Edwards’ ‘Path to the Nomination’
For months, John Edwards’ campaign has criticized the national media for representing the Democratic presidential campaign as a two-person race—focusing most of their attention on Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama while largely ignoring Edwards as a viable candidate. In an attempt to increase Edwards’ exposure in states scheduled to hold February 5th contests, the campaign announced an “aggressive media buy” in 10 states over the next 48 hours. The new television ads, they say, will give Edwards’ message more attention and help win him support.
In addition to heightened media exposure, the Edwards campaign has become increasingly focused on acquiring delegates–saying “the fight to the nomination is boiling down to the earning of delegates.” Despite his third place finish in three out of the four states to hold primaries, Edwards has accumulated a significant number of delegates and his advisers remains confident he will accumulate many more come Super Tuesday.
Edwards campaign spokesman, Eric Schultz, released a “Path to the Nomination” memo on Tuesday, which outlined the Senator’s strategy and described his network of support in key states, such as California, Missouri, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. It also pointed to the fact that “Bill Clinton didn’t win a primary or caucus until Georgia. He didn’t clinch the nomination until he defeated Jerry Brown in New York in April,” and asserted that “this race will go to the candidate that can compete widely and over the long haul.”
After his third place finish in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Edwards embarked on a fly-around to several February 5th states, beginning with a stop in Georgia, where Edwards touted his Southern roots and told voters he is the only Democratic contender who can win in a red state. At an outdoor rally in Dublin, Georgia, that drew a sizeable crowd of supporters, Senate Democratic leader, Robert Brown, described Edwards as a “marathon man,” adding that “a winner never quits and a quitter never wins.”
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Sorry, John Edwards, there is no path that will lead you to the nomination.
After being the Dem nominee for VP, you have done nothing over the past 4 years to build on that and develop a favorable public opinion, primarily because, IMHO, your anti-corporate rants and the call for open class warfare. If you had toned it down and talked about the forgotten middle class (not just about poverty and the two Americas), may be people would have listened. You could have been campaigning for all of the last four years and built a solid base and studied the issues facing the country. Instead, you blew it with your own message because you could have been the beneficiary of the Clinton-Obama gender/race feud!. Sorry, right now you will be able to do nothing more than siphon (some of) the (white) vote between yourself and HRC.
Edwards is right —the media doesnt give him the time of day.
Who?
Let us look at McCain’s conservative credentials:
-IMMIGRATION: he wrote the bill granting amnesty to illegal immigrants (co-sponsored by Ted Kennedy)
-SOCIAL SECURITY: he voted to give your social security money to illegal immigrants
-TAXES: he voted against the Bush tax cuts multiple times (he has since flip-flopped and has campaigned as a lifelong tax-cutter)
-ENERGY TAX: wrote a bill (co-sponsored by his buddy Lieberman) imposing a massive tax on energy which, according to the Department of Energy, would drastically raise the price of gasoline and put 300,000 Americans out of work
-GLOBAL WARMING: supports radical global warming legislation which involved him voting with every Democrat; think only America is responsible to take action, not other superpowers
-JUDGES: he joined forces with Democrats (Gang of 14) to block the Senate Republican’s attempt to confirm conservative, strict constructionist judges
-WAR ON TERROR: fought with Hillary Clinton to demand that terrorists be given a full American trial
-GAY MARRIAGE: he joined liberals to fight against a federal marriage amendment supporting the institution of traditional marriage
-CHRISTIANS: campaigning in 2000, he famously described Christian leaders as “agents of intolerance”
-PRO-LIFE: he filed an amicus brief against pro-life advocates in Wisconsin
-BI-PARTISANSHIP: he met with leading Democrats in 2004 to discuss the possibility of being John Kerry’s Vice-President
-PROFESSIONAL ETHICS: ringleader of the infamous Keating 5 ethical scandal which cost US tax payers $160 billion (Google it)
-PERSONAL ETHICS: McCain cheated on his first wife after she had a severe accident that left her partially disabled. He then divorced her and married his multi-millionaire mistress, whose daddy bought McCain a spot in the Congress
All of the major news agencies are attempting to make this a two person race, and it’s absolutely ridiculous. Just because Edwards hasn’t bowed down to corporate interests and accepted the big fat checks that could afford him an entourage of reporters, people think he isn’t a viable candidate? He’s only doing what most people agree with: living by his word, something that most candidates never have done. He is an honest man with a huge heart and great motivation.
