Sounds Good to Me!

If one can believe the Telegraph then the following is good news indeed and I for one think it is a smashing idea...

Hillary Clinton will be offered a dignified exit from the presidential race and the prospect of a place in Barack Obama's cabinet under plans for a "negotiated surrender" of her White House ambitions being drawn up by Senator Obama's aides. The former First Lady would get the chance to pilot Mr Obama’s reforms of the American healthcare system if she agrees to clear the path to his nomination as Democratic presidential candidate. Senior figures in the Obama camp have told Democrat colleagues that the offer to Mrs Clinton of a cabinet post as health secretary or to steer new legislation through the Senate will be a central element of their peace overtures to the New York senator.

[...]

Another Democrat who has discussed strategy with friends in the Obama inner circle said that Mr Obama was openly considering asking Mrs Clinton to join his cabinet, alongside two other former presidential rivals: John Edwards, who is seen as a likely attorney general; and Joe Biden, who is a leading contender to become Secretary of State. Mr Obama hinted at the plan last week. “One of my heroes is Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his cabinet because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was 'how can we get this country through this time of crisis?’ And I think that has to be the approach that one takes.”

Edwards Joins the Obama Camp

According to several sources John Edwards will endorse Barack Obama tonight in Michigan. This endorsement really couldn't come at a better time for Obama and will surely take some of the sting out of the trouncing he received at Hillary's hand in West Virginia. If all of Edward's 18 pledged delegates swing to Obama that would leave him only 45 short of a clinch. As many of you know Edwards was my candidate and I think I am happy with this. Obama has embraced Edward's anti-poverty programs and I am sure John Edwards has thought long and hard on this. Interestingly this endorsement actually goes against his wife's opinion that HRC's health plan is better than Obama's.
The plot thickens folks. I don't think this will make a difference in Hillary's decision to continue the campaign but I was wrong once before...I think it was in '72.

It's Time to Focus

People that regularly stop by my little corner of the “tubes” know I am pretty passionate about some things. They know that I was a supporter of John Edwards and they know that I have serious concerns about the depth of Barack Obama and his ability to carry the mantle of the Presidency. They probably also know that after Edwards left the race I settled (with not a lot of conviction) on Hillary as potentially the best of what was left.

I was never comfortable with that decision spiritually (for lack of a better word) for it was made intellectually and not from the heart. The reality is that as I look at what is happening in the contest between Obama and Clinton I see a spreading darkness for the future of progressive action. While I haven’t been able to give complete form and wholeness to the vision of the future I see, I can and do see a clear picture of the past and present. It is not a pretty picture.

In October of 2007, John Edwards laid out what he called the "moral test of our generation":

And a few weeks ago, around the sixth anniversary of 9/11, a leading presidential candidate held a fundraiser that was billed as a Homeland Security themed event in Washington, D.C. targeted to homeland security lobbyists and contractors for $1,000 a plate. These lobbyists, for the price of a ticket, would get a special "treat" -- the opportunity to participate in small, hour long breakout sessions with key Democratic lawmakers, many of whom chair important sub committees of the homeland security committee. That presidential candidate was Senator Clinton.

Senator Clinton's road to the middle class takes a major detour right through the deep canyon of corporate lobbyists and the hidden bidding of K Street in Washington -- and history tells us that when that bus stops there it is the middle class that loses.

When I asked Hillary Clinton to join me in not taking money from Washington lobbyists -- she refused. Not only did she say that she would continue to take their money, she defended them.

Today Hillary Clinton has taken more money from Washington lobbyists than any candidate from either party -- more money than any Republican candidate.

She has taken more money from the defense industry than any other candidate from either party as well.

She took more money from Wall Street last quarter than Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Barack Obama combined.

The long slow slide of our democracy into the corporate abyss continues unabated regardless of party, regardless of the best interests of America.

We have a duty -- a duty to end this.

