Ladies and Gentlemen, we witnessed this evening a wonderful night

[saltpoint]

for John Edwards.

I say so because it wasn't all that long ago when he was polling in the high single digits in SC and after more concerted effort, in the low teens.

He received CONSIDERABLY more than that tonight. IMO there is a connection between Sen. Obama's strong victory, John Edwards' impressive surge out of the teens and into the 20s, and the changing of the national paradigm.

The idiot meme on MSM will be about who did not win his home state. That entirely misses the point. It's very much like saying "The Jones family next door no longer has their butter churn."

South Carolina has been a very conservative state forever. It is famous for secession fever in times past. It sent -- for DECADES -- the blood-and-bones bigot Strom Thurmond to the United States Senate, where he spent those decades as a segregationist xenophobe. Midway in his career in Congress, Thurmond still counted among his supporters veterans of the American Civil War. I personally knew a young man who spent time as an aide to Thurmond and had to assist him with personal daily living functions owing to Thurmond's decrepit health, yet SC voters continued, like lemmings, to send the old fool to Washington. "He's been in there so long, it would be kind of a shame to vote against him now," is how one SC Republican put it during the campaign for his last election.

James Pettigrew -- I'm way back in pre-Civil War times here -- said that South Carolina was "too small to be a State, and too large to be a mental asylum."

But tonight it gave a primary win to an Afro-American Democrat and it gave substantial and dedicated support to our John Edwards -- a son of the New South, the Evolved South, the Truer and higher-plain South, the South of more equality and better justice. In my youth white southern Democrats were:

NOT

like John Edwards. They were like STrom Thurmond.

We saw tonight an evolved South Carolina casting votes for Democrats who have evolved and developed and challenged themselves and others and have emerged as New American Candidates.

I congratulate Sen. Obama for his win. I think it is a campaign that needs some work. I think Donnie McClurkin was a case of extremely poor judgment, but I still honor the victory in so far as it signals a new day for the South generally and South Carolina especially, and:

I congratulate John Edwards and his campaign and all the volunteers -- including some from DU who showed up and did the volunteer work for a good cause -- for the actual, social change it represents in replacing the image of a segregationist past (Thurmond) with the promise of an ecomonically democratic future (John Edwards).

We carry more delegates to Denver after tonight than we had in our pockets before 7:00 p.m. Eastern when the polls closed in SC.

And we are going to shape the future of our country on that convention floor.

Go, John Edwards!

[pamela]

1. Damn straight, Old Crusoe.

When I look at where we were just ONE WEEK AGO, I am frankly amazed at what we saw happening this week. We saw our candidate win the debate, get some much needed coverage and rise in the polls every single day! Sure I'm damn disappointed that we didn't come in first or second, but we are still in the game and that means something in an election season where people are dropping like flies.

I'll tell you something else. When flyarm and Ninga and the others who have been fighting on the ground in South Carolina come online tomorrow, I bet they are going to be feeling good about what was accomplished in South Carolina this week. Correction, about what THEY accomplished this week. They worked their asses off for John and I don't want them coming back and reading a bunch of surrender posts.

We are the John Edwards Revolution. We are a grassroots movement determined to take back the media and get John Edwards' message out to the American people. This is not a fight for the faint of heart.

No retreat. No surrender.

[saltpoint]

2. Yes, yes, and yes on all counts, pamela.

That debate was a scorcher. Edwards won it, hands down, no questions asked, and the devil take the hindmost.

Con brio!

South Carolinians may not have heard the debte in the same way we heard it in other states. They were locked in some kind of murky race bullshit war with the two leading campaigns and may have responded locally and not given the debate (and its true winner) the breadth of consideration it/he deserved.

But I bet a lot of other Democrats in the Feb. 5th states heard it the way we heard it and I think the delegate count for John Edwards keeps going UP after today.

There will come an evening next fall in Denver when none of us who are sticking with John Edwards now will regret one ounce of it.

[NastyRiffraff]

3. Yes indeed!

Months from now, we'll all look back to tonight, when we felt a bit down. Some of us cried. Some of us wondered if what we're doing...what we hope for and work for is even possible.

And we'll remember. We'll be very very glad that like John, we never gave up.

Here's a Springsteen song for you:

We busted out of class had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school
Tonight I heart the neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say you’re tired and you just want to close your eyes and follow your dreams down

We made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat, believe me, no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter’s night with a vow to defend
No retreat, believe me, no surrender

Now young faces grow sad and old and hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
I’m ready to grow young again
And hear your sister’s voice calling us home across the open yards
Believin’ we could cut someplace of our own
With these drums and these guitars

We made a promise we swore we’d always remember
No retreat, believe me, no surrender
Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
No retreat, believe me, no surrender

Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
But it’s good to see your smiling face and to hear your voice again
We could sleep in the twilight by the river side
With a wide open country in our hearts
And these romantic dreams in our heads

[saltpoint]

4. "with a wide open country in our hearts..."

