clinton campaign exaggerates her experience, she does have more. Experience is a good teacher. Obama's claim that he is inherently more wise doesn't work very well with us. I won't bore you with any more criticisms, but Paul Krugman has voiced the types I have over the last couple of months.

Obama could help himself with folks like us by cluing us in on the types of folks he'd likely bring into his Cabinet. Bringing in progressive, aggressive, policy wonks would mitigate his seeming disinterest in such things. His leadership qualities aren't at issue. But he worries us with comments such as: "The problem hasn't been a lack of good ideas..."

Also currently working against him (and this is NOT directed at you) is a certain group of his supporters who exhibit Borg-like tendencies - resistance is futile; you will be assimilated. These folks have driven many of us away from DailyKos and MoveOn.org -- both of which have taken on the appearance of being satellite Obama campaign sites.

It's my sense is that John Edwards is in a similar position, and won't endorse. I may swallow hard and vote for Hillary or I may vote for John anyway - letting the other voters decide. I may change my mind, but it would take a lot.

The timing for Edwards' withdrawal was pretty interesting. He wasn't going to win any contest on super Tuesday (with the possible exception of Oklahoma), but he certainly would have garnered quite a few delegates. This would have given him quite a bit of influence in a contested convention. It's said that he didn't want that role -- he wanted to be there as a viable candidate, or get out of the way. He didn't see the former as likely, so he opted for the latter.

The other thing interesting to me is that he had been considered the winner of the last three debates and particularly came off as the "serious guy" in the last one - where it was only the three of them.

Then a few days later he dropped out of the race. Big Time Media fell all over themselves saying what a visionary he was, etc. I'll bet you could hear my group gagging from coast to coast.

I'm not sure why I thought this, but I had been convinced this would be John's last race. Now I don't think so. He's only 54 and it looks like he clearly dropped out on a very high note.

I suspect he and Elizabeth will put a lot of energy behind the eventual nominee, but I think he wants to stay out of any convention fight. I'm on record now...let's see how I do.

To your questions: I am very unlikely to vote for Barrack Obama in the primary. If John endorsed him at this point, it wouldn't change anything for me. (I supported John on the issues mostly, after all). If John told me not to vote for him (John), to make another choice, that would matter. And any campaign contributions at this point (to either candidate) might as well be made directly to the shareholders of corporate media - cutting out the middle man. The money spent has been well beyond obscene.

I'll obviously vote for the Dem. nominee in November, but it won't matter. McCain will win here. It's ironic that the one time Indiana's primary will matter, I'm so unenthused by the two on the ballot. But we have a very interesting Governor's race, and a guy can only do so much anyway.

Hope you, Linda and the kids are well. Thanks for the Christmas card.

Your friend, Don