We are, I think, at a point in the life of these United States where we are being presented with the defining moment of our future. When you look out across America and look beyond the plastic and soulless pseudo-reality that the traditional media keep trying to sell us. When you look out across America and into its soul you see an illness and misery that is calling for a cure and relief. The symptoms are clear. You see millions of uninsured facing each day knowing that if they get truly sick that they will be lost. You see millions of families growing increasingly afraid of job security or losing all hope of ever finding a job that will let them live even a modest life. You see millions of children with poor nutrition. You see the millions, of all races, getting cheated out of an even chance by a marginal public education. The symptoms are myriad and touch every sector of our society. We are at the turning point and we need to turn toward the sun.

The Democratic electorate in this country has made its choice and that choice is Barack Obama. The more I dwell upon where we are in this country the more I believe that the soul of America is making itself known in this choice. The soul of America is rejecting the status quo and embracing a new direction. Hillary represents the past and present and Obama represents the future.

If we judge the erosion of what is/was best about our country over the last 20 years we have to admit to ourselves that we have surrendered too much to corporations and they, in turn, have surrendered too much in the quest for profit at any cost. We have stood quietly by and let them send the heart of America to China and India and a hundred other places. We have placidly accepted the cheap and poisonous fruit of this export and even begged for more. Our leaders have done the same and have sold their souls to the moneyed corporatist in the ever growing quest for power and influence. The speed at which this devolution of America has happened tells us that it is quite likely that this election will be the last time we actually have a chance to change the direction of this country. If the corporatist in the guise of McCain or Clinton take the game this fall then we are surely lost save an armed insurrection.

Hillary’s failure to concede her loss and the continuing effort to secure the nomination at all costs is causing a tear in the progressive heart of this country and we cannot afford to be distracted from what is surely the moment of truth for our future. Obama’s message expresses the dream of America for change and recognizes the serious need all Americans have for fairness and an even chance to build a life. While there is no guarantee I believe we need to rally our forces behind Barack Obama and insure, without a doubt, an opportunity to shed the shackles placed upon us by the oppressive leadership we have known for the past few decades.

It is time to focus like a laser on what we have to do to initiate the changes needed. To quote John Edwards, "We have a duty -- a duty to end this."

Not Seen, Not Heard

Here is a Kos diary from Joy Busey that needs some air. It echoes a lot of the things I think are or were missing from the media in what the John Edwards campaign was all about. No, it doesn't really apply to me because I am in much better shape than Joy and I was able to send some money to John. It does reflect how I feel about the message of populism and progressive action that John was trying to get out. I am not poor but I did come from such roots as did John. My father's family were railroad people and my mother's were coal miners. Many of my relatives are still battling the conditions of poverty and joblessness in Southern Appalachia but my reasons for supporting John and his message are not personal because they affect my family but personal because they affect my world. The following post from Joy is important because it is from the heart and it is important because it is true and painful for anyone with any sense of right and wrong to read.

John Edwards found his voice and his mission this time around, going for his own heartfelt vision. He gave me a little hope that maybe I could finally have a voice and a vote that counts. But I’m poor, like most of the people he’s championed. I kept meaning to send $10 when I got paid, but every time I got paid I had to keep the electricity on or the phone on or the car running or the farm out of foreclosure. I just never had a single extra cent, always behind. So I couldn’t help him, no matter how much he needed my help. All I could do was talk - stand by him in real life and on the internet…

I failed. That’s nothing new.

This is the inevitable result in a skewed system that was ramped forward to extend the season so long as to effectively forbid anyone who couldn’t raise bazillions from staying in. John championed the poor - like me - and we couldn’t give him what he needed. This result is no surprise.

They don’t see us, they don’t hear us. We get platitudes and lip service when they want to play to the cheap seats, but we don’t count . They talk about a ‘maybe’ recession coming for their millionaire and billionaire friends - we’ve been in a full-fledged depression for years, but nobody cares. This is Southern Appalachia.

It’s not our country, it’s just the place we happen to be and we’ve no way out. We’ve no health care, no way to keep up with inflation, our jobs have gone to India and China. 3 of 5 people in this region qualifies for Medicaid and food stamps, but only 1 of 5 gets them because there’s not enough to go around. Our children go to war because they’ve no hope to go to college. We hope they can do better somewhere else, because we’ve nothing here to offer them. Hope… we hope a lot, it’s about all we’ve got. Our hopes are always dashed in the end.

