Edwards in Atlanta...

John Edwards came into town yesterday so Deana and I headed up. The weather for those of you who aren't local turned Atlanta into a little winter wonderland. I had invited a few people with my local One Corps Chapter of John Edwards supporters to come carpool up with Deana and I. But they understandably cancelled due to concerns about being stuck in town in bad weather.

I was having a very political day, having just held an organizational meeting to get volunteers organized to start working on voting Lynn Westmoreland out of office with canvassing, phone banking, and house parties. As soon as I found out Edwards was coming I cancelled the canvassing for that day so that I could come out to see Edwards. Tommorrow we take on a congressman who said in response to the Genocide in Darfur that it's time for those people to pull themselves up by their boot straps and take care of their own problems; today we go get some motivation after working hard all morning coming up with a coherent plan. We don't have to do everything in one day! We can have some fun...

The event was scheduled for 2:30 but the good little volunteer I am, I wanted to head up early to see if anything needed to be done before the event. We left about 12:30 in the snow!!




It was so warm we weren't really concerned about the roads having ice till possible late that night. But I wasn't going to let reality stop my little romantic vision of volunteers braving the weather to come out and support their candidate. It was my own little Iowa fairytale.

So we get up there. Leave it to me, we walk in and five minutes later we're upstairs painting signs for the event.



One of the reasons I love Deana so much is the fact that we can go to some kind of event and 9 times at of 10 she ends up working. She's a real trooper when it comes to doing this kind of stuff with me. I try to give her options where she doesn't have to do anything. But I figure its almost like a non-option: So what your telling me is I can sit down here, by myself, in an empty room where they are testing lights and nobodies going to be coming for another hour and half, or go paint signs? Thats a choice?

Anyhow, I of coarse have struggled with any form of drawing/painting/or visual art since way back in kindergarten. But I go at it. I come up with the idea to say "John Edwards can take our country back" since one of my big arguments has been his strong polling data among swing voters and conservatives. He has much better numbers than Clinton or Obama when it comes to the way people view him personally. Especially in a state like GA we need that.

I'm personally involved with a big push locally in Henry County to get the Democrats back on the map. We will be doing real grassroots work this election year with canvassing, phone banking, and house parties. We will stand up for our communities, because someone has to fight for those without health care, good education, or good jobs. But we have a huge challenge before us and if we want to get candidates elected locally we can use all the help we can get.

So as a voter in Henry County... I want a strong top of the ticket name thats going to help inspire voters but not inspire the opposition to come out and vote. Its a basic question of do I want someone on TV talking about social justice or do I want to be able to elect local officials actually working for social justice? I choose the later... which is why Edwards polling numbers tell me he would have a positive impact for us at the polls.

So anyways I think Edwards helps us locally take our country back. So now I start to work... I'm doing great...

Edwards...

can...

take...

our...

and then all of a sudden I get too much on auto pilot. Someone said something that distracted me and I look down to notice that I've written the words

back...

Opps!!

Edwards can take our back! Hmmm. Now i'm really embarrassed... the volunteer lady's hollering out we've got twenty minutes till they need us to clear the room! I think, how can I hide this so that nobody ever notices that I can't paint a sign. I'm back in kindergarten and the cool kids will laugh. So I pull myself out of that and say to myself, self your 27 years old and have an A.A. degree how do we fix this. Then all of a sudden I think of something and ask to everybody: Hey can somebody draw an outline of the country?

So the end product turns out like so...


So I was very happy of my fixed goof! I wanted to find the person who ended up with my sign but the room filled up really well so I never got to get a picture of them with my sign.

But we felt we could go back downstairs, that we had done something to help. Plus I had invited some people who said they might come, we've grown to know a few other core Edwards supporters since way back at the beginning of all this that I hope were going to turn out; so we didn't want to not get to say hello to anyone.

Anyways as we wait I try to keep working the room making sure nobody is bored and that everybody is aware of Edwards One Corps, the DNC's neighborhood leader program, and by the by "do they know someone in Fayette and Henry County?". These are all important questions to ask that I need to know and have info and contacts for them in many cases. Plus you get to meet some wonderful people from all walks of life that truly care about whats going on in the world.

