John Edwards the best choice for 2008 (op-ed from the University of Alabama's student newspaper)

[JohnLocke]

John Edwards the best choice for 2008
By J.J. DaSilva--Crimson White
January 18, 2007
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During the winter break former North Carolina senator and 2004 Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards announced his bid for president. I had been hoping that he would. I generally vote for Democrats, and the others just don't fit my values as well as he does.
The Republican options are just out of the question. After assessing the damage extremist conservatives have done, I am convinced that in 2008 only a Democrat can clean up the mess and start making some progress.
(...)
Edwards comes from a working class, blue collar background, which is the same stock that I come from. His father was a mill worker in the Carolinas, and he was the first in his family to graduate from college, and so was I.
This sets an example for people who are trying to better themselves. This is what Americans need in times when jobs are uncertain, outsourcing is unchecked and when education costs are so high. America needs a guy like Edwards to help alleviate these issues.
I also support Edwards because of the great work that he did as a public protection attorney. He helped people who were being victimized by negligent corporations. He protected people from predatory big business. He provided people with fairness in trials when they were going up against some of the biggest bullies in the corporate legal structure.
This was an honorable way to make a living. He wrote a book about his experiences as a public protection attorney called Four Trials. It is definitely worth the read.
Edwards' values mirror my own. They are also the values that we all share as Americans who want progress. I think that it is time for Americans to have universal healthcare, and this is a stated goal of John Edwards. It works for Canada, Sweden and Norway, and in America it can work just as well.
(...)
Edwards also supports bringing U.S. troops from Iraq back home. He also plans to fight global warming and alleviate poverty.
This last issue, poverty is especially important here in the Southeast and specifically in Gulf Coast states.
Edwards also supports civil unions for members of the gay and lesbian community. I agree with this point as well. Marriage is a religious thing, but civil unions can provide legal and economic benefits to same-sex partners who contribute to their community in the same ways as opposite sex partners do who are married through their church or through common law.
As for other Democratic candidates, none hold the same vision. They also lack the working class, blue collar background that makes him a genuine candidate who means exactly what he says.
Hillary Clinton is just not progressive enough for me. She has a history of riding the fence politically in order to further her career. She is a career politician, and she was even as first lady.
Edwards is different because he hasn't spent his entire life in politics. His character hasn't been polluted like Clinton's. Clinton also sat on the board of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is known for violating environmental standards, hiring illegal immigrants, forcing its employees into taking advantage of public programs and disregarding the rights of its workers who are trying to organize unions. If she stands for the same things as Wal-Mart then she is not a progressive and does not deserve a single Democrat's vote.
As for Barack Obama, it goes without saying that this man should someday be president but not until Edwards has already served a full eight years as president himself. Obama is new to the game and really hasn't let any of us know exactly where he stands. Obama would be an ideal vice-presidential candidate in 2008.
(...)
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J.J. DaSilva is a graduate student in American studies. His column runs Thursdays.
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Read the rest here.

[Digit]

1. Love it, love it, love it!

Go John, GO!

[chimpymustgo]

2. "A public protection attorney". That's what Edwards was. Perfect framing.

And a smart, thoughtful article from this young man.

Edwards/Obama 08.

[chimpymustgo]

3. This part also hits home:

- snip -
Edwards comes from a working class, blue collar background, which is the same stock that I come from. His father was a mill worker in the Carolinas, and he was the first in his family to graduate from college, and so was I.
This sets an example for people who are trying to better themselves. This is what Americans need in times when jobs are uncertain, outsourcing is unchecked and when education costs are so high. America needs a guy like Edwards to help alleviate these issues.
- snip -

[seashorelady]

9. It is wonderful to see young adults

come forth with vigor and enthusiasm.

[Imagevision]

4. Personally I'm impressed with Obama but Edwards is very strong also!!

[carolinayellowdog]

5. For the first time in 30 years, I'm proud of my graduate degree

from the University of Alabama, 1977. It was nice to see Jimmy Carter inaugurated with Alabama's electoral votes.

[venable]

6. great, sincere piece

so for the first time in my life I say, Roll Tide

[Apollo11]

7. A persuasive piece

While Gore would still be my first choice, I like what I am hearing from Edwards so far.

Edwards has a lot of energy. He combines mainstream appeal with progressive and populist ideas.

His life story speaks to blue-collar and middle-class moderates and independents.

I like what he is saying about poverty, healthcare, Iraq.

