Quote by Raine: HI WILL! Thanks for those words. you never have to fear from double posting, will. We all need words of hope today.

Quote by will in chicago:

Quote by Raine: HI WILL! Thanks for those words. you never have to fear from double posting, will. We all need words of hope today.

I can't speak for John Edwards, but I think that he and Elizabeth want us to have hope - not just for the Democratic Party but for America and the world. Indeed, it was an expression of their hope that lead to a campaign that raised many vital issues, and I think that John Edwards will still have a part to play in this election cycle. (If Edwards does not want to be Vice President, imagine what he could do as attorney general in bringing justice to this country.)



So, why despair? Ultimately, a campaign is not about a person but about ideas - and I think Edwards' ideas will be influencing the debate this year.

Nader said he filed papers with the Federal Election Commission and launched a Web site after Dennis Kucinich, a liberal Ohio congressman, announced his decision to withdraw from the presidential race last week.



He was set to announce that he had formed an exploratory committee Wednesday, even before former Sen. John Edwards made it known that he'd be ending his candidacy. But with Edwards — who has made economic populism and ending poverty cornerstones of his campaign — leaving the Democratic field, Nader said, he feels his candidacy is more urgent than ever.

Quote by wickedpam: Today's events reminded me of this -



I am not leaving!

Please hear what I said,

I am not leaving!

I’m staying where I’m at, thank-you very much.

And as long as I stand upon her soil,

She will be my land of the free.

As long as I believe what I believe,

You will see the meaning of brave!

I will not under threat of tyranny or mob,

Toss the place that I love in the ashen pile of lost causes,

And walk quietly into a meaningless mist!

No, I will stay, and you will listen.

You will not lecture me about values!

You will not receive the exclusive rights to my morality!

Please hear what I said.

For where ever I stand upon here soil,

I am the deep well of my beloved country’s finest values and highest morals,

Fairness, compassion, wisdom, strength, commonsense, tolerance,

And you shall tremble before them, for they are righteous!

So let the cheers for my demise die this night in a million throats!

Let the gloating turn to great and frightening doubt!

For I am not leaving!

My beloved country needs me now more than ever she has before.

And I pledge my allegiance to that what she still is,

And to that great and shining day that she has yet to live!



~Unknown~

Quote by will in chicago:

Quote by Raine: Is nader going to run now? This would be the worst thing to happen for us as dems.

Nader, blech! The man did NOT build up a party infrastructure after 2000 and seems to be desperately trying to undermine his own accomplishments. So, I have to ask if we can afford a vanity candidate who seemed to cut into the numbers of Democrats.

Quote by Raine: Crooks and Liars has the video to John's speech.

John Edwards isn't just the most electable Democrat—he's the best choice. But the media is starving him of the oxygen campaigns require in order to thrive: coverage. Shortly after placing second in Iowa, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that John Edwards received a puny 7 percent of national media coverage. Clinton and Obama got between four and five times more; their poll numbers were nowhere close to that much higher than Edwards'.



"The media goes to this very engaging story about a legitimate woman candidate and a legitimate candidate with an African-American heritage, and that drives up their fund-raising numbers," Elizabeth Edwards told Time. "Then the media folks say, 'See, that proves we were right to focus on these two candidates'... It's enough to make you tear your hair out."



But there's more to the Edwards story (and non-stories) than reporters dazzled by Clinton and Obama—contenders who, though they don't seem likely to make political history, add a bit of demographic flavor. There is no precedent in memory of the news media freezing out a major presidential candidate to this extent.



The New York Times' own public editor conceded that his paper had shortchanged Edwards. "In Iowa ... John Edwards is close behind Clinton in the most recent Des Moines Register poll," Clark Hoyt wrote on Nov. 18, "yet The Times has given him comparatively scant coverage. Clinton and Obama have been profiled twice each on the front page since Labor Day, but Edwards not at all this year. Throughout the paper, The Times has published 47 articles about Clinton since Labor Day, only 18 about Edwards."



"I don't track our coverage by quantity," campaign editor Richard Stevenson responded. "In a qualitative sense, we've covered him pretty thoroughly, and there is more to come."



There wasn't.



What's really behind the media animus toward Edwards," Jeff Cohen wrote for AlterNet, "is his 'all-out courting of the liberal left-wing base' (ABC News) or his 'looking for some steam from the left' (CNN)."



When the media gets tough, read the overseas press. Kevin Drawbaugh, a reporter for Reuters, knows what's up. "Ask corporate lobbyists which presidential contender is most feared by their clients," he writes for the British wire service, "and the answer is almost always the same—Democrat John Edwards."



Drawbaugh quotes Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at the Stanford Group think tank: "My sense is that Obama would govern as a reasonably pragmatic Democrat ... I think Hillary is approachable. She knows where a lot of her funding has come from, to be blunt." Edwards, on the other hand, is "an anti-business populist" and "a trade protectionist" who "would be viewed as a threat to business," he said.

Quote by TriSec: I think my iTunes party shuffle has an unhealthy obsession with the songs of West Side Story...

Quote by TriSec: : looks around sheepishly :



I uh, probably still know the words to most of those songs...

I just hung up from a conference call with supporters of the Edwards campaign. Both John and Elizabeth spoke.



Some of my notes:



Elizabeth Edwards introduced John:



"...I felt in 2004 that we left the campaign without leaving a mark... not this time... a lot of the policies on the table are the result of John..."



John Edwards:



"We were just and righteous and correct in what we tried to do for the country..."



Decision not about money, wants to unite the Party, believes McCain has the Rep nom locked up. "My withdrawal was not money driven... had nothing at all to do with money... it was based on my belief that continued battle was not going to serve our country well... when it's a two person race someone emerges quickly... it's very clear to me that McCain is the Republican nominee..."



"...I wish you could understand how hard this is inside of me..."



Poverty will be the issue on which Edwards will continue to push for concessions. "I have not endorsed anyone... I pressed them (Obama and Clinton in conversation in the last few days) on details of what they would do about poverty... we have very detailed commitments from both of them... both of them have given me their word to do certain things if elected, at the convention... "



No endorsement before Tuesday. "I will be meeting with each of them... there is no chance it will happen (any endorsement) before Tuesday, or even after... "



Take a breather and don't make any support decision yet. "I'm counseling you all to keep your powder dry... to take time, take a deep breath, don't be in a hurry (in choosing who to support)..."



"It's impossible to know what tomorrow holds..."



That's what I wrote down and I think it covers the key items discussed.

Quote by livingonli: I wish I could have heard it.

Quote by Raine: I think that is shelagh on the phone with Rach.



:clap:



Anyway, we are going out for a post mortum cocktail. I will see you all later.

Quote by velveeta jones: McCain is putting



me





to







sleep.............zzzzzzzzzzz.



He sounds very Fred Thompsonie.

Quote by Raine:

Quote by livingonli: Are they all trying to see who's extra Reaganie? Next thing, you know they will want to dig up his corpse and lay beside it.

it would be hard to distinguish between raygun and mcCain... ::shudder::