Edwards's innate appeal to moderates frees him up to say more

[AP]

liberal things than I suspect Kerry will be able to say.

I've noticed that Edwards does really well with moderate demographics (white, male suburbanites, with high incomes). He has done this from NH to WI while delivering speeches about looking after the 37 million poor people in the country, taxing cap gains at 25% rather than 15% if you make over 300K, and while talking about race at EVERY stop.

I suspect that Kerry will be running from the liberal label, and will be forced to say things that sound more conservative than Kerry might actually be.

I'm not making a value judgement on either of these strategies, and I totally accept Bill Clinton's mantra, "for a Dem to win, you have to look moderate, and say just enough so the far left doesn't think you're their enemy."

I'm just preparing people for the inevitable. Kerry WILL have to sound more conservative than he really is if he gets nominated and smart people here will shut the fuck up about it so that he can win. Edwards will have the luxury of being able to talk about the poor, progressive tax, public education, etc., until the cows come home becaue people will still perceive him as a moderate.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. I'm not moderate, I'm a liberal and it's one reason I like Kerry more

[AP]

2. To each his own. I'm very liberal and I like Edwards more.

[katieforeman]

3. If Bush wins, will he support your liberal values?

If you want to see all the progress liberals have made since FDR rolled back, then please vote for your first choice. If you want liberal values advanced vote for the most liberal candidate who will beat George Bush, John Edwards.

[disenfranchised]

4. I couldn't agree more.

[disenfranchised]

5. That's an interesting point.

Have you seen that more people with graduate degrees have voted for Edwards than Kerry? ...just an interesting stat.


I understand Kerry will have to appear more conservative than he is to get elected. But, once elected, won't he have to still fight the liberal label in order to get re-elected? So, isn't this an issue?

[AP]

6. He'll probably have to fight this label forever...

...to get consensus unless he's the senior senator from Mass.

[KittyWampus]

7. Kerry's Experience Will Enable Him To Function As President

without being a captive to Advisors on just about everything the way Edwards would.

Enough said.

[AP]

9. Kerry's class privileges have given him different opportunities which he's

exploited, but I don't see how you can say that they've given him better experience than Edwards.

If Edwards could have gone to boarding school in Switzerland, and then St Pauls where he could play hockey with Rober Mueller, and then he could have gone to Yale then chosed to go into officer training, and then not been a great lawyer, and then had gone into politcs at a younger age, thanks to family money, maybe he could have had some of the same "valuable" experiences as Kerry.

As it is he got some different experiences -- like the experience of knowing how most people really experience life in America.

[PurityOfEssence]

8. Oooh, good one!

I've been hoping that the idiotic labelling of the media's would backfire on them. The very idea of calling Dean the liberal of the group was always laughable, and if that contributed to his downfall, it's a sad twist of fate.

Just as it took a conservative to open China, it may take a "moderate" to really take us to the left. The very idea of Edwards not being tagged with the liberal epithet is amusing in itself. Far be it from me to set the nazis straight...

As I've said many times, Lee Atwater said that fighting class warfare was the best tactic for the Democrats to take the Presidency.

I'm a longtime left liberal too, and I love Edwards.