Edwards will be 55 in 2008. He only looks younger! :)

He is someone who will campaign hard throughout all 50 States.

He has a full 12 months to build up his support before the primaries.

Sportsbook.com has Edwards at 8-1 to win the Whitehouse. Looks like a good bet!

[dsc]

8. It is unadulterated non sense that Hillary and Obama

didn't come from working class backrounds. Hillary didn't own a home until 2000. I am not saying I prefer anyone but I do prefer people know their facts before writing op ed pieces and this person didn't.

[1932]

10. I doubt Hilary was on financial aid at Welsley. Didn't she come from an

upper middle class family in Chicago? Her father was a white collar Republican. According to Wiki., dad had humble roots and went to Penn State on a football scholarship, but was a wealthy textile executive, a Republican, and they grew up in an affluent Chicago suburb. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Rodham%2C_Sr. So, it doesn't look like Hilary experienced the pinch of being working/middle class growing up.

And Obama went to the best prep school in Hawaii and didn't his stepfather work as upper managment for an oil services company, which is why they lived in Indonesia when he was young? -- Here's som info from Snopes, which is ambiguous on class status: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

I think it is very true that Edwards is much more a symbol of working and middle class America than just about any other top tier Democrat.

[dsc]

11. He was a textile salesman

who had gone to college on scholarship though he was described as sucessful. I wouldn't call that non working class though. He wasn't CEO of some corporation but a worker.

[venable]

12. Edwards dad was a laborer

not a salesman.

His mother delivered mail for the post office.

[1932]

14. He's talking about Hilary's father, who was a textile supply exec.

[venable]

27. right. misread it.

[karynnj]

17. He was a mill foreman

not a laborer.

[Catchawave]

19. Probably worked his way up from laborer

as most foreman's do.

[PeaceProgProsp]

25. Because he didn't have a college degree, he hit a glass ceiling.

He ended up quitting and providing the same services as an independent contractor to different so that, at least he could be his own boss and have his success depend on the quality of his work rather than whether he had a degree.

[benny05]

21. and worked another job

To help Edwards get through college and law school. Edwards worked at the mill and for Brown when he was in college.

[1932]

13. It says he was very successful, and I doubt Hillary was on F.A. at Welsley

and I vaguely remember seeing somewhere a photo of the house she grew up in in Chicago and it wasn't small.

I can look it up on Zillow.com to see what it's worth today...

[karynnj]

15. I agree - I also resent the fact that

he touts Edwards not having been in "politics" as a plus.

Every other person possibly running - (in alphabetical order) Biden, Clark, Clinton, Dodd, Gore, Kerry, Kuchinich, Obama, Richardson, and Vilsack all chose PUBLIC SERVICE over making a fortune for themselves. The same goes for Dean, Gepheart and Graham in 2004. Every single one of these people earned far less than they would have out of government. They weren't in public service for money.

Their jobs were public service, not "politics".

I resent the Edwards acting as though they had it tough, because it shows a huge sense of entitlement. Both of the Edwards had very middle class backgrounds and no real obstacles from going to college and law school. By the time they were in their mid 20s, they were a married couple with 2 law degrees, making them upper middle class within a few years of graduation.

By his late 30s and through his 40s, Edwards had more income and assets than any of the people on the above list had at a comparable age. Unlike many of the politians who had to struggle with living costs in their state and in DC, I seriously doubt the Edwards have had to really consider the cost of anything they wanted or needed for two decades or more. Many of the others have the honesty and good grace to say that they were priviledged. The Edwards have been in the priviledged class for a long time now - they deserve credit for getting there.

This is a case of spinning a negative - lack of public service - into a positive. As to being an activist - he wasn't until it appeared to be the thing to do. Dean was an activist, first becoming involved politically when he worked to make Burlington, VT's bike path a reality. John Kerry was pretty famous as an anti-war activist and he was also an advocate for veterans rights and environmental activist from before the time when he spoke out on the war.

[1932]

16. Kerry's mom owns part of an island. He went to St Paul and Yale.

He's related to the Forbes family.

If Democrats think that a candidate like Kerry is a good symbol of the experience of middle/working class Americans, well, no wonder we're losing.

On your list of candiates- Biden, Clark, Clinton, Dodd, Gore, Kerry, Kuchinich, Obama, Richardson, and Vilsack - Kucinich is the one with real working class roots and Vilsack has an interesting story (orphan, right?, prestigious liberal arts college on a scholarship, no?, and then he went to his wifes small hometown to practice law with her father, right?). But, some people on that list should be ashamed of having the wealth they have after only being public servants.

