Playing the same game and by the same rules, rove’s rules, that got us into this fine mess is NOT what is going to get us out of it.

That’s the key, I think. It’s crazy to try to play by their rules in their court, particularly since their rules mean “we get to cheat, and the press won’t pay attention. If you do anything we don’t like, the press eats you alive.”

Don’t play that.

It is 6 years, 7 months, and 16 days too late for that “knife fight”! Better late than never. Its not to early to get a REAL candidate or have one of those clowns step up and go completely outside the current rules of this political gaming and frame up some new rules. Playing the same game and by the same rules, rove’s rules, that got us into this fine mess is NOT what is going to get us out of it.

The American voters are wearing from this same game. I want my country back now, right now!!! I want to see someone making a bold and realistic effort to do that, dammit. This is our country, this is people’s lives, this is not a fucking game. I see the Dems pussyfootin’ around with their big “Wait for it…. no, wait more…. just a little more…” bullshit and I’m saying ENOUGH with the gaming. Don’t play their game! Take the power back that belongs to the majority of voters and run with thaaaaat. The majority will support that, now. That’s what we need now, right now!

…How about we move on and construct a nice narrative fer Romney, crazed Nazi Loon, or Fed Thompson, tired, fat, flat-footed cop on the take, or Rudi, Coke-snorting Tranny wannabe who has a lot of crooks fer friends and whose own children can’t stand him….

I don’t know if you recall, but not too long ago Giuliani decided to cross over and attack Edwards or Obama and he couldn’t convince everyone he’d won the Repub nomination (while they weren’t looking), so he faded back from 4x% to 2x% and is probably on his way out.

With hot air balloons it doesn’t always take a lot of anger and thrashing about to win. Just a little pressure in the right place and they’ll collapse.

Right now it’s hard to see any of the Repubs being a very strong candidate against whomever the Dems nominate. Time will tell.

But, anyway, for now I suggest Dems fight it out for the nomination and leave the Repubs to their own bizarre devices. There’s time for focusing on their nominee.

I do strongly agree we shouldn’t use low blows. Out of our top candidates we might have both a Prez and V.Prez, so it wouldn’t do for them to be enemies.

If you need proof that John Edwards comes prepared to fight go back and listen or view the Vice Presidential debate. I hear him beating the guy with a club, giving him the shiv, and blasting away with his automatic.
I have no worry’s about JE backbone or any other body parts needed to win.

I couldn’t disagree more.

He does need to step up his counter punching to the Republicans. This would gain him some serious allies and set fire to his honest populism.

Sorry, Pach — TradMed’s been baiting Edwards throughout the year, especially this second quarter, for just the response you are asking for. And I think he’s spot-on: he has called out Mrs Clinton for her vote and non-apology on the war. And when he’s talked about experience, he’s looked right at Obama when he said it. But he hasn’t gotten angry.

If he gets angry, the elites will get the image they want: they are dying to show him as the angry white man, to portray his gentlemanliness as a fraud, to expose his caring as politically motivated.

I trust Trippi, and Bonior, and Elizabeth: let John Edwards be John Edwards. Everything I hear about his Iowa organization is superb: it’s really happening there, because people are getting the message. Let the ego-driven vanity campaigns play out at the top; TradMed will destroy them both before it’s over, I’m sure. And there John Edwards will be, smiling and radiant, a new Happy Warrior for the 21st century.

Plus, he’s sent the wife to pander tomorrow:

Elizabeth Edwards’ scheduled appearance Sunday at a major San Francisco Gay Pride event represents a first for a major presidential candidate or spouse — one that activists said reflects the growing clout of gay and lesbians as voters and their continued move into the political mainstream.

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, is scheduled to speak Sunday morning at the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club breakfast at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Organizers say it marks the highest level of presidential campaigning at the annual Gay Pride Parade.

Yup, yup and yup.

They’re already all over him for being a traitor to his class ‘hypocrite’ for being, y’know, rich and caring about poor people at the same time. (Whereas guys like Rudy, who are much richer and don’t care about poor people, are lionized by the press.)

