Monday, September 22, 2003

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Your John Edwards moment

Whatever the merits of Wesley Clark's decision to seek the Democratic nomination for President, Clark did succed in one area -- hogging the spotlight from John Edwards' formal announcement that he was also seeking the nomination. I don't care what Edwards says about this -- though no fault of the Edwards campaign, the timing sucked.

We here at DanielDrezner.com don't think that's fair. [We don't? Does this mean we're endorsing Edwards?--ed. Absolutely not. However, I've admired some of the things he's done during the past year, and I do think the Dems are prematurely slighting his candidacy.] In response, we bring you this cornucopia of John Edwards information:

  • Edwards has now set up a weblog. Not bad looking, mostly written by staff and volunteers. However, here's Edwards' post on his official announccement.

  • Evidence that Edwards will carry out his promises -- back in the fall, he promised Jon Stewart that he would announce his candidacy on The Daily Show. Then he actually did it. Here's a link to the streaming video, which is pretty funny and demonstrates that Edwards is perfectly willing to poke fun at himself.

  • Slate has a treasure trove of John Edwards information. This Chris Sullentrop story seems to capture the strengths and weaknesses of Edwards as a candidate.
  • Enjoy!!

    posted by Dan on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM




    Comments:

    I'm not sure if this is normal, but blogs from canidates really dont seem to get me as excited as maybe I should be. It's nice looking and all, but it smells of a place to post comments like "Senator Edwards this morning spoke about the issues he cares about -- the issues that face all Americans today -- on CBS Face The Nation."


    posted by: carl s. on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    The September 15th entry with pictures was rather striking to me. When I saw Mr. Edwards holding the megaphone, I immediately thought of the current President at Ground Zero a week after 9/11 and how he looked holding a megaphone. There is no comparison between the two in my opinion. Man vs. Marshmallow.

    posted by: King of Fools on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    I agree that it's unfortunate that Edwards hasn't done better. But you never know who's going to catch fire and who isn't. Edwards sure looked to me like he had a pretty good package, with only inexperience going against him (and that didn't hurt Bush in 2000) -- but something hasn't clicked. I'm not sure what.

    On the other hand, he's got a lot of money, so I guess I wouldn't count him out yet. How about a Clark/Edwards ticket? I bet that would keep Karl Rove up nights.

    I pretty much agree that candidate blogs are worthless. Dean's isn't bad, but no one else has managed to make a go of it.

    posted by: Kevin Drum on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    For a contrasting view, see this post, in which I argue that Edwards is unqualified.
    http://www.seanet.com/~jimxc/Politics/January2003_1.html#jrm511

    No relevant education, experience or accomplishments. Does he have some interesting ideas? Probably, but so do hundreds of thousands of graduate students, and they aren't qualified either.

    I find it curious, even in this television age, that people like Edwards are taken seriously, while a former governor with real accomplishments from the same state, Jim Hunt, is ignored.

    posted by: Jim Miller on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    Experience is overrated in politics. I'd rather have a guy with more real-world business experience than a career politician. For example, my representative, Norm Dicks (D-WA), has been embedded in this district for over 20 years, and he has NO idea about what the people here want.


    It reminds me that if term limits can work for the Oval Office, they could easily work for Conrgess as well.

    posted by: ....a moment with Easycure on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    Yeah, you are electing a team leader, a cheerleader, a front man for the agenda of a coalition (or a cabal, depending). Smart voters look at the whole team, but most voters vote for the frontman. cf. Arnold.

    posted by: xian on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    I'll vote for Edwards because he can talk to the dead. I dont know why he isnt channeling FDR and Kennedy for advice.

    posted by: Mark Buehner on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    Talk to the dead?

    GET A CLUE!

    I wish people would realize that Senator John Edwards...WITH AN "S"...is running for President and the guy who claims to talk to the dead is named John Edward...WITHOUT AN "S".

    Duhhhh...

    posted by: criticalwords on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    Criticalwords, calm yourself. It was a joke. Maybe I'll write something else later that isnt a joke and you can compare the two.

    posted by: Mark Buehner on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]



    Ouch. Point Buehner.

    posted by: Art Wellesley on 09.22.03 at 06:16 PM [permalink]






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