When whatever faceless, interchangeable Dem takes over next year, they will try to force me to buy worthless health insurance and pretend that somehow solved the “health care crisis” they won’t admit exists. But I can’t afford worthless insurance and can’t beat the cap on Medicaid, so they’ll fine me if I show up at the ER. All that does is force me not to seek medical care - I’ll have to die at home unattended. Already told grandson to bury me on the mountain where they buried the nameless, faceless prisoners who died building this railroad as slave labor back in 1908. Told him not to mark it or tell the gub’ment. They didn’t care when I was alive, they’ve no business pretending to care when I die. Then hopefully he’ll let the farm go, move somewhere where he’s got half a chance at life.

Economic Eugenics. Apparently the Democratic Party has no problem with that, the only voice I ever hoped to have just quit because - as James McMurtry sings so poignantly - we can’t make it here anymore. The first song following the hourly news on my regional NPR. We’re all in the same boat here.

So here’s my not earth-shattering announcement: I quit too.

h/t to Susie

John Edwards Out?

Several media outlets are reporting that John Edwards is going to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination today. I think it is a tragedy that Edward's progressive voice won't be with us at least through Super Tuesday. The media has gotten what it wanted. Big business and the politics as usual crowd was/are very afraid of John's message of changing the way things work in Washington. The big money in the country did not and do not want the small guy to have a voice or a place at the table.
If in fact John leaves the race I am hard pressed to be enthusiastic about either Hillary or Obama. Hillary is really just Republican light I'm afraid.

Matt Taibbi on Hillary Clinton:

What people forget about Clinton is that she is basically a Republican at heart. She campaigned for Barry Goldwater once upon a time and even canvassed poor neighborhoods in Chicago looking for “vote fraud” by Democrats. She was president of the College Republicans at Wellesley. In 1968, at the height of America’s most intense cultural debate in a century, she only abandoned the Republican Party because it backed Dick Nixon instead of her favorite, Nelson Rockefeller.

Which is ironic, because as a presidential candidate herself, Hillary has basically run exactly Nixon’s 1968 campaign. Her stump speech from the get-go was all about the “invisible Americans,” a nearly word-for-word echo of Nixon’s revolutionary “forgotten Americans” strategy of that year. Like Nixon, she was targeting a slice of the electorate that had chosen to stay on the sidelines during a cultural war and secretly yearned for someone in the political center to restore order; it’s no accident that Hillary was on the opposite side of every issue that sent lefties to the streets in the Bush years, from the war to free trade to the Patriot Act.

Her much-reported line about Martin Luther King needing LBJ to complete his “dream” was just another salvo in that effort, a subtle message to the public that the “change” she talks about so incessantly is only legitimate when it comes from the inside. Lest anyone think this is a fanciful analysis, listen to what Hillary wrote back in the day, in her senior thesis at Wellesley, which looked at the work of a Chicago community organizer named Saul Alinsky, who had offered her a job. “I agreed with some of Alinsky’s ideas,” she wrote, “but we had a fundamental disagreement. He believed you could change the system only from the outside. I didn’t.”

Obama's "let's reach across the table" message seems naive and from the evidence of the last 10 or 12 years...the GOP is not going to do the "bipartisan" thing. I am convinced that we are in need of revolutionary change if we are going to turn the country around. I don't see that change coming from Clinton or Obama and am afraid it will be the same old politics again. Big business and the wealthy will win and the little guys will lose. I'll vote Democratic in November but I don't have to be excited about it.

Going for Gold

Updated below:

Click here to make a donation.

Even if you are not sure or even if you support one of the other candidates currently you should consider a donation to the Edwards campaign. John Edwards is being sidelined by the media and their big corporate owners because they are scared to death of his progressive message.
If you want the media to choose your candidates then ignore this fact. If you want to have a say in who runs for President in this country then you should seriously consider helping John's campaign stay alive. We want what's best for America not what he media tells us. Don't forget that they were the ones who told us that George W. Bush was what America needed. Enough said.

H/T to Susie for reminding me

Update: I finally remembered where I saw this. This tells the whole story. You can click on the image to make it larger.

