Kerry picks Edwards as VP. That's it, I'm not voting.

The BBQ Pit
21

Ignorance-fighting time already, I see:

Six years as a United States Senator.

Edwards was first elected to the Senate in 1998, a non-presidential election year in which there were no coattails to be ridden. Moreover, he’s hardly a “professional office runner,” since he’s only ever held one office (Senate, one term) and run for one other (President, of course).

Edwards was sworn in as a senator in January 1999. He didn’t form a presidential exploratory committee until January 2003. He did not announce he was actually running until an appearance on The Daily Show with John Stewart on September 15, 2003.

Quite the contrary. Edwards immediately assumed a leading role on the Democratic side during the Clinton impeachment, taking the depositions of both Monica Lewinsky and Vernon Jordan. He serves on several Senate committees, including the very important Intelligence and Judiciary committees. According to his Senate bio, he was a principal sponsor of the Birpartisan Patient Protection Act in 2001 (it passed the Senate, but I believe it died in the House).

“Just”? He didn’t do anything else for the last six years? And how does this make him different from every other political office holder who has run for president in the last couple centuries? Feh.

As somebody pointed out above, that refers to his voting attendance from October 2003 through January 2004, a time of heavy campaigning in the presidential primaries. It’s also nothing unusual for legislators running for president–pretty much all of them miss a lot of votes. If you have anything that shows Edwards was unusually truant in this respect, please provide it.

So some people think he’s a nice guy, and you don’t. Whatever.

Apart from serving as a United States Senator and running a widely-praised campaign that placed second to Kerry in the Democratic primaries?

Really? I assume you have copncrete examples of this alleged vote-selling?

Thows what you know. Buth wath elected governor twith, and therved hath of hith thecond term before becoming Prethident.

If you say so.

If only all the rest of the stupid people declined to exercise their right to cast ignorant votes.

22

You’ve put your finger on it. Two words: Dick Cheney. Your choice is between Edwards and Cheney.

Edwards won’t be whispering in the President’s ear, telling him to launch preemptive invasions of countries that don’t represent any threat to the U.S. Edwards won’t be sucking the cock of every big corporate moneybag in the country. Edwards won’t be collecting paychecks from Halliburton while Halliburton is raiding the Treasury. Edwards won’t be plotting to make “good use” of all that wasted land out there - you know, things like parks and wildlife refuges. The list goes on and on.

What else do you need?!

23

Because he’s John Kerry’s running mate. If you want Bush out of office, and you want a policy coming out of the White House that doesn’t unfairly favor the rich and priviledged in this country, and you would like to see everyone have a chance to afford college, and everyone to have more affordable healthcare, and you don’t want John Ashcroft peeking in your window at night, you’ll support John Kerry’s decision.

Or you could check your state’s voting protocol and see if there are two categories for both President and Vice-President, and not vote for Edwards if you hate him so much.

24

The winning candidate will be the one whose opponant pissed off the most people. Kerry/Edwards have yet to build up a burning hate, merely a scournful dislike. A scournful dislike isn’t enough to drive people to the polls when there’s another Eight is Enough reunion show on. I think the deciding factor in this year’s election won’t be who voted for whom, it will be who didn’t vote at all.

25

A third party vote is a wasted one. Ralph Nadar kept Al Gore from winning the White House.

Yeah. Al’s home state had nothing to do with it.

26

[ b]Minty**, your ability to calmy respond with topical, factual information while injecting the perfect touch of snark with the last sentence awes me. Superb post.

27

The purpose of voting is to shift the political spectrum to match your own. Voting for Nader did the exact opposite of that. If Nader hadn’t have run, Gore would have won - simple as that.

28

And let’s not forget that John Edwards can talk to dead people. Can Cheney do that? I don’t think so!

What?

29

I’m getting a message from someone whose name starts with J … anybody’s … oh okay he says his granddaughter is in the audience … anyone’s grandfather’s name start with a J?

No J?

Ok he’s clarified. It’s K … easy to confuse with J … any K’s???

30

Two years ago I took my grandfather to a doctors appointment and on the way out of town we stopped at the Benton County Historical Society just to look around. We were hoping to run into a relative who volunteers there, but Ed had that particular day off so we browsed on our own.

Back in the museum part they had shelves and shelves of old township records (Navy people will know what I’m talking about when I say they were just like log books.), and I pulled one for my township from the 1910s. I opened to a random page and stared in shock at the signature: John Sandi, Recorder.

My great-grandfather. The father of the man next to me.

“Grampa?” And I pointed at the name.

“Heh!” He was quiet for a minute.

“He was on the town board for, I don’t know, eight, maybe ten years. I remember one winter when I was a kid there was a snowstorm on election day and he made me come with him, shoveling all the way. ‘In Poland I couldn’t vote! Now I’m in America…I vote!’ That’s what he told me, and I’ve never forgotten it.”

Neither have I.

Knowed Out, if you like the way the country is going, vote for the incumbent. If you don’t like the way the country is going, vote for someone else.

If you don’t vote, though…then you’re an asshole.

31

I disagree. In 2004, Kerry is running in opposition to the Republican party; in 2000, Gore was running alongside the Republican party. I think the Democratic party got the message loud and clear in 2000 and 2002, that it can no longer take the votes of progressives for granted, and now they’re working to incorporate progressive issues into a winning platform.

Voting for Nader in 2000 sent a strong message, and while plenty of Democrats refuse to hear it, enough Democrats in leadership positions understood.

Was it worth it? Ask the thousands of people dead in Bush’s war. Would I do it again? Unlikely. Do I regret it? No.

Daniel

32

Where? No, seriously. Every time I look at Kerry’s position on issues, it seems he’s trying to out-Republican Bush.

33

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the further the Democratic Party moves to the left, the less success it has. There are parts of the country where more liberal ideas are in the narrow majority, but if you take the country as a whole, it doesn’t work. If it did, Republicans would not have the majority in both houses of congress.

34

Where? No, seriously.

Daniel

35

That’s what Clinton had to do to get elected. The further Kerry moves to the left, the closer he gets to electoral death.

36

I’m sure you do

Wrong. The fewer people vote, the less success the Democratic party has. The Republicans have been very good at mobilizing their voters, whereas the Democrats have kinda sucked at it. Get a visionary progressive as a candidate, and you’ll see great things happen.

Daniel

37

How is a third party vote a wasted one?

I mean moreso than voting for a guy who wins by 1000 votes or loses by 1000 votes?

Further, I won’t disagree that Nader kept Gore from winning the White House – of course that directly contradicts your assertion that a third party vote is a wasted one.

38

What newspapers are you reading? Everything I’ve read about the last few weeks of Kerry’s campaign is that he is modeling a more centrist message. He spent the last week campaigning in small rural areas and has been focusing on a “values” theme.

39

Hear! Hear!Or is that Here! Here! I can never remember.

Inre the OP: Vote or don’t. But I guarantee you that the first time you start to bitch about the government, you will be called on it. I will even lead the charge, if need be.

I don’t hate Edwards, and he’ll grow on me. I remember feeling the same way about Gore in '92. But I never cared for Lieberman at all. Too sanctimonious.

40

Take the war in Iraq, for example. Kerry wants to send more troops, and his plan is to keep them there until 2008. I don’t believe Bush is calling for more troops or for them to stay there that long.