Edwards: 'No More Triangulating'
Jun 19, 2007 at 01:41 PM by Isaiah PooleFor an audience that was eager to hear a presidential candidate say that they would not compromise progressive principles for political expediency, former Sen. John Edwards knew what to say.
When it comes to ending the war in Iraq or issues such as universal health care, “No more pontificating, no more vacillating, no more triangulating, no more broken promises, no more pats on the head, no more ‘we’ll get around to it next time,’ no more taking half a loaf, no more ‘tomorrow,’” Edwards said.
People who are diagnosed with breast cancer or other serious health conditions, like his wife Elizabeth, don’t have time to wait for universal health care. “We need to do these things now,” he said.
Edwards spoke immediately after Illinois Sen. Barack Obama electrified the crowd with a stirring speech that stressed broad principles and policies but steered away from specifics. Edwards was often less reticent about specifics. He offered some details of his energy plan, which he said would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. He called the nation’s affordable housing policy a disaster and called for one million additional housing vouchers that would allow families to move out of pockets of poverty. He proposed a “college for everyone” plan in which students would have the cost of their tuition and books covered in exchange for 10 hours of work per week.
As the first presidential candidate in either party to release a detailed health care proposal, Edwards said he has one “threshold test” for a health care proposal: “whether it is truly universal.” If it is not, he said, “someone is going to have to explain to me what child has to go without health care.”
Edwards went beyond his opposition to the war in Iraq—his position is now the same as Obama’s, although when he was in the Senate he voted for the use of force authorization that allowed it—to talking about the damage the Bush administration’s foreign policy done to America’s stature in the world. He asked the audience to consider that the Bush administration declared that the Bush administration declared that genocide was taking place in the Darfur region of the Sudan, but then the rest of the world saw the administration step back and watch the genocide continue. If you were living in another country, Edwards asked, “what would you think of us?”
When he ended his speech with a progressive call to arms, it was evident that Edwards’ message still resonates on the left, even though recent polls show that he appears to be losing ground to frontrunner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. One Take Back America participant, having heard both Obama and Edwards, said, “I don’t know which one to support. They’re both good.”
Edwards is surprisingly soft spoken in real life. He may not have the charisma of a Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, but when it comes to offering real solutions, Edwards leads the frontrunners.
As I said on the Obama blog post, I assume Mr. Poole is an Obama supporter and therefore the biased reporting. However, to say Obama is a progressive and not using that description for Edwards when his platform is so much more progressive is astoundingly biased. Or this "Edwards went beyond his opposition to the war in Iraq—his position is now the same as Obama’s, although when he was in the Senate he voted for the use of force authorization that allowed it...". Edwards does NOT have the same position as Obama. Mr. Poole makes out like Obama is leading on the issue and he is not. Obama has opposed timelines and defunding which three times he had a chance to get behind Feingold's bills and refused. Edwards supports timelines for withdrawal and getting us out by early 2008. Edwards is leading, not Obama. Not to mention while Edwards voted for the war, Obama can't claim he did not. He wasn't in the Senate and his statements at the time were criticisms of how we went into the war and were fighting it, not of the war itself. Furthermore, when Obama had a chance to actually DO something about the war, he caved. He is so weak he could not even make a statement on his latest vote on the supplemental but voted on the late hour like he was ashamed of doing the right thing.
Mr. Poole, your reporting is very biased and reads more like propaganda. How many hits can you fit in one report on Edwards? How many times can you say he is "losing ground" (I noticed you didn't quote the polls in your Obama post that show he is losing ground too). I am currently not an Edwards supporter, but I do expected more truthful and unbiased reporting from the self-proclaimed progressives than I do from the MSM and seeing reports on Take Back America that read like MSM are really disappointing.
Here is hoping Al Gore enters the race and we have a chance at some sanity, because it looks like the national progressive movement is out to lunch in this current race.
Do you want to get something done in congress?
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Get your Republican party to end the war by Dec. 2007, and until you do we stop buying televisions, refrigerators, stoves, ovens, dishwashers, dvd players, stereo equipment, light bulbs from one of your party's major contributors and War contractors General Electric Corporation ( 203 373 2211 ) who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact HR 676 into law by Dec. 2007 and repeal Medicare Part D and place the prescription drug benefit in Medicare Part B covering 80 percent of medication with no extra premiums, deductibles no means tests, no coverage gaps, and until you do, we will not buy consumer products and prescription drugs from the biggest 3 pharmacy chains and GOP contributors in the country Eckerd, CVS, and Walgreens and we will not buy health insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna, the 2 biggest health insurance companies that give money to the GOP as well, who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact a $10 an hour minimum wage by Dec. 2007, and until you do, we will not go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
Get your Republican party to enact into law Universal vote by mail with paper ballots counted by civil servants with civil servants registering voters and keeping track of registrations by Dec. 2007, and until you do, we will not buy any GOP contributor Dell computers or monitors or go to the following restaurants and GOP contributors Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Dominos Pizza who cannot afford to lose a large sector of the publics business and money.
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