Met a lovely couple who had driven up from Macon, met an Associate Director of the AARP here in GA, had a good conversation with a German journalist who was covering the Edwards campaign who said that Edwards was very popular in Europe. People from all walks of life participate in politics thats why its so important to make sure to take the time to go up and say hello.

Anyhow the event starts...



The best line of the whole event came from Governor Roy Barnes said: "We knew George Bush would screw up the country but we didn't know he could screw up the whole world."






Edwards did great. He hit some of his best material in good stride that lifted the emotions. With any good speaker you can feel the rise and fall of the audience. He talked about fighting for health care for everyone, protecting Unions, ending the tendency in our country to create divisive constructs of your success is my failure. Its a message of economic justice that really melds with my core values. I truly believe that you ask people to work hard, get an education, and be a productive member of the community; and you hold the entire community to be a part of helping to make sure that individuals don't have an unachievable mountain to climb.

Working hard is meaningless if there are no opportunities, and no way to lift yourself out of bad times. Opportunity, and second chances; these things shouldn't be a blessing that only the rich, wealthy, and successful upper-middle class can be able to fall back on. Everyone no matter race, class, gender,genetic disposition, or disability; should be able to work hard, not fall from the unexpected, and be able to move past bad choices or situations they have found themselves in. Our communities should support those efforts.

Thats why I support John Edwards because I think he has an ability to communicate those values to people in a way that a majority of Americans will be able to hear him and respond.

All and all it was a wonderful day. I kept thinking to myself how could it felt to see a leader talking about these issue. Deana must have been thinking the same thing because as we were going home we said to each other out of nowhere: We've got to go see a Republican talk. We both wondered what a Conservative could possiblly be talking about? And I mean that not in jest. Do they mention the millions of Americans in poverty, without health care? Do they talk about the fact that the current administration violates our laws as well as international human rights laws? Do they sprinkle their speech with the wonkish data that brings to life the struggles of Americans, and then talk about their vision for fixing those issues? Do they talk about all of us being in this thing together?

I don't know. But come back soon. We're going to go and listen to a Conservative, and I'll be reporting back to you on what I find out. If anyone knows of events in Atlanta from any of the Republican candidates please let me know.

I've gone cold to Obama...

This Krugman op-ed reminds me how Clinton has somehow slid into the number two seat behind Edwards on my ranking of the Democratic candidates...

Finally, Mr. Obama is storing up trouble for health reformers by suggesting that there is something nasty about plans that “force every American to buy health care.”

Look, the point of a mandate isn’t to dictate how people should live their lives — it’s to prevent some people from gaming the system. Under the Obama plan, healthy people could choose not to buy insurance, then sign up for it if they developed health problems later. This would lead to higher premiums for everyone else. It would reward the irresponsible, while punishing those who did the right thing and bought insurance while they were healthy.

Here’s an analogy. Suppose someone proposed making the Medicare payroll tax optional: you could choose not to pay the tax during your working years if you didn’t think you’d actually need Medicare when you got older — except that you could change your mind and opt back in if you started to develop health problems.

Can we all agree that this would fatally undermine Medicare’s finances? Yet Mr. Obama is proposing basically the same rules for his allegedly universal health care plan.

Obama's way of playing health care shows he cares more about independents than actual policy. Which is a death knell if you think for two seconds you can take on the insurance companies and private profits coming from the status quo and come out with some form of policy that will be effective and successful.

Update on Edwards polling...

I have yet to see any data contradicting the claim that Edwards does better with swing/conservative voters. And I have yet so see any claims to the contrary (which the appreciative nod to purist of the Kucinich/Green party wing--i'm talking about electable's not my ideals right now) that of the Democrats, Edwards as an entire policy agenda is the most Progressive/Liberal of the Democratic candidates who can win.

After the Democracy for America training where I began to learn how to articulate and apply both actions and energy towards getting candidates elected, I've begun to see how close some of these local elections can truly be. No matter how conservative a district is, there is positive uplifting work that can be done to advocate for Liberal policies. But the impacts of who's on top of the ticket are huge when you are looking at the precinct level. When you break it down to hard numbers, you start getting towards a meaning number--meaningful in the sense that you can knock on those doors, make those phone calls, and find those voters!

