John Edwards lost the election today on Meet the Press

The problem is that he is so nuanced. The appearance to many is that he's fishing for votes, rather than just taking a stand. My guess is that he doesn't give a rats ass about whether his neighbor is gay or straight. It'd be cool if he just said that. But he's trying to stay true to that and at the same time placate religious people, by giving nuanced "but I'm a Southern Baptist" answers. I didn't see Meet The press, but I've seen him give this answer in the past: "I support civil unions and I am against discriminating against gays, but I'm a Southern Baptist, so I don't support gay marriage."

That position could be consistent, I suppose, but how many people legitimately think in such nuanced terms? I'd even buy it, except he's that slippery when it comes to so many other things.

The guy has a charisma about him that most of the other candidates don't. It's sort of a "twinkle in his eye" charisma that's a bit reminiscent of Bill Clinton. But Clinton was a master of saying nothing and making it sound like he stood for big ideas. When Edwards does that, it sounds like he's speaking in generalities to avoid taking stands. Unfortunately for him, he comes up an inch short of Clinton in terms of that charisma.

He was at his best when he was being an old-fashioned populist. His "two Americas" speech was a bunch of horse shit, but it was very effective. He could run that way and not have to triangulate and come off as slippery, because 95 percent of the population thinks they are part of the "wrong America." Give that speech, and 95 out of 100 people in the audience are going, "Right on, brother!"

I think the problem for him is that people want to talk about Iraq right now, not two Americas, and it's a bad conversation for him. His calculation three years ago was that voting against Iraq was the wrong poilitical move. His calculation today is that he fucked that one up, so much so that he's desperately trying to make himself appear anti-war instead of the guy who kept voting for Bush's measures, so he's taking the most extreme, "Let's pull all the troops tomorrow" stance he can. It comes off as calculated, though, the way many things with him do.