There it is.

John Edwards for President 2008.

[Nutmegger]

5. Yes OC!

I am impressed with Edwards "mini-surge", given his limited resources compared to his opponents.

We got some delegates and that will matter in the end.

Big :hug: OC!

[saltpoint]

9. A big hug right back, Nutmegger. One of the pleasures of watching

politics is to admire and respect the human being being the politician.

For most of us maybe, the better a true public servant a man or woman is, the more that respect is there.

We feel it at a level way deep down past mere agreement with policies and proposals.

John Edwards draws a lot of us at just such a level.

There'll come a night when he takes the stage in Denver. I'd like him to be our nominee. Yesterday's results changed nothing about that deep-down commitment.

On to Denver!

[chimpymustgo]

6. Thank you, Brother Crusoe for reminding us of the heart and hope that buttress this campaign.

We do have many reasons to feel proud and empowered. On to Denver!

I may even have enough strength to venture into GDP today.

[Silver Gaia]

7. That's the spirit! I was feeling pretty low myself, but as the night has worn on,

I am starting to feel rejuvenated. Replenished. If John isn't giving up, neither can we. And there really ARE many positives to consider.

[saltpoint]

8. !! Yes. On to Denver. With committed delegates. And the opportunity

to shape the future of our party and our nation.

These aren't weekend projects. And our candidate is in it for the long haul!

[smokey nj]

10. I'm with John until the bitter end, Old Crusoe!!!!

[saltpoint]

11. smokey nj! Howdy! He's a good man. His domestic proposals would

make our country a better place to live in, and restore what was already good that the Bush administration has eroded.

I think other nations would respond much more favorably to us if any of our 8 nominees were the next president. Owing to media time-cheating, only 3 or so are left, and of those, Edwards is running the fiercest campaign for working people, the unskilled, the uninsured, and the disenfranchised.

I'll stand with his candidacy until the other two win fair and square, which I don't think is inevitable yet. I think Edwards is still positioned to be our next president.

[smokey nj]

12. I know he's a good man, he's the best candidate we have and that's why I'm sticking with him

until the end.

[saltpoint]

13. - - - - -

:hi: :thumbsup:

[asdjrocky]

14. Okay, seriously tell the truth-

You write Editorials for the NY Times don't you?

I'm going to go on a bit here... This is just what I needed this morning as I woke up and turned on the computer. I must admit, while I'm not giving up or giving in or giving an inch, I went to bed last night pretty down heartened, and now, this very morning, I have a new outlook and that is because of one very good man here, Old Crusoe.

What a wonderful way to put those numbers into preceptive, nice work. This should really have a wider audience than we can give it here in the JE Support(ers) group.

This morning I saw a spokesperson on MSNBC saying there is no way JE is dropping out, and I also found he's coming up on CNN with the Wolfman very soon.

So the fight goes on, tonight I go to an Edwards house party, and I'll move forward with a new, and improved positive attitude.

That attitude comes from a reliable, and ever genuine source, my old friend Old Crusoe.

We need to all thank him.

[saltpoint]

15. Hells bells, Rocky, I'm the chief beneficiary of the Edwards group on

DU.

I came in a stray from the Kerry campaign after JK decided not to seek the nom this time.

I was welcomed warmly and universally by the John Edwards group and have been grateful for it since.

We feed off each other's energy and ideas. We're having fun. We're informed voters.

And by god we have the best candidate!:hi: :thumbsup: :dem:

[Ninga]

16. What I love most about everyone here, is that everyone contributes to the greater good.

Thank you today OC, for your thoughtful analysis.

Right on.

[saltpoint]

17. Right back atcha, Ninga. You've nourished us all many times.

Now it's on to Denver and let's sweep that convention!

[frogmarch]

18. Thanks, OC, I needed that.

What an upbeat and inspiring post!

Go, John Edwards! :patriot:

[saltpoint]

19. frogmarch, for the times you've had my back on these boards and for

your post right here and right now, thank you, and let me echo your sentiment:

Go, John Edwards! :yourock:

[Plucketeer]

20. Hear here!

<- this fella represents the pinnacle of our hopes. We all feel SO strongly about this person and what he stands for. I've never shaken hands with John (or even been anywhere close to him), and yet, just bantering and collaborating with everyone here, I feel as if I have clasped his and Elizabeth's hands and told them how much I appreciate their sacrafices on our behalf.
FORTY-SIX states to go! And then there's the floor of the convention. Let's go! :woohoo:

[saltpoint]

21. Plucketeer, you are testifying at the altar of the True Vibe.

The South Carolina vote totals be damned -- I'm more drawn to the Edwards candidacy than ever.

On to Denver!