His record is not probably not encouraging to supporters...
Edwards recently asked Demcoratic voters to take a pledge not to support candidates that take PAC or Lobbyist money...presumably because that causes "corporate" Democrats to be elected...not populists such as himself who will only have the peoples interests at heart...
Yet the last time he campaigned on this for Senate in 1998...things didn't really turn out that way
eriposte at theleftcoaster has a good analysis of Edwards record vs the rhetoric...
From his 1998 Race for Senate...
Despite his own personal wealth, Edwards ran as the populist outsider, saying Faircloth cared more about big business than the people of North Carolina.
"We have got to start the process of restoring people's faith, making them believe again that this really is a democracy, and that their voice matters when decisions are being made in Washington," Edwards, then 44, said during his race against Faircloth.
With his emphasis on vindicating blue-collar workers and the poor, Edwards was a political anomaly. He had the kind of rags-to-riches life story that is often celebrated by Republicans, but instead of singing the praises of the free market, he condemned its excesses.
and this...
"This is who he is," Prince said, noting that as far back as his 1998 campaign against Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.), Edwards was talking about fighting for the little guy and against special interests. In one ad during that race, Edwards said: "Insurance companies have plenty of lobbyists fighting for them. I don't want to be their senator. I want to be yours."
And how did he behave ?
He voted in favor of a Bankruptcy Bill not once but twice, voted against filibustering the bill and voted against some progressive amendments to the Bill, he supported NAFTA as recently as 2004, he voted in favor of storing nuclear waste at Yucca mountain, he voted in favor of No Child Left Behind, he voted in favor of the Andean trade agreement and easing trade relations with China - not to mention, he voted in favor of the 2002 Iraq war authorization resolution and stood by his vote in 2004, he voted against an attempt to restrict the Iraq war authorization to one year, he voted against creating an independent report on pre-war intelligence manipulation, he voted against an attempt to raise taxes to fund the war, and he voted in favor of labeling Iran a state sponsor of terrorism.
I would add as well that he opposed universal health care in his 2004 campaign...
Now on to 2008...using the same pseudo populist rhetoric, trying to hide his above mentioned record, while trashing the records of folks who by and large were more progressive than he was in office...Edwards is hoping the same trick will work again...
as eriposte notes...
Lawyer-turned-lobbyist Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) has about $100K in PAC receipts, Republican Governor Mike Huckabee has taken barely $20,000 from PACs and Republican Governor Mitt Romney has about $300,000 in PAC funds - and all of them are far to the right of Sen. Hillary Clinton even though they have taken much less PAC money than she has. In other words, Sen. Clinton is very progressive on corporatist matters even when compared to Sen. Edwards and Sen. Obama and you have three top Republican candidates who are far to her right who have taken significantly less contributions from PACs than she has.
But we have Edwards who took no PAC money acting exactly like what his supporters oppose...
Is Edwards simply pulling the wool over their eyes...yet again?
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/011418.php#011418edited to add link
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