The data on Edwards polling seems to strongly point to how bad Clinton would be down the ticket.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1322.xml?ReleaseID=1120

Quinnipiac University - OH: November 14, 2007

Note: Edwards and Obama were only paired against Giuliani

Vs. Rudy Giuliani

Clinton - 44%
Giuliani - 43%

Obama - 41%
Giuliani - 41%

Edwards - 46%
Giuliani - 40%

Clinton leads by 1%, Obama is tied%, Edwards lead by 6%

Clinton - 47%
Romney - 38%

Clinton - 48%
Thompson - 38%

Clinton - 42%
McCain - 46%


Past Ohio General Election Polling

http://esrc08.blogspot.com/

House Chief of Staff (R): Edwards Has the Best Chance of Winning Ohio in a General Election. During June 2007 interview, Scott Borgemenke, chief of staff for the Republican-controlled Ohio House of Representatives, predicted that Edwards was the Democratic presidential candidate most likely to carry Ohio in a general election. "I think if John Edwards wins Iowa and gets some steam and ends up being the candidate, Ohio could go with an Edwards type of Democrat, or an Edwards-looking Democrat, meaning he looks like every other Ohioan," Borgemenke said. "I think Ohio is very much in play for the Republicans if Hillary or Obama is the candidate." [ OhioPols.com, Borgemenke Interview, 6/8/07 ]


Quinnipiac University - OH: October 10, 2007

Favorable / Unfavorable

Hillary Clinton - 49/42
Barack Obama - 45/26
John Edwards - 47/26

Vs. Mitt Romney

Clinton - 51%
Romney - 34%

Obama - 47%
Romney - 31%

Edwards - 50%
Romney - 28%

Clinton leads by 16%, Obama leads by 16%, Edwards leads by 22%

Vs. Fred Thompson

Clinton - 48%
Thompson - 36%

Obama - 44%
Thompson - 33%

Edwards - 48%
Thompson - 31%

Clinton leads by 14%, Obama leads by 11%, Edwards leads by 17%

Vs. Rudy Giuliani

Clinton - 46%
Giuliani - 40%

Obama - 44%
Giuliani - 38%

Edwards - 46%
Giuliani - 36%

Clinton leads by 6%, Obama leads by 6%, Edwards leads by 10%

Vs. John McCain

Clinton - 48%
McCain - 38%

Obama - 43%
McCain - 39%

Edwards - 46%
McCain - 35%

Clinton leads by 10%, Obama leads by 4%, Edwards leads by 11%

Averages

Clinton leads the Republicans by an average of 11.50%
Obama leads the Republicans by an average of 9.25%
Edwards leads the Republicans by an average of 15.00%


Survey USA - OH: September 20, 2007

Vs. Mitt Romney

Clinton - 52%
Romney - 42%

Obama - 45%
Romney - 46%

Edwards - 56%
Romney - 36%

Clinton leads by 10%, Obama trails by 1%, Edwards leads by 20%

Vs. Fred Thompson

Clinton - 48%
Thompson - 47%

Obama - 42%
Thompson - 50%

Edwards - 52%
Thompson - 43%

Clinton leads by 1%, Obama trails by 8%, Edwards leads by 9%

Vs. Rudy Giuliani

Clinton - 47%
Giuliani - 48%

Obama - 39%
Giuliani - 52%

Edwards - 47%
Giuliani - 48%

Clinton trails by 1%, Obama trails by 13%, Edwards trails by 1%

Averages

Clinton leads the Republicans by an average of 3.33%
Obama trails the Republicans by an average of 7.00%
Edwards leads the Republicans by an average of 9.33%



Quinnipiac University - OH: September 6, 2007

Favorable / Unfavorable

Hillary Clinton - 51/ 43
Barack Obama - 47/ 25
John Edwards - 54/ 26

Vs. Mitt Romney

Clinton - 50%
Romney - 37%

Obama - 46%
Romney - 32%

Edwards - 50%
Romney - 30%

Clinton leads by 13%, Obama leads by 14%, Edwards leads by 20%

Vs. Fred Thompson

Clinton - 49%
Thompson - 37%

Obama - 46%
Thompson - 34%

Edwards - 50%
Thompson - 32%

Clinton leads by 12%, Obama leads by 12%, Edwards leads by 18%

Vs. Rudy Giuliani

Clinton - 47%
Giuliani - 40%

Obama - 42%
Giuliani - 41%

Edwards - 47%
Giuliani - 38%

Clinton leads by 7%, Obama leads by 1%, Edwards leads by 9%

Vs. John McCain

Clinton - 46%
McCain - 41%

Obama - 41%
McCain - 42%

Edwards - 46%
McCain - 38%

Clinton leads by 5%, Obama trails by 1%, Edwards leads by 8%

Averages

Clinton leads the Republicans by an average of 9.25%
Obama leads the Republicans by an average of 6.50%
Edwards leads the Republicans by an average of 13.75%



