Here's how Edwards can get a fresh start -- Get Beaten Up

[Armstead]

Get Beat Up by the Media and/or the Clintons.

Getting beaten up by the media did wonders for Hillary in New Hampshire. Getting beaten up by the Clintons did wonders for Barak in South Carolina.

Edwards has managed to remain above the fray. He hasn't been hyped by the media, nor demonized by them. The Clintons haven't set their sites on him to tar his reputation. He's just been plugging along, talking about boring issues like poverty, the need to defend the middle class and tame the beast of Corporate Power.

Maybe what he needs at this point is to have the Clintons go after him. Beat him up real good with mischaracterizations of his statements, or attacking him as a white guy or whatever else they think will besmirch him....Or maybe the media needs to do some real dancing on his grave (in contrast to ignoring him).

Perhaps that's what it takes in modern politics to get nominated.

(yes I'm angry.)

[saracat]

1. They already have and the media doesn't think it worth talking about!

Sleaze robo calls in SC are just the beginning.

[havocmom]

2. Edwards must be the candidate the status quo owners fear most

They sure keep their dogs off his trail.

[Armstead]

5. He doesn;t have anything colorful to tage onto

Just a message and some ideas.

[havocmom]

7. Sadly, America hates the 'eat your vegetables' candidate every time

ADD = flash and splash are about all that get noticed. Then, when things go wrong, AGAIN, America whines and wants Al Gore to come in and wave a wand to fix it all.

We have a man standing up and speaking truth to power and us. Too few are listening. I feel like I am in some Ibsen play.

Yeah, I am angry too.

[AndyA]

3. All Edwards has to do is start taking big money from lobbyists...

tell them he's got their backs, (wink wink) and that he's going to talk about change, and hope, because that's what the people want to hear, but he'll cut a deal with the powers that be anyway.

Then he can ditch his plans on the issues, come up with a bunch of generic crap that sounds good, and preach that to the masses.

Because of the deal he made with the powers that be, suddenly he has air time in the media, and is a real contender from out of nowhere for the top spot! How'd that happen?

With the lobbyist money, he can make HUGE media purchases and it'll be the fairy tale story of how the underdog became the top dog.

Then he can pander to whichever audience he's speaking to, tell them what they want to hear just to get their vote.

And, in an effort to be fair and reach across the aisle to the other side, he can grab hold of the folks on the right so hard that he drags them back toward him, in the process filling in the aisle so that we're all one, and suddenly he's not really a progressive, but Republican lite.

And then he'd be...














Hillary or Barack. Take your pick. :eyes:

[lapfog_1]

4. Actually Edwards was targeted in SC

and just before the election.

See this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4226856&mesg_id=4226856

It was so sick that even I, who has been here criticizing the Clintons for their campaign tactics, did not think that it was true. Apparently it is true and the Clinton campaign authorized it, though I'm still awaiting confirmation in the form of a reputable news source.

[Armstead]

6. I hope it's not true

The Clintons were the ones who pushed for MFN with China.

I know he voted for it, but if the Clintons use their own policies as a "bad policy" it is hypocracy to the highest level.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. He hasn't been hyped by the media, nor demonized by them.

That's called being ignored.

[FlyingSquirrel]

9. Personally I think he should cut his hair himself, and post a video.

That'd get some media attention

[stickernation]

10. how about beat up repugnicans ???

i think it's kamikaze time for john sometime soon. i think he needs to focus on the TRUE enemy - the REPUGNICANS - and whip up the electorate's fury at having been so deeply deceived for the last eight years (including Bush's candidacy). (Texans for far longer.)

the repugnican field is so weak. we need to make sure they are squarely pinned with the Bush mess and can't wriggle out of their complicity. Obama and Clinton can talk about each other's records until they're blue in the face, and hopefully Obama will emerge out of the tangle - I think the "Billary" meme is going to sink that particular ship, especially given Frank Rich's New York Times column today: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27rich.html.

Edwards should tangle it up with mccain. Edwards should prosecute him for his acquiescence to this frightening war, and earn his stripes as an anti-war advocate by prosecuting those bastards in the court of the public media. he has taken it to abstractions that are hitting all the right notes - we hate poverty, corporations run washington, etc. let's see him get PERSONAL. because if mud must be slung, let Edwards aim it at the proper targets.

it is the key way for Edwards to break out of the pack. the other two slinging mud at one another, but john taking that energy and directing it at KARL MOTHER----ING ROVE. we must OBLITERATE their legacy as soon as possible, and there is no time for that to begin like the present !!!! and no candidate as well-grounded, well-SUPPORTED, articulate, and flat-out DESPERATE FOR ATTENTION than Edwards. It is time to storm the citadels of power and declare the emperor and his entire court naked.

the whole theme of his candidacy is fight. well the repugnicans this year are just asking for it !!! hell, it would be FUN !!!

finally - there are non-neocon republicans that i believe will resonate with this message. the neo-con/theo-con/money-con paraguay-escape-route-having REPUGNICANS are the enemy of these people too. edwards would be fighting for THEM as well - their party's very existence is on the ropes because of these conspiracy creeps. this would reach across to independents, where Edwards does well. It would fire up the entire Party and refocus the Democratic debate on slinging mud in the right direction.

-s

[ecstatic]

11. I don't think female voters will have much sympathy. Just a hunch nt