John Edwards for president? NO!

John Edwards home in North Carolina (Tree huggers, take note!)


With the campaign getting underway, I've been thinking about doing blogs of the major candidates of both parties. Since, I need to do some more homework on several of the candidates, I thought I would start off one by one.

In the interest of full disclosure, I belong to no party. I am an independent (small case "i"). Being of the conservative persuasion, I have always voted Republican, and I will almost certainly do so in 2008 since the Democrats have gone so far to the left that I consider them dangerous for America. So don't be surprised when I slam the Democratic candidates. Anyway, speaking of slamming, I will start off with John Edwards.

Edwards, as he is fond of telling everyone, grew up as the son of a simple millworker. He was fortunate enough to be able to go to college and get his law degree, in spite of his humble beginnings (a testament to the greatness of America, one of the few places in the world where poor people can rise to the top through traditional and legal means).

Edwards went on to become one of North Carolina's most successful trial lawyers, specializing in personal injury cases, suing doctors and hospitals for malfeasance and collecting huge settlements. Thus, he became fabulously wealthy. Some have criticized his trial tactics of using questionable science to convince juries of his cases.

From law, Edwards went on to politics, becoming a US Senator in 1998 before suddenly emerging as John Kerry's VP running mate in 2004. This after an unsucessful primary campaign for the presidential nomination. During the campaign, Edwards' theme was "two Americas" (one being the America of fat cat George Bush and his cronies, the other America consisting of "po folks" like him, I guess). The irony of one of the richest men in North Carolina complaining about Republican "fat cats" was not lost on most Americans.

Losing the election and out of his Senate job, Edwards returned to North Carolina to lick his wounds and prepare for the next go-around. Now he is back, repositioned to the far left of the Democratic presidential candidates and again showing his hypocritical nature. To be sure, he is hardly considered the favorite, running behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In addition, he has suffered some embarassing bumps in the road.

First there was the issue of 2 far-left bloggers he had hired to work his websites. Turns out, both of these ladies had a paper trail of harsh and profane comments about Christians. When a public furor followed, Edwards made more moves than OJ Simpson in his pre-murderer days, first disowning the statements, then dancing back and forth between firing the gals or giving them another chance. Seems the Move-On.org crowd protested against any firings. Anyway, after weeks passed, the ladies resigned, then went out writing a flurry of articles slamming the right-wing conspiracy and the Bushies for the loss of their jobs. Edwards, meanwhile, showed the public that he had questionable leadership and decision-making skills.

Then his wife Elizabeth announced that she had unfortunately suffered a relapse of cancer. Edwards' decision to continue the campaign rather than drop out met with stern disapproval from certain quarters, who saw blind ambition, while others defended the decision as courageous.

Then came the $400 haircut (billed to the Edwards campaign no less). Once again, conservative pundits had a field day pointing out the hypocrisy of the man they had already been referring to as "the Breck Girl". Of course, "Po Folks" Johnny hastened to make it right by "correcting the billing error".

Finally, just a few days ago, he told interviewers that, if elected, he would deal with Islamic terrorism by doing the following:

Reorganize the military ( ala Carter and Clinton?)
Meet with his leading generals !?!? (That would be revolutionary.)
Create a "Marshall Corps" of 10,000 volunteers, who would go to the Middle East and work to eliminate poverty and provide clean drinking water.


Maybe Edwards will go on to win the Democratic nomination- with the Dems, nothing would surprise me. But in a general election, I think he will have a hard time convincing Americans that he is anything more than an ambitious, hypocritical lightweight, who doesn't have what it takes to face America's enemies.