This is an important issue. Democrats really need to understand what it means to be a symbol of opportunity and of working and middle class American experience.

[karynnj]

23. I did not say that Kerry was middle class or working class

The point I was making was the choices they made. In Kerry's case, it's true that he had wealthy relatives and was very well connected. He never ever claimed to be middle class, he said he was privlidged and he was - the connections meant as much as money. He also never pointed out, although it was true that he had a part time job in college and worked summers (unloading trucks at a dock - he likely could claim he was a union member.) His choice of public service left him relatively poor for someone of his background for at least a decade. He obviously never suffered through poverty, but neither did Edwards, who has been a muli-millionaire for over a decade.

[Apollo11]

18. Edwards made it through his own effort

Yes he was a successful lawyer, and he was well paid.

But it was thru his own effort, energy and hard work.

That's not the same as having a privileged background.

Most people like the idea of someone who works hard to become a success.

Better than the privileged failure who sits in the Whitehouse today.

And sitting in Congress is not the only way to make a positive contribution to society.

I think most Americans would see the Edwards family as "normal folks" who "made it".

In other words - they represent "the American Dream".

Surely that can only be an advantage in a national election.

[Catchawave]

20. There's a good bio from the Boston Globe:

A snip from Oct 2003:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/10/05/from_mill_town_to_the_national_stage_boston_globe/?page=1

....When Bobbie Wade Edwards entered the hospital in June 1953 to give birth to John, Wallace Edwards couldn't pay the $100 bill to bring his wife and son home.

This was nothing new. Ever since the Edwardses had come east from Georgia's Blue Ridge mountains to South Carolina generations earlier, settling in mill towns around the Piedmont plateau, money had been tight. Wallace's father sold shoes and rose to become a furniture store manager. Young Bobbie Wade's father, a handsome Marine with a seventh-grade education, worked cleaning mills after a boxing injury left him partially paralyzed.

To satisfy hospital officials and spring his wife and son, Wallace Edwards took out a $50 loan, at 100 percent interest.

``If I hadn't paid the money, they would have hauled all our furniture away,'' Wallace Edwards says now.

``What furniture?'' Bobbie asks....

[benny05]

22. He also didn't marry into it either

Both he and Elizabeth worked hard. She worked until 1996 as a bankruptcy attorney, now she is a writer. Edwards says he's been blessed enornously with everything he could have.

[karynnj]

24. They each married the woman they loved - so that is pretty tacky

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry also work extremely hard. I didn't say that the Edwards didn't work hard they obviously did. My point was that the op was making public service into a negative that it was not.

[benny05]

28. This is what was written

"Both of the Edwards had very middle class backgrounds and no real obstacles from going to college and law school. By the time they were in their mid 20s, they were a married couple with 2 law degrees, making them upper middle class within a few years of graduation."

I disagree. JRE's mother worked two jobs and Mr. Edwards was still working his, along with JRE working at the mill or at UPS during the week and summers while he went to school. That doesn't necessarily classify his parents' status as solid middle class. That background shaped his thinking when he introduced college for everyone in the Senate, and since no Republican cared about passing any Dem legislation that would help anyone beyond the wealthy, that bill sat there. Edwards finally got a pilot program going in Greene County, NC, the poorest county in NC, in 2005, but it was all private monies he raised from donors.

Elizabeth also worked as a waitress in college and grad school, and had to pay most of her way through law school.

In terms of upper middle class for JRE and EE, I think it took more than a few years. They both clerked at different places far apart 2 days after they were married, and clerkships for federal judges do not pay that well, it's experience that counts. Before they moved to Nashville a year later, they still needed help with moving from her folks, and that's when the Wendy's anniversary dinner started (an establishment that was foreign to those from privileged backgrounds, as it has been noted in the past year). After moving Nashville, they had Wade, and they still lived on a budget. Elizabeth has mentioned about wanting to buy extras and John said no unless they needed them. It was not until into the 80's that he was able to form his own practice and they were into the upper class.

I suggest reading both Four Trials and Saving Graces to find out more.

[1932]

26. Edwards did have an obstacle to going to college

When he didn't get an athletic scholarship for sophmore year at Clemson, he had to transfer to NC State.

Kerry had no problem staying in Yale.