Survey USA - OH: May 2nd, 2007

Vs. Fred Thompson

Clinton - 53%
Thompson - 38%

Obama - 43%
Thompson - 43%

Edwards - 57%
Thompson - 33%

Clinton leads by 15%, Obama is tied, Edwards leads by 24%


Vs. Rudy Giuliani



Clinton - 48%
Giuliani - 45%

Obama - 40%
Giuliani - 51%

Edwards - 50%
Giuliani - 42%

Clinton leads by 3%, Obama trails by 11%, Edwards leads by 8%

Do something. Iowa is going on now.

View Edwards new Ad running in Iowa and help it stay on the air by giving to his campaign today

plan to help veterans

Edwards to Outline Plan for Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Presidential contender John Edwards is introducing a $400 million plan Monday to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, including those recently returned from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

October numbers to chew on....

Rasmussen - October 2007 (Most recent match-ups)
Favorable / Unfavorable

Hillary Clinton - 49/49 - 54/45 - 47/51 - 46/52 - 50/49
Barack Obama - 47/45 - 55/39 - 51/42 - 47/48 - 48/50
John Edwards - 49/44 - 46/47 - 48/44 - 46/43


Ideology

Hillary Clinton

Conservative - 8%
Moderate - 34%
Liberal - 51%

Barack Obama

Conservative - 7%
Moderate - 34%
Liberal - 49%

John Edwards

Conservative - 10%
Moderate - 34%
Liberal - 44%


Vs. Mitt Romney

Clinton - 47%
Romney - 41%

Obama - 48%
Romney - 39%

Edwards - 52%
Romney - 35%

Clinton leads by 6%, Obama leads by 9%, Edwards leads by 17%


Vs. Fred Thompson

Clinton - 47%
Thompson - 45%

Obama - 44%
Thompson - 43%

Edwards - 48%
Thompson - 39%

Clinton leads by 2%, Obama leads by 1%, Edwards leads by 9%


Vs. Rudy Giuliani

Clinton - 44%
Giuliani - 46%

Obama - 43%
Giuliani - 45%

Edwards - 44%
Giuliani - 45%

Clinton trails by 2%, Obama trails by 2%, Edwards trails by 1%


Vs. John McCain

Clinton - 44%
McCain - 43%

Obama - 44%
McCain - 45%

Edwards - 47%
McCain - 40%

Clinton leads by 1%, Obama trails by 1%, Edwards leads by 7%


Averages

Clinton leads the Republicans by an average of 1.75%
Obama leads the Republicans by an average of 1.75%
Edwards leads the Republicans by an average of 8.00%


He's got the best health care policy... AND he polls less liberal than the two other leading Dem's. What more could you want? Why are we even discussing this?

Thursday NYT Editorial

America’s Lagging Health Care System

Americans are increasingly frustrated about the subpar performance of this country’s fragmented health care system, and with good reason. A new survey of patients in seven industrialized nations underscores just how badly sick Americans fare compared with patients in other nations. One-third of the American respondents felt their system is so dysfunctional that it needs to be rebuilt completely — the highest rate in any country surveyed. The system was given poor scores both by low-income, uninsured patients and by many higher-income patients.

The survey, the latest in a series from the Commonwealth Fund, is being published today on the Web site of Health Affairs, a respected health policy journal. Researchers interviewed some 12,000 adults in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Given the large number of people uninsured or poorly insured in this country, it was no surprise that Americans were the most likely to go without care because of costs. Fully 37 percent of the American respondents said that they chose not to visit a doctor when sick, skipped a recommended test or treatment or failed to fill a prescription in the past year because of the cost — well above the rates in other countries.

Patients here were more likely to get appointments quickly for elective surgery than those in nearly all the other countries. But access to primary care doctors, the mainstay of medical practice, was often rocky. Only half of the American adults were able to see a doctor the same day that they became sick or the day after, a worse showing than in all the other countries except Canada. Getting care on nights and weekends was problematic.