On Supporting Hillary or Obama

Susie Madrak at Suburban Guerrilla gives us a little reminder from the late, great Molly Ivins:

AUSTIN, Texas — I’d like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It’s about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, “Look, the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.” Bobby Kennedy — rough, tough Bobby Kennedy — didn’t do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy’s sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

While she specifically mentions Hillary I would presume that at this point she would include Obama in this group. If you have a doubt stop over and see what Krugman has to say about it as well.

Don't Look Now

From Huffpo the headline reads..."For First Time Obama Takes Narrow Lead in Nevada Poll" but the real story is...

Barack Obama: 32 percent
Hillary Clinton: 30 percent
John Edwards: 27 percent

John Edwards is within the margin of error at 27% and has not even campaigned in Nevada. This has got to make the media crazy. They are doing everything they can to keep the lid on the Edwards campaign but cannot.

Waxing Politic

Here on the eve of the Iowa caucuses I figured it was time to wax a little politic. As I mentioned the day before yesterday, John Edwards increasingly looks like the only Democratic candidate I can wholeheartedly support. I believe he will do well in Iowa and New Hampshire and will carry forward with enough momentum so that the rest of the country has a chance to vote for him. Several people have said that he is just another rich white guy, but I trust him more to fight the good fight against the wealthy and powerful that are currently running this country into the ground than I do the other two leading candidates.

Edward's vision of "Two Americas" really resonates with me. I know that we have too many in this rich country who go to bed hungry, too many who can't afford health insurance, too many lacking the education and the opportunities to have a reasonable chance at the "American Dream" whatever it really is. I can see in my own life as a "middle-class" American that my purchasing power and the money I have put away for retirement is being leached away by the corporation driven economy. I see the longer lines at community food banks and talk almost daily with people who are falling further and further behind the "comfort" curve.

I trust Edwards to do what he says he will. His experience as a trial lawyer in confronting the powerful on behalf of the powerless, is an excellent qualification for the work that has to be done if we are going to rescue this country from the path it is following. As he has said, you don't solve some of these problems by making deals with those who stand to profit from the status quo.

I think he really means what he says when he says that he will work to dis-empower the lobbyists. He sees the poisonous effect they have on our lawmakers and he has demonstrated this commitment by not taking any of the big PAC money and is instead relying on public matching funds.

I think part of why I lean toward him is his background, his personal experience of poverty and lack of privilege. He, like me, spent a large part of his growing up in a Southern cotton town. He He, like me, watched the insidious effect of the cotton mills keeping the workers under their thumbs with low wages and making the workers rely on the mill for everything from housing to medical care. Before the unions ("Norma Rae") began to have an impact, working for a southern cotton mill was paramount to indentured slavery. My mother's family were coal miners in West Virginia and experienced the same kind of "slavery" before the unions arrived. Most of all he has demonstrated that he can speak truth to power and win against the corporations that are strangling this country. He has experienced the success of winning against them and knows in his heart the power that returns to the people in doing so.

There is some concern that with his wife's cancer hanging in the background that he will not be able to focus on the job but I think that underestimates him and his wife. Compared with what we have had in the White House for the last 7 years if someone like Edwards can spend two hours a day at the job we will be ahead of the game...seriously.

The media don't like him and we can be absolutely sure their corporate masters don't like him and we'll just have to see if he can overcome that huge handicap in our media obsessed political arena. We have demonstrated with the election of Shrub that we can let the media drive us into electing a complete idiot to the most powerful position in the world. I guess I can hope we have learned a lesson.

Finally, as for HRC and Obama. Hillary I would vote for if left no choice but I sincerely think she is too much in the current game and owes too much to the corporations to be the kind of change agent we need at this point in our country's woes. I think it would be more of the same bullshit politics and we need a revolution. Obama has two strikes against him in my book. He is too committed to reaching out to the GOP and finding a middle ground and I don't think there is a middle ground or in other words, he is naive. Secondly, and sadly there is still a lot of deeply embedded racism in this country and I don't think his "charisma" can overcome the fact that he is black. I don't think a lot of the people in this country will pull the lever for a black president.