I guess the part that bothers me the most is the support for the other two candidates. Hillary is a republican in disguise, yet she’s pulling female support simply because she’s a woman. Barack also has some very republican tendencies, yet college students are supporting him. He voted for the Patriot Act, and supported every funding bill for the war! If college students were really following the issues and his record, they would realize that this is definitely not their candidate. Sure, he may have a great personality and moxy, but that doesn’t mean his stances are aligned with what we need in this country.
When you really, truly, look at John Edwards’s positions, he is by far the strongest candidate for a real democratic candidate. He’s the strongest on the labor movement (the people who brought you the weekend), he’s for free college for those who work 10 hours per week, has the ONLY plan for true universal health care, has great ideas on environmental protection and using green technologies for future job stimulus, and last but not least, he’s FOR THE PEOPLE, just like you and me. Not the people with the fat wallets who run far too much of this country. We need to bring the presidency back to a position of power for the people, not same old politics as usual for the richies. Get a grip, and see through the media haze and turn down the volume of the buzz of liar politicians. Educate yourself on the issues and the stances and you’ll plainly see that Edwards is the only answer.
John Edwards for President. Also, the only democrat who can beat McCain.
Barack Obama did not vote for the Patriot Act, however, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton did. Obama was not in the Senate at the time it was created. After Obama was in the Senate, he voted for an amendment to the Patriot Act, noting that more amendments were needed, but it was a beginning to correcting it.
Both Clinton and Edwards voted to authorize the Iraq war, in fact John sponsored the bill.
As for big, fat checks, Clinton is the queen of corporate interest funding. Obama runs a clean, grassroots funded campaign. There have been claims to the contrary, but what opponents making those claims have done, is count the total number of small donations from employees who work for a given institution as a institution funded donation, which isn’t valid. Campaign finance transparency laws prove that Obama’s campaign doesn’t accept donations from Washington lobbyists.
I am a Obama backer through and through… However, I do think that Senator Edwards has not been fairly treated by the media especially during the debates. I feel he is a great person and politician. I think his views need to be given the same respect and time as the other candidates.
Let’s consider the assumptions which underlie the criticism that John Edwards, while opposing corruption and the widening gap between rich and poor, has earned a fortune himself.
1. People who want to work against poverty need to be poor. In other words, only St. Francis-like vows of poverty prepare one to advocate for the poor.
Gosh, that’s sure to keep any educated and powerful advocates away from this cause.
2. John Edwards is an uppity guy who should have “stayed in the mills.”
What happened to the American Dream in this criticism.
3. People who are in the boat shouldn’t be helping anybody else get in.
Ah, Fox News. What balls.
Hers what I think! FOX could become the top news network now with fair coverage neg and pos of all the candidates I refuse to watch cnn, no longer blog on any of there sights! They are subjecting we the people to their bias coverage,So fox how about lets see some FAIR AND BALANCED coverage CNN should be stripped of their title,..
KATY OBAMA has been supported by REZCO for over 10 yrs How is it that a unknown like Obama comes into the campaign with 100 million dollars, give me a break. If you want the news on clean Obama read the blogs on the Chicago sun times.
Obama has escaped scrutiny. He has Rezko in his closet. Will the Republicans be as kind to Obama as the Press?
He has Rev. Wright also in his closet.
Fox News has been kind and gentle with Obama.
Conservatives write approvingly of him? D Brooks among others.
Joe Scarborough, self proclaimed “conservative”, glows when he says the word OBAMA!
Obama for the Democrats! seems to be the conservative cry. Obama for president? Is Fox ready to endorse Obama?
As a person, living in a time when money matters in terms of elections, I have the greatest respect for John Edwards. During our studies of Shakespeare, my students have made the connection between Edwards’ character and the words of the Bard, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be;…/This above all-to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/ Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Bravo! John Edwards, you have been successful in your career and you have not forgotten those who do not enjoy the basic necessities of life.
Universal healthcare = NO HEALTHCARE or RATIONED healthcare at best. Give me a break!!!! If you would research the countries that have universal healthcare you would find out how terrible it is. Want your grandma to have a total knee??? Not if she is over 60, government rules.
