SDRippe receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award for his post, "The 44th Endorses John Edwards"

Recipient of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award



The 44th Endorses John Edwards

user icon SDRippe in Diaries Feed of SDRippe's Diary
9/23/2007 at 9:41 AM EST

Posted from John Edwards Blog on diaries

http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/9/23/9410/07934#13

(Original post at www.the44th.blogspot.com)

John Edwards should be the next President of the United States.

If you're really paying attention to the Democratic field -- if you're consuming more than sound bites and headlines; if you take the time to read policy proposals; if you can find a way to get beyond the media's short-sighted obsession with Clinton and Obama -- it's clear than only one candidate has clearly thought through the challenges and obstacles currently facing our country.

What strikes me most about the former Senator from North Carolina is not his sweeping health care reform proposal, not his honest mea cupla on Iraq, not his new education initiative, and not his undying attention to "fringe" issues of poverty and the governmental failings of hurricane Katrina -- although each of those issues has been thoughtfully crafted by Edwards into positive policy. No, what really sets him apart is that unlike the remainder of the field, John Edwards doesn't just want to be president. He wants to be an agent of change. He wants to put more emphasis on the solution than on the problem. He wants to fix a broken government dominated by money and influence and elected officials on the take.

John Edwards, it seems to me, wants to be the president that history regards as the Franklin Roosevelt of the new century -- the person who, against all odds and against a backdrop of bitter division, can reengage the average American in the political realm.

I don't feel that from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I have no doubt that each wants to be president. But I don't believe either wants to exact change.

I've watched politics -- closely -- all of my adult life, usually with a sense of hope and inspiration. But today, I am cynical. And that cynicism extends beyond my disdain for the self-serving policies of the GOP. I am equally unhappy with the Democratic party and its inability (or unwillingness) to make any appreciable progress on the largest issues of the day since regaining a majority last November. My party has let me down, and I think I know why.

You can search the Democratic party through and through, and not find a true leader willing to risk an ounce of political capital for the sake of truth. You may find dozens and dozens of speechified orators who talk a good game, but who ultimately stand idly by while the current president spins the country into its weakest state in decades. You will not find any current congressman or governor who inspires anything other than the status quo.

John Edwards inspires me. He gives me hope that no matter how shattered our political system is today, he can rally the country behind a solution. He makes me believe (and this isn't easy) that a new day in American discourse is on the horizon -- that in the not so distant future, we might set aside partisanship in favor of progress. John Edwards gives me confidence that we can do something, instead of just talk endlessly about why we disagree.

From the day John Edwards announced his candicacy -- when he said, in effect, that it was irresponsible to wait for the election to actually induce action -- it was clear that this campaign would be not be politics as usual. Since then, he has dared to bring to the forefront issues that other candidates would rather keep in the periphery. He has, as many journalists have rightfully noted, set the agenda for the Democratic party, and he has done so forcefully and eloquently.

There was a time early on in this campaign when the media still paid attention to people not named Hillary. That's no longer the case. Clinton has been annointed the Democratic nominee by the folks who write our newspapers and edit our TV news. And so you'll have to dig a little deeper if you really want to learn what the other candidates stand for. But that, I believe, is our duty as voters.

I can tell you that many of the early primary/caucus states aren't listening to the media. In those states, where Edwards has spent appreciable time, folks don't call him "populist." They just call him honest. And if honesty and populism are synonymous, maybe there's more hope than I thought.

Between now and Iowa, I will continue to put my money and my time behind John Edwards. More than that, I will put my faith in him...not just for The 44th, but for the sake of generations to come.