As for the GOP side of the game...I don't really care but I think it would be a hoot if we saw Huckabee in the lead coming out of Iowa just so we could watch the rest of the GOP and the Washington elite shit themselves.

Understanding Next Year

If you want to get your head around what we are facing with respect to the 2008 election and what has happened to our society as a result of the conservative movement and its hold on power then I can highly recommend Lambert's piece at Corrente. This is a comprehensive and definitive dissertation on where we are, where we have been and where we are going with respect to American politics.
If you want to understand what is at stake in the coming year you need to read this post a couple of times and then bookmark it for reference.

I have read it twice this morning and all I can say is that my initial support of Edwards has now distilled into a somewhat desperate support. I had begun to soften a bit and allowed how I could find it in my heart to support Clinton or Obama if it came to it. That, I see now, was just a weakening of my resolve and wishful thinking. We are in a do or die in the next year when it comes to the future of America and it is way past time to get serious. Business as usual is bad business and it is time to recognize that we are in a fight for our lives.

As Atrios says:

Shorter Candidates

Obama: The system sucks, but I’m so awesome that it’ll melt away before me.

Edwards: The system sucks, and we’re gonna have to fight like hell to destroy it.

Clinton: The system sucks, and I know how to work within it more than anyone.

Mandated Health Insurance is Not a Good Thing

Late getting started this morning(afternoon). Paperwork and personal business catch-up time. Time billing submitted and so are expense reports. Personal finance all caught up and all the bills scheduled for payment. All the follow-ups with health insurance done and the open enrollment process for next year all done(only health insurance went up by $5.00 per month which us a good thing). Doctor's appointment for next week made(they want blood or they won't renew my prescriptions). I think I am caught up.

Anyhow, speaking of health care, there has been some development in the Democratic health care discussion. As you may know(or not) both Hillary's and Edward's health care plans include a mandate that will require everyone to sign up for health insurance and Obama's doesn't. Recently Obama as resorted to what amounts to GOP talking points to criticize the other two plans mostly with respect to mandates. Yesterday, John Edwards explained how his plan would deal with that:

Under the Edwards plan, when Americans file their income taxes, they would be required to submit a letter from an insurance provider confirming coverage for themselves and their dependents.

If someone did not submit proof of coverage, the Internal Revenue Service would notify a newly established regional or state-based health-care agency [which] would enroll the individual into the lowest cost health-care plan available in that area....The newly covered individual would not only have access to health benefits but would also be responsible for making monthly payments with the help of a tax credit.

....If a person did not meet his or her monthly financial obligation for a set period of time (perhaps a year, perhaps longer) the Edwards plan would empower the federal government to garnish an individual's wages for purposes of collecting "back premiums with interest and collection costs."

Paul Krugman weighed in today and calls this a "terrific idea," but for once I am going to have to disagree with Krugman and also with Edwards with respect to mandates. There are two big problems with this approach and another less serious one.

I think it would be a huge mistake to get the IRS engaged in enforcing health care mandates. I like most Americans am not a big fan of the IRS and their methods and I sure as hell don't want them acting like some kind of "health insurance police". That's not what the IRS is for. Just let them continue to collect taxes in their own bumbling and unconstitutional way. The income tax process is already a nightmare and adding one more "gotcha" to it is not the way to be successful. Getting the IRS involved is not a good idea.

Having a universal health care program that has to be "enforced" is kind of absurd anyway. If we are really serious about getting every man, woman, and child in the country insured then why go through all this enforcement and opt in and out crap? All you need to do is add the funding mechanism into the existing tax system like Medicare and Social Security and everyone is enrolled automatically. No enforcement, no individual options to enroll or not enroll. You will get the results you want...everybody enrolled and it will be infinitely easier and less intrusive. I know all the wingers will call that "socialized medicine" but so what, that is what it is.

That last problem with the idea is that it entails punitive action against citizens who, for whatever reason, whether it be philosophical or financial, do not sign up. This punitive action will put these people on the same footing with criminals, deadbeat dads and others who are forced to do something they won't or can't do by garnishing their wages. This is just not the right way to go about it and once people realize what you are proposing will reject it on principal.

