Elizabeth Edwards in NYT: Bowling 1, Health Care 0

[Freedom Train]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/opinion/27edwards.html?em&ex=1209441600&en=ee333fd6085ec821&ei=5087%0A#

FOR the last month, news media attention was focused on Pennsylvania and its Democratic primary. Given the gargantuan effort, what did we learn?

Well, the rancor of the campaign was covered. The amount of money spent was covered. But in Pennsylvania, as in the rest of the country this political season, the information about the candidates’ priorities, policies and principles — information that voters will need to choose the next president — too often did not make the cut. After having spent more than a year on the campaign trail with my husband, John Edwards, I’m not surprised.

...

Did you, for example, ever know a single fact about Joe Biden’s health care plan? Anything at all? But let me guess, you know Barack Obama’s bowling score. We are choosing a president, the next leader of the free world. We are not buying soap, and we are not choosing a court clerk with primarily administrative duties.

[Freedom Train]

1. Read the whole thing - Elizabeth is right as usual

[Doctor_J]

2. For the last 8 years we have lived with a stupid, mean, disengaged,

elitist, ignorant loser in the WH because of this same shit in 2000. One of the most qualified men ever to run for president was "defeated" by easily the least qualified in history, and we have paid the ultimate price - the virtual death of the greatest nation ever. Now the media insist on doing it again, trying to ram a senile, hot-headed criminal in to put the last few nails in our coffin. As I have said before, when we finally DO get the country back from the fascists, the media will shoulder their share of the retribution.

[Freedom Train]

4. And how poignant isn't this?

A report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy found that during the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, 63 percent of the campaign stories focused on political strategy while only 15 percent discussed the candidates’ ideas and proposals.

[Muttocracy]

5. that's really the problem in a nutshell, isn't it? nt

[Jensen]

3. Kudos to Elizabeth, what a smart lady and so on the ball!