Maybe it's the hair. John Edwards has lately been getting razzed for his expensive ($400) haircuts and hedge fund profits, but while the late night comics and political pundits have been dogging him, Edwards has quitely gone about maintaining a comfortable lead in Iowa, and that's nothing to laugh about.
Finally, a major Democratic presidential candidate has publicly called into question the policy of a "Global War on Terror". And that candidate is John Edwards, who, perhaps, has keenly sensed that he must push even farther beyond the general Democratic anti-war stance. This may be a subtle point to those who have seen the Iraq War as a fundamental part of the War on Terror, but not for those (of us) who for years now have thought the War on Terror is nothing more than a War on Drugs or, dareisayit, Cold War for the 21st Century. It's about time some politician stood up to raise this fundamental issue. It will be interesting to see whether the other candidates will attack or adopt Edwards' issue/strategy.
In the latest Rasmussen Reports presidential poll, Barack Obama is tied with Hillary Clinton, each at 32%. John Edwards is comfortably in third with 17% far ahead of Bill Richardson in fourth with 3%. Interestingly, according to the poll, it is Edwards who performs best in in a general election matchup against GOP candidates. He is the only Democratic candidate who tops Rudy Giuliani.
(Edit: Rudy Giuliani has now joined Obama and Edwards in displaying the "splash" screen before you enter the website.)
For his first presidential run, Barack Obama seems to be getting the hang of things. Beginner's luck, maybe? It is being reported that Barack Obama raised $20 million in Q1 2007. That's not quite as much as Hillary Clinton ($26 million), but it handily beats every other Democrat in the field, including John Edwards ($14M), Bill Richardson ($6M), Joe Biden ($3M), and Christopher Dodd ($4M). These numbers don't reflect the additional funds candidates may have carried over from previous campaigns.
Well, Mrs. Clinton is going about her business pretty much the way everyone thought she would. She's putting donor's money where her mouth is. Thus far, Clinton has raised a whopping $36 million, while John Edwards has raised a "mere" $14 million, still a relatively huge amount this early in the process. Barack Obama has not released his totals yet, but it's expected that his totals will fall in between Clinton and Edwards. Financial reports for both parties are due on April 15.
According to the latest Rasmussen Reports numbers, John Edwards has surged significantly in the polls to 17%, up six percentage points from the prior week. He appears to be taking some votes from Barack Obama and Bill Richardson, rather than Hillary Clinton. Of course, it can only be speculated whether Edwards' rise in this poll is due to the announcement the couple made last week relating to the recurrence of Elizabeth's cancer. And, of course, if you watched "60 Minutes" last night like I did, you would know Edwards said he doesn't want the "sympathy" vote.
Bill Bradley, the main challenger to Al Gore for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination, appeared on "Meet The Press" with Tim Russert on Sunday. While mostly sticking to his vision for a general Democratic political strategy, as discussed in his new book "The New American Story", the conversation briefly turned to the current Democratic field for 2008. Bradley specifically and positively noted John Edwards and his health care plan. Russert, of course, also asked for Bradley's opinion of Barack Obama, who Bradley then described as "skyrocketing" and "rock star". Interestingly, there was no mention of either Hillary Clinton or Al Gore (except briefly as the latter related to Bradley's 2000 bid).
(LIVE) To follow up on the previous posting today, John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth have just announced that her cancer has recurred, and has moved into the bone. Although seemingly grim news, this diagnosis, according to the couple, is not a death sentence. The cancer cannot be cured, but it can be treated and controlled - like diabetes they said. Indeed, the couple made a televised appearance to show that she is not symptomatic, other than some pain in her ribs, and appears to be in good health, otherwise. Let's hope Elizabeth remains alive and well for years to come. Regarding the campaign, Edwards said (moments ago), "The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly."
It is well known that John Edwards' wife Elizabeth is recovering from breast cancer. The couple was to hold a press conference today discussing the latest developments after she visited her doctor yesterday.
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards is apparently having trouble gaining traction in South Carolina, host of one of the key early presidential primaries (to be held on Jan. 29, 2008). If he doesn't win or at least come close to winning there, he probably has little chance to move on.
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter called John Edwards the "F" word at the American Conservative Union's Political Action Conference on Friday (the same word, by the way, that ex-NBA player Tim Hardaway and current Gray's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington recently got in mega-trouble for using) . There's even a video floating around, but it's just so ugly, I don't have the stomach to link to it (go to YouTube, if you've got the guts). Ann - just when I thought you could not stoop any lower... well, maybe there's one explanation for this behavior. Ann - have you switched parties? Whatever comes out of your mouth these days only has two effects: the first is to hurt Republicans simply by name association, and the second is to embolden Liberals in the Democratic base.
I guess it just got a whole lot harder to be a blogger. Now a second blogger for the John Edwards presidential campaign has quit after pressure from conservatives apparently accusing her of writing anti-Catholic blogs in the past. This follows less than a week after another blogger for the Edwards' campaign had resigned following similar attacks from conservatives. Are we witnessing the first salvos in what will be a vicious war in the blogosphere? Perhaps, this is simply a backlash against bloggers. More likely, I believe, we are witnessing in addition to the rapid decentralization of media power, a decentralization of politics, itself, to the point which people so far removed from real power are being attacked, that it's hard to know where this will end. Maybe this will result in better vetting of campaign bloggers. Of course, how many bloggers would get past the kind of scrutiny that is routinely applied to our national politicians? And isn't the whole point of blogging in the first place that it's regular people?
O.k., to be fair, now disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay prefaced his dire prediction with, "If the conservative movement and Republicans don't understand how massive the Clinton coalition is, she will..." Needless to say, it appears the GOP is deathly afraid of facing Hillary in the general election in '08. What can possibly prevent Hillary from winning? Well, of course, she could lose the Dem. nomination to another candidate, for example, Barack Obama or John Edwards. Short of this, the Republicans will have to find some candidate who can rally both the conservative base and rising tide of swing voters. That may be tough for the current frontrunners, including John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney.
Former senator and current presidential candidate, John Edwards, announced his vision for universal health care coverage on Monday. To pay for it, Edwards proposes to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for those making over $200,000 per year.