I know both Clinton and Edwards are trying to mollify the big insurance campaign donors with their plans but sooner or later we are going to have to realize that until we take the profit motive out of health care we are going to continue see rising costs. Not only are our costs going to continue to rise but the quality of care will continue to decline. More and more people will be unable to afford good health care insurance and the state will still wind up paying the bill somehow. It is the old "pay me now or pay me later" thing.

Worth Reading

Even though corporate America and the Democratic insiders have decided that HRC is to be the nominee the people still have their say. John Edwards is set to deliver a major speech in NH today. Via Tracy Joan at DKos:

…It’s time to tell the truth. And the truth is the system in Washington is corrupt. It is rigged by the powerful special interests to benefit they very few at the expense of the many. And as a result, the American people have lost faith in our broken system in Washington, and believe it no longer works for ordinary Americans. They’re right.

As I look across the political landscape of both parties today – what I see are politicians too afraid to tell the truth – good people caught in a bad system that overwhelms their good intentions and requires them to chase millions of dollars in campaign contributions in order to perpetuate their careers and continue their climb to higher office….

If protecting the current established structure in Washington is in your interest, then I am not your candidate. I ran for president four years ago – yes, in part out of personal ambition – but also with a deep desire to stand for working people like my father and mother – who no matter how hard things were for our family, always worked even harder to make things better for us.

But the more Elizabeth and I campaigned this year, the more we talked to the American people, the more we met people just like my father, and hard working people like James Lowe. James is a decent and honest man who had to live for 50 years with no voice in the richest country in the world because he didn’t have health care. The more people like him that I met, the more I realized something much bigger was stirring in the American people. And it has stirred in each of us for far too long….

This is our time now. It falls to us[ ] to redeem our democracy, reclaim our government and relight the promise of America for our children.

Let us blaze a new path together, grounded in the values from which America was forged, still reaching toward the greatness of our ideals. We can do it. We can cast aside the bankrupt ways of Washington and replace them with the timeless values of the American people. We can liberate our government from the shackles of corporate money that bind it to corporate will, and restore the voices of our people to its halls….

Go read the whole thing if have some time. It is worth the time.

John Answers Hillary

Here is what John Edwards has to say about Hillary's healthcare plan.

The lesson Senator Clinton seems to have learned from her experience with health care is, ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’ I learned a very different lesson from decades of fighting powerful interests - you can never join ‘em, you just have to beat ‘em.

If you’re going to negotiate universal health care with the same powerful interests that killed it before, your proposal isn’t a plan, it’s a starting point. I’d like to know what a principled compromise looks like on universal health care. When you cut the deal on universal, who gets left out? And if you don’t compromise on the universal part, does that mean you compromise on the health care part? Lower quality? Higher costs? I don’t believe in it.

In the America I believe in, we don’t compromise our principles. I will not compromise on universal health care - not on coverage, not on quality, not on cost. I’ll fight for it with everything I’ve got.

And to show Congress just how serious I am, on the first day of my administration, I will submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 - unless we have passed universal health care reform.

There are four principles that have to be met: it must be truly universal. Anyone who has health care must be able to keep it, but they should pay less for it. Anyone who doesn’t have health care must get it, with help if they can’t afford it. Doctors and patients, not insurance companies and HMOs, must have control of health care decisions.

The American people have waited long enough. Six months will be hard, but we can do it. Six months to universal health care. Six months to real change. Without compromise.

Millions of Americans live without health care every day. It’s time for Washington to understand that health care reform isn’t a political issue - it’s a moral issue. If they do, we’ll finally have universal health care.

Ditto

Return On Success?

I am too disgusted with Bush's speech(stretching a description) to even comment on the content. All I can say is that it is obvious the "sloganeers" on the Bush team are getting as tired as the rest of us over the war in Iraq. They have gone from "Operation Together Forward" to the "New Way Forward," and now we’ve gotten "Return on Success."

I think I'll go back to "Fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here." It at least carried some veiled threat.

I should mention that I did like John Edward's two minute ad. "No Timeline. No Funding. No Excuses."