Give me one government program that is run efficently without being bloated. It doesn’t happen because there are no checks and balance with government programs.
Be careful what idealistic college students are promoting, they have not lived life and have NO idea of what is best for America
I think the media has not taken the words of J. Edwards and really reported it with the means it was said. We as a nation should look to John as a leader and give him the support he should recieve. I think he has been the one to try to keep all this race issues to what it is a issue and not be the sole point of everything that is happening and also make his running only a race issue. I think when you cry wolf you’ll only get the whole pack after you. We need a leader for the people and not for the word of race. I can only see if we get a person of color we will only become a nation of discrimination and a nation that is more divided than we are already . Let’s keep politics as issues of what it takes to get us back on track to greatness. Obama needs to show he is a true American and not one of those who want to lie and cheat us and shame on us if we let him. My vote is for J. E..
John Edwards has my vote!! Oh yeah, I never thought I would say this but THANK YOU FOX News for actually providing balanced coverage of the candidates. MSNBC and CNN have been horrible!!!
Hey guys, I am a fan of politics, not a expert at all, but it seems to me, that we want Edwards to get as many delegates so he can bargin to gert some of his ideas on the platform at the DNC. Right?
I mean, its conceivable that the delagate count will be so close between Obama and Clinton, that one of them will need Edwards votes to put them over and get the nomination. I think this is a good thing because I think any of them would make a good President.
I am haveing a difficult time decieding between the 3 of them, and Huckabee and his fair tax.( Google fair tax and read up on it, there is even a calculator so you can figure out how’d you be affected, cool)
Anyway, Edwards would be in the position to bargian with his delagates, get one of them to put something important on the platform, the No lobbiests in Washington idea, because, I do know that if we have any hope of National Healthcare program, the lobbiests and spicial interest groups involved with Health insurance co’s. will have to get the boot. Remember those John and Marsha commercials during Hilary’s health care plan all those years ago??? Well paid for my Insurance lobby. It said so , in small letters on the bottom of every misleading ad.
Anyway, I think Edwards and his ideas would be a god thing to bargin for. And Maybe, a seat on the cabinet, Attn. General???
sorry for the typos, to fast…again and I really need to use the spell check. LOL
If John Edwards actually spoke to what was really ailing us, I would consider voting for him. As it stands, though, our #1 problem is not campaign finance reform or even health care.
He needs to focus on the issues that plague us, but he’s doing a better job than change-master Change Obchangea. At least I know something Edwards stands for.
If McCain wins the GOP nomination the Dems win either way. There is no true Republican Candidate. Romney is the king of all flip-floppers. Liberal turned Conservative…Give me a break. THis guy is as fake a POLITICIAN as I’ve ever seen. He has no personal ideals whatsoever, only the ideals of whatever will get him elected. And McCain is basically a Liberal Republican…I guess that’s better than being completely fake. So I guess McCain gets my support.?
EDWARDS voice is becoming the voice of the party. Hillary found her voice: it was actually John Edwards voice. The irony is that the “say anything candidate” Hillary Clinton will not put any horsepower behind her rhetoric. While I am supporting OBAMA, I do believe that John Edwards has been intentionally marginalized by the mainstream media. Despite being significantly under funded he has ran an issues based campaign. If you silence Edwards, you silence the hopes, dreams and fortunes of many who this economy and this government wants to forget.
Christopher, you’re right. Edwards has run an issue campaign, much like Hillary Clinton.
Of course, you support the issue-less empty suit. I guess that says a lot about you when you support a man with no issues, no plan, and no chart for our country simply because he makes you feel warm and fuzzy about yourself.
I have voted democrat, republican, other - I am undecided thus far for ‘08. One thing is clear, though, the corporate media is doing its best to shut Edwards out of the race. It is hard work searching the web for balanced coverage, but even what used to be “public” TV is biased against Edwards, so there is no choice. The sad fact is that the average voter will not do this work, so we know that the result of this campaign to shut out Edwards will be effective. As always, money gets what it wants!
Edwards was the best candidate and it’s the American peoples loss that he dropped out but its understandable. He could not get coverage from the media who are owned by corporations who he challenged to act responsilbly. It just goes to show how powerful these forces are. If Obama or Hillary wins the presidential office it will be the first time the media has elected the president. If McCain wins we can count on more of the Bush path for this country and the downgrading of our status in the world.