Two ways to read the landscape now that Edwards is gone

[Cant trust em]

People are split between two fairly centered candidates. Both of whom seem to have drifted towards the middle on issues to court the swing voters. There are two things that can happen now that the progressive Edwards bloc is now out of the equation.

1. The candidate who reaches out to those people who were turned on by Edwards' populism will have the majority they need to win the nomination.

2. Neither candidate embraces these ideals and stay in the middle.

I personally prefer option 1 because with Hillary's IWR vote and Obama's "republicans were the party of ideas" comment, they have played to the middle enough.

Thoughts?

[ulysses]

1. no way do either Clinton or Obama trend leftward,

even slightly. Not a chance. They figure progressives have nowhere else to go, and will be looking for GE votes over with the dead armadillos.

[lisa58]

3. cute baby!

[Armstead]

5. Do dead armadillois vote?

A cosmic question to ponder.

[ulysses]

7. sporadically.

And they hate gridlock in DC.

[Armstead]

9. I love you

in a heterosexual guy-to-guy way of course.

[ulysses]

10. *cough* *splutter* *mumble something about football*

;-)

And I you, my friend.

[lisa58]

2. Well...

...option one is, of course, the best. If the candidates (both) give a flying #@$&! about REAL change then they have to address those who have been left behind.

Al Gore ran on this and (even though he won) he never got to take the helm.

Option two - staying in the middle probably gets you elected.

Solution:

John Edwards needs a cabinet position in either administration.

[Cant trust em]

4. if John Edwards accepted Sec. of Labor

I would backflip. That would be the best news I could imagine.

[lisa58]

8. I like Attorney General...

...but Secretary of Labor sounds great too!

[Armstead]

6. They should reach out for a very simple reason

It's the right thing to do.

And, in the process will offer voters a real alternative to McCain or Romney, who will also both be courting the middle.

[Cant trust em]

11. The best thing about JE is that his talking points are non partisan

200,000 vets are homeless. Woman bundles up her kids so they can be warm. Only a slim minority of republicans actually have scorn for those people. If Obama and Clinton used examples of like that and didn't include the anti-corporate stuff, I would accept it. I wouldn't be happy, but it would be the compromise that I could nod along to.