Walter Shapiro, the Washington bureau chief of Salon.com,
interviews John Edwards and writes a nice
article about it. Shapiro says:
Unraveling Edwards' subtext does not require a Derrida-spouting graduate student. Hillary Clinton is the obvious apostle of these "cautious, incremental steps," while Barack Obama is the undeniable master of feel-good rhetoric. What is most intriguing about the Edwards 2.0 campaign is how a once carefully calibrated, pro-war, mainstream Democrat has fashioned himself into the candidate of "big, bold transformational change."
Shapiro goes on to discuss some of the issues positions that have put Edwards in the hearts of many progressives:
In contrast to Clinton and Obama, Edwards has moved quickly to stake out the left flank on domestic issues. His healthcare plan -- which combines federal subsidies with mandates on companies and individuals to provide and buy health insurance -- promises universal coverage in his first term in the White House. His proposal to combat global warming (announced in Iowa on the day that he learned of Elizabeth's new cancer diagnosis) calls for capping the release of greenhouse gases by 2010 and gradually reducing the ceiling for them through the coming decade. To reduce poverty, he has reached back into the old liberal playbook to call for the creation of 1 million public service jobs for those on the economic margins.
He talks about the elements of Edwards' populist background that I believe, much like Jim Webb's, will help him win over voters who aren't already committed progressives in the general election:
Unlike virtually any other recent Democratic presidential contender, Edwards is a completely self-made figure, who made it to the forefront of politics without the help of an Ivy League pedigree or its equivalent. Hillary Clinton (Wellesley and Yale Law School) and Barack Obama (Columbia University and Harvard Law) were ticketed for the educational success track at a point in their lives when Edwards was still majoring in textiles at North Carolina State. Asked about his atypical educational background at the Davenport town meeting, he explained, "Coming from Robbins, North Carolina, where I was from, getting a liberal arts degree didn't make sense. I wanted to make sure that I could get work."
And Shapiro finishes up by noting that Edwards has every incentive to show courage in fighting for the causes we all support:
The Edwards campaign was always a high-risk venture, since there was no point in his playing it safe when he was running against a former first lady turned senator and the most charismatic newcomer to American politics in modern memory. But now, since Elizabeth's heartbreaking diagnosis, this is truly the nothing-left-to-lose campaign. Whatever his ultimate political fate, John Edwards is unlikely this time to end up with regrets about being too timorous a candidate in the race of his life.
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Additional Research:
Read the whole Shapiro article.
Read the transcript of the Shapiro/Edwards interview.
Throw $25 to keep the Edwards campaign going strong.
And if you haven't seen David Sirota's excellent diary on why Edwards is a different kind of Democrat than Clinton or Obama, I highly recommend giving it a read.