John Edwards ramped up his campaign in New Hampshire this week.
The Democratic presidential contender told voters yesterday that while he doesn’t support gay marriage, he whole-heartedly supports the free state’s civil unions. Such unions should be available everywhere, said Edwards, and he promised to dismantle the Defense of Marriage Act, which says the federal government cannot recognize same-sex nuptials:
I think we should get rid of DOMA; I think DOMA was a mistake from the beginning, and discriminatory, and so I will do everything in my power as President to do that.
Edwards also pledged to shoot down Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which prohibits openly gay folk from serving in the military.
Edwards’ recent surge in Iowa has many politicos wondering if he’ll be the dark horse of the Democratic party.
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Meeg
Good stuff. This a lot more than other candidates have been pledging to do.
Alexa
Exactly. Of the three main candidates he is the only one I even remotely trust (as much as one can trust any politician). It’s very frustrating, it is beyond time we had someone other than a middle-aged white male as president, yet the other candidates just don’t measure up.
todd
Edwards has had my vote for a while now. He’s the only one who actually has experience taking on Corporate America!
Matt
I’m starting to warm to him, and I saw a CNN national poll last night that showed him handily beating all the republican candidates head-to-head. At the end of the day, that’s what I’m most interested in at this point–a tactical victory that can bring us a more strategic one. That said, though, the more I look at Edwards the more I like him as a candidate–and this certainly helps!
james_boston
Amen Matt. I saw that same poll on CNN…while Hillary & Obama either lose to or are up only a point or two above the Republicans, the CNN poll had Edwards up by 15, 20, 25 points over the Republicans, including Rudy & Mcain. Hillary & Obama struggle to beat even Huckabee in the poll (I believe Hillary only beats him by 4 points which is depressing as hell) but Edwards beats him by 25!!! These are landslide numbers that only 3 or 4 Presidents have ever achieved. I was shocked! It’s making me take another look at him though I’m still leaning towards either Dodd or Biden.
John
I’m voting for Edwards.
james_boston
G.O.P. closet case Matt Drudge is worried…he had this link up yesterday under the headline “Edwards campaign rocked by scandal!” Nobody else seems to be reporting it…odd that a closeted cock-sucker is calling Edwards out for being too heterosexual. Keep it up Republican hypocrites…the left will report on your sex lives too!!
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/john_edwards_love_child/celebrity/64426
Daddy's Submissive Boi
I really like John Edwards too. Not only is he smart, but he’s got the look and feel of someone that can steadily beat away at the Republican and Independent voters so that this Right Wing Nut Jobs can finally lose power and more elections.
Bob R
I like Edwards and always have thought he would be a good President. I find him intelligent, compassionate and I think he learns from his missteps. I don’t like Hilary, never have. I really have had my fill of Clinton. I never have and do not now trust Obama. I will no longer throw my vote to the Democratic candidate because of their arrogant attitude that voters like me “have no place else to go”. Wrong, I can stay home until the party learns not to take me for granted anymore. I may suffer, but they will not be rewarded any longer by me for screwing me. I am from this point forward voting my conscience. I will support Edwards. I will not, at this point, support Hilary or Obama.
Alan down in Florida
I agree with Todd. I voted for Edwards in the 2004 Florida primary but parted ways with his campaign over his view on gay marriage – a fact I told them often enough that they removed me from their e-mailing list. But his message about the pernicious influence of corporations and their money is right on target. Hillary and Bill can go to Iowa grocery stores but I bet they don’t know the prices – just like Father Bush. John Edwards’ roots are in the working class and he seems to be the only one who gives a damn about us. Besides, under the influence of his excellent wife and daughter he’ll come around on marriage.
Gregg
I’m not in love with all aspects of Edwards, but I would vote for him. He, I think, can win against the Repugs. A vote for Hillary or Obama is just a wasted vote because they will lose, so I hope Edwards gets the nomination.
hisurfer
Hmmm. I suspect that a lot of Edwards positive numbers come from him being third, and thus not the target of any attacks. We haven’t seen yet how he’ll handle those,while we know how Obama and Clinton will. My guess is that those positive numbers will take a tumble.
For starters, ‘environmentalists’ shouldn’t build new homes like this: http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=3848
There are also a number of Democrats who blame him & his campaign team, not Kerry’s, for the loss to Bush last election:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/us/politics/21edwards.html
I’d still vote for him … but he’s further down on my list than he used to be.
Also: Democrats always lose when they vote for the most ‘electable’ candidate (because didn’t we hear that about Dukakis and Gore and Kerry and Mondale?) rather than the one who inspires them.
David
I’m all for Edwards!
Meeg
Blaming Edwards for the Democratic loss in 2004 is madness. Kerry clearly didn’t need any help losing.
Matt
I agree, Meeg — the Democrats who blame Edwards for that loss (whoever they may be) are plain wrong. Kerry lost ’04 all by himself, in large part by ingoring Edwards’ urgings to aggressively respond to the Swift Boaters and other attacks. And frankly it’s a cheap shot to point to his home as being more than a three-bedroom split level on a cul-de-sac with faux-oak panelling in the rec room. None of these people live in “green” houses, they’re all richassbastards and live in big ol’ houses of one sort or another. (If they didn’t, they’d no doubt be chided for pretending they were middle-class.) Edwards is showing signs of being actually inspriational on the stump; now that I’ve started listening to him, I think his message and style will resonate with Democrats and the broader electorate more than Clinton’s or Obama’s. It IS a pity, though, and I do feel a twinge of guilt, that with a woman and a black man available, I find myself defaulting to yet another blond-haired white guy. I suppose that’s one point of diversity, if the choice is based on message and all other things are equal…
hisurfer
Actually, the stories in the paper say the exact opposite, Matt – that Edwards was the one fighting to keep the Kerry campaign friendly and non-confrontational, that he was too nice to Cheney, and that Edwards *refused* to go on the offensive against the Swift Boat ads.
For me the house is a pretty significant issue, but more because of my work … I’m constantly fighting with people who try to build mansions in pristine wilderness areas, and most of these people are “green” in public. 28G is 80% of the size of a football field; it’s gone beyond not-green and gone into bad-for-the-environment. Fine for Republicans, but not fine for one who tells me that I need to learn to live for responsible.
But Green issues rank high for me (higher than gay issues, actually), so I can see how this won’t bother people as much as it does me.
But again – I’d still vote for him, without hesitation. En route to the election, though, I’ve got no problem pushing them to live up to a higher standard … or at least up to the standard set by their rhetoric. At one point he was my top choice. Now? He’s still ahead of Kucinich.
Ellie
As a North Carolinian, it’s hard for me to trust him (he did walk all over us in order to get where he is now), but this is a hell of a lot better than what I’ve heard from the other candidates.
ProfessorVP
Whether Edwards would throw us under the bus or not is now a moot point. How could this uber-lawyer, hedge fund whizkid and he of all the supposed brain cells under his shiny ‘do… how could he not know Hillary’s people were staking him out, following his every movement? He is now toast. Not French toast, like Kerry. Just plain ol’ toast.