Edwards does need to go on the attack — but then he also needs not to let himself be bludgeoned into apologizing for it. THAT’s the key.

I do not believe it is necessary to draw blood when it comes to the other personalities in the race. I believe he should quit running aginst Hillary and Obama and start running against the Republicans.

I believe he needs to paint the picture of Republican cronyism and corruption as vividly as possible and at every opportunity. I think he should identify the lies and liars who ropeat them, but the emphasis should be on the obvious damage it does to our country and its people.

The Republicans as a party have been cheerleaders for failed policies, erroneous presumptions,and have routinely derided sensible governance in favor of ideological “conservatism”. They enthusiastically rubber stamped everything from “Clear Skies” to Guantanamo and Abu-Garib. They are led by a psychopath who now believes he is indpendent of the Executive Office and the Congress–the Darth Vader of the Outer Limits. And his President concurs! This is a Republican Party that has destroyed our military, our military reserves AND our Department of Justice. What recourse do people have in defense of the liberties? Congress? The Unitary Executive and their Attorney General do not even respond Congress–no letter, no phone call, no FAX–nothing. What do you suppose they will do with a subpoena? Who is going to enforce it?

Who allows this kind of behavior ? The voting resistance in Congress is formed by Republicans in the main. Say what you will about the ineffectual efforts of the Dems to resist the burden of stupid policies, they are still unable to secure the votes they need to right a wrong course BECAUSE OF REPUBLICANS who still prefer loyalty to Bush-Cheney than to the common welfare of the nation.

John Edwards needs to attack the Party that makes all this possible and allows it to continue. Forget Hillary and Obama. Forget Thompson and McCain. The real target is the Republican Party.

a bald president will not get elected, but as it is, you allow yourself to react, so CUT it all off and get some mileage out of it.

Or, be yourself and F them all! That and at least get a crew cut, say you’re supporting the troops or something. Just get the hair thing over with.

Politics is way too simple and WAY too cynical these days.

The $$ of the haircut is what matters to poor people, and the best memory we will have of you if you keep this up will be the whole reduction of poverty thing. Do what your conscience allows and if you lose, that is the politics of today.

Post-43, everything will seem tainted, but democracy will survive.

If you’re not pissed off, you’re not paying attention.

So how does anger fit in?

I say, we need it.

We need to show it…some.

We need to be articulate, when we show it.

Forgiveness? Bi-partisanship?

Bullshit. Not now.

Not when the republicans still think they can play chicken, and do NOTHING to put pressure on bush, at the same time they try to make Pelosi and the dems force troop drawdowns and make bush set a withdrawal date, so they can then point to the even worse and bloodier chaos that is almost certain to follow, and say:

“See! We wanted to prevent this, and they wouldn’t let us!”

Of the candidates, my 2C, Edwards is playing it just about right.

He’s not trying to appear “above it all”. He’s had some fine things to say about all the bullshit. Courageous things.

And he’s not gone full-bore after Clinton (or Obama) which, at this point, I think is correct. He can’t portray Clinton as the enemy, with george bush and his coterie of shitheads sitting in the white house.

Time enough, in New Hampshire, to trot out Clinton’s statements supporting bush, including her most recent idiocy, about how the Iraqi government is to blame for not “doing more” to help the shitmire.

I’m concerned that Iraq is going to get SO bad; that ANY candidate who voted for that war authorization bill is going to have to be doing “mea culpa’s” 3 times a week.

It could come to that. I know good people who just won’t support Edwards, because of his vote there, no matter how many times he’s publicly said it was a mistake. I mean, there were 21 democratic senators who voted against it.
Just to stir the pot; are we saying that none of those 21 measure up to the three frontrunners?

I think that there could be room for an outsider to come in, later on, and make some serious noise in the campaign.

(Again; NOT the man who wanted Joe Lieberman to be a heartbeat away from the preznintzy.)

Last time I bought it, I voted for Bill Clinton and by the end of his first term knew I had been played by a master.

If Edwards can turn away wrath with a soft answer, send cockroaches scuttling with a gentle light, I’m payiing attention. But that’s a long process that calls for patience on everyone’s part.