Progressives question Obama's bona fides

On the trail this year, yes, he does. I think The Dean, who does not really write very well, was trying to make that point.
Doc, I think even zeke, who's READY TO GO! would admit that big praise from Broder is, while valuable Beltway-wise, is spooky elsewhere.

 

Paul Wellstone had a brand of populism -- and even that wasn't so much new as it was a reinvention of the old-school DFL conglomeration. Edwards has a stump speech.

Ah, lord, now I'm going to start thinking about the death of populism and I'm going to need a drink.

 

It's really not a fair point on Edwards. He has been walking the walk on this stuff for a couple of years. Nobody -- particularly not HRC and Barack -- is Wellstone. That's a pretty high bar. But, among the contenders not named Kucinich, Edwards is as close as we're likely to get.
But he voted for the damn war...

 

Oh, I agree that none of them is Wellstone. My point was that if John Edwards is the standard-bearer for populism, well, populism is in trouble.

Every time I hear Edwards on the stump, I am struck by the dichotomy between the content and my reaction. I SHOULD be loving it. But I'm always left curiously flat. Perhaps that says something more about me than about Edwards, I don't know. Part of it is the Baptist preacher rhetorical style, the "Brothers and Sisters.." invocations. I just don't buy it.

In contrast, I am always left thinking Dodd kills on the stump. He's direct and light on his feet, and he does as well without amplification as with, which is a dying political skill. But Dodd never comes off anywhere near as well on television -- where his accent and verbal tics (especially adding "here" to everything, which I'm sure is authentic but sounds AWFUL on television) work against him.

Biden is awesome on television. Part of me really wants to see him in the VP spot just to see a debate between him and whatever schmuck the GOP ends up with. Of course, if we end up with HRC and Romney, a Biden-Huckabee debate might be the only thing worth the price of admission.

 

Biden's your SecState, I think, no matter which D might get elected.
I actually could vote for Dodd, given the way he shoved it up Reid's keister on telecom immunity last week.
However, I guess I'm someone who gets what Edwards is selling. And, I have to admit, outside of HRC, there's nobody whom the wingnuts have slandered more thoroughly, which leads me to believe they're worried.
Still, though, he voted for the war...

 

Just because, Wellstone quoting RFK, Swarthmore College commencement, 1998.


I bring a reading here today, to Swarthmore. It was taken from a book that was just published. The title, " Make Gentle the Life of this World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy." It was sent to me by one of his sons, Max Kennedy, who now lives in Boston. I quote from Robert Kennedy. This was a speech that Bobby Kennedy gave March 18, 1968 to students at Kansas University. And I quote, "The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children; the quality of their education; or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate, or the intelligence or integrity of our public officials. It measures neither wit nor courage. Neither our vision, our wisdom, or our learning. Neither our compassion nor devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

We can do much better as a country. We should not focus just on how to grow our economy, but we should focus on how we can grow the quality of our lives, and how we can grow the quality of our life as a nation. We must foster a new atmosphere where values become sensitive to public policy. And we must build a nation, a community where no person, no neighborhood, and no community feels left behind.

I come here today to pose a question for you at this baccalaureate, and this is my question. How can it be that in the United States of America, today, at the peak of our economic performance, we are still being told that we cannot provide a good education for every child? We are still being told that we cannot provide good health care for every citizen. We are still being told that people can't look forward to jobs that they can support themselves and their children on. We're still being told that we cannot achieve the goal of having every five-year old come to kindergarten ready to learn, knowing the alphabet, knowing how to spell her name, knowing colors, shapes, and sizes, having been read to widely with that wonderful readiness to learn. How can it be that we are being told that we cannot do this at the peak of our economic performance? I say to you today that it is not right. It is not acceptable. We can do much better, and if not now, when? If we don't do this now, when will we do it as a nation?

 

...and then his plane crashed.
Damn, zeke.

 

I know.

 

And then the wingnuts made up a lot of bullshit lies about his funeral so a twit like Norm Coleman could become a senator.
Franken makes me crazy, but that's the seat I want back most in '08.