Leadership

The more I see the more I like. Now is not the time to stand back and let the Democrats "chicken dance" around some half-assed compromise on the way forward. John Edwards is stepping out and putting his position in clear terms. Other than Dodd none of the other Democratic candidates have made their position crystal clear.

John Edwards:

In 2006, the American people elected a Democratic Congress to change course and end this war. It's the whole reason the American people voted for change. Yet, 10 months after the election, we still have the status quo and Congress has still failed to do the people's will. That might be the way they do it inside the Beltway, but it's not the American way. It's time to stand up for the American people and against President Bush's failed, stubborn policy. Without a firm deadline, a small withdrawal of only some of the surge troops won't cut it—that's not a solution, it's an excuse. Congress must not send President Bush any funding bill without a timeline to end this war. No timeline, no funding. No excuses.

How long will it take Obama and Clinton to step out of the shadows and show some leadership and help craft a real solution to this disastrous war?

Could Be True

This email from Joe Trippi is very interesting and probably very close to being correct.

To: Interested Parties
From: Joe Trippi
Re: Karl Rove's Worst Nightmare

You may have seen Karl Rove's recent attacks on Hillary Clinton in the news.

This is a page straight out of his tired old playbook—Rove is attacking Hillary Clinton because he doesn't want John Edwards to win the Democratic nomination.

Rove knows that Democrats will rally around whomever he attacks—so he attacks the candidate he thinks Republicans can most easily defeat.

It may seem backwards, but Rove and his cronies did the same thing last time around. In 2004, they were scared of John Edwards, so they attacked John Kerry.

Don't take it from me—take it from Rove's own lieutenant on the Bush-Cheney 2004 reelection campaign, Matthew Dowd:

"Whomever we attacked was going to be emboldened in Democratic primary voters' minds. So we started attacking John Kerry a lot in the end of January because we were very worried about John Edwards." [Los Angeles Times, 8/19/07]
Rove and the Republicans want our opponents to win—because they know John will be the strongest candidate in the general election.

We may not be the richest campaign—but John is the strongest candidate. This time around, the candidate with the boldest ideas for changing America—the candidate who can take on the special interests in Washington, D.C. and win—is also the most electable. We know it—and the Republicans know it, too.

[snip]

It is no secret that John is the only Democratic candidate who can beat any of the Republican candidates hands down. Just look at the polls conducted by Rasmussen Reports—a major national polling firm—over the past few months. They show that John is the Democratic candidate who consistently beats all of the Republicans' candidates in head-to-head match-ups in battleground states—and by the widest margins.

Rove and the Republicans are seeing the same numbers we are—and drawing the same conclusions. So Rove is using his sneaky, underhanded tactics to try and trick Democrats into rallying around a candidate who won't be as strong as John in the general election.

A large majority of Dems have already said that won't vote for HC and polls show Edwards has the best chance of getting cross over votes.
It is worth considering.

Oh My Goddess!

Remember me mentioning that my conference in DC was at the same hotel that CPAC was at... the Omni-Shoreham. That was where the Coultergiest made her abysmal 'faggot' comment about John Edwards. It just dawned on me that I may have slept in the same bed that she had. I think I am going to be sick.

The Brass Ring Just Got Brighter

The revelation that Elizabeth Edwards is not through with her challenge of cancer is sad both for her and her family. The announcement today that she and John are going to go forward with his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is heartening.

Nothing is going to change the course of her journey with cancer. She is going to get the treatment that she needs and she is going to move forward with her life. This event shows the mettle of her husband, her and their relationship. When faced with these events in your life the most important thing is to face the challenge and continue to live your life as best you can. Withdrawing from public life and feeling sorry for yourself is the last thing you need to do. Cancer survivor after cancer survivor will tell you that their salvation was accepting the news and then grasping life and all it has to offer and doing the best you can not to surrender to helplessness.

This event and the Edwards' acceptance of it and their conviction to not let it destroy their dreams but to add another reason to grasp their future fully has just strengthened my conviction that he is the right man to lead this nation during its next, very challenging phase.

I wish both of them the best and want them to know that they have my support.