Often the care here was substandard. Americans reported the highest rate of lab test errors and the second-highest rate of medical or medication errors.

The findings underscore the need to ensure that all Americans have quick access to a primary care doctor and the need for universal health coverage — so that all patients can afford the care they need. That’s what all of the presidential candidates should be talking about.

What can you do about it?

This

John Edwards came out with the best of both worlds. A health care plan that mandates coverage for every American. Keeps insurance company's in the game as long as they play by the rules. And doesn't mandate programs, but lets consumers choose. Using the market to decide who and how they want to be insured. In America, the land of "don't tread on me" you can't sell a government program when millions of dollars will be spent to tell consumers they are losing their free choice. John Edwards gives Americans a choice of what plan and lets the market do what a market is good at.

Plus can you really deal with more of a Clintonian presidency?


Do something.

Charlie Cook on Dems...

Off to the races

Two conclusions might be drawn from all of this. First, the fundamentals are starting to rub off onto the specifics of the 2008 presidential contest. That cold wet blanket that has covered President Bush and congressional Republicans is increasingly weighing down on their presidential contenders as well; the tarnishing of the GOP brand is continuing. The upward movement of Edwards and Obama and the corresponding downward movement of the GOP contenders show that. But, for the more controversial and polarizing Clinton, the lines are just now crossing.

This conforms with other data showing Clinton is growing less unacceptable to voters inside and outside her party as the campaign progresses. What started out as nearly 50 percent of voters saying that they would never vote for her has diminished.

Clinton's negatives dropping is interesting, and exposes her strength as a political figure--which is something I've been intriuged by in recent weeks. This weakens the case for Obama in my book. I think Edwards is dead unless a strong showing in Iowa makes waves.

This is the kind of substance I like in candidate speeches...

That's the soul of the American Dream. It is what draws people from around the world to our shores; it is what has sustained the optimism of the American people; and it is what has helped build the wealthiest nation in history.

But if you go out and talk to people around this country, they'll tell you, they still believe in the American Dream – they just think it's out of reach.

It's hard to call it the American Dream when fewer than a third of Americans thinks life will be better for their children than it is for them.

It's understandable that they feel that way. For the last 20 years, about half of America's economic growth has gone to the top 1 percent.

Today, the top 300,000 Americans now make more than the bottom 150 million put together.

Productivity is up but median income is down. People are making more, while they're making less. Men in their 30s today earn less in real dollars than the men did 30 years ago. More and more women have gone to work, and now married couples with children are working an average of 10 hours a week more than their parents did. Working families with breadwinners in their 40s are almost three times more likely to fall in to poverty than they were a generation ago.

What does all this mean in real terms? It means that our system rewards wealth, not work.

The gap between CEOs and the average worker is out of sight – today, the average CEO makes 400 times what the average worker makes.

Our tax system has been rewritten by George Bush to favor the wealthy and shift the burden to working families. That is simply wrong – and even those who benefit the most from our current system know that it is wrong.

Warren Buffett once complained that his receptionist loses more of her income in payroll taxes than he does. He called it "class welfare," and he meant welfare for the rich.

The candidate is John Edwards

Matthew Yglesias on Edwards

Given the objective realities of the situation, his campaign's doing pretty well. He's leading in Iowa. Lefty intellectuals love him. Progressive bloggers love him. Labor leaders love him. If he continues to establish a lot of good will among opinion leaders on the left, plus continues to be a white man in a world where a lot of people think a white man is more electable than a woman or a black guy, and pulls off a win in Iowa, then he just might be able to "bounce" his way to victory. How much better could he realistically be doing?

Did you know? John Edwards is rich!

The Media Cares About Whether John Edwards Cares About Poor People

To say this explicitly, it's okay to be rich if you act rich. The amount of flak Edwards is getting for being both wealthy and concerned with the working class versus the amount of criticism Giuliani and Romney are getting for being uber-rich and utterly unconcerned with issue of class and wage fairness is telling. The press doesn't care if you're loaded and out-of-touch, or self-interested. But to both make a lot of money and think other people should make relatively more money?

I really wasn't intending to make it John Edwards day...

But it is his birthday. And he is on the cover of the NYT's magazine.

Here is an interview he gave to the nonpartisan group Council of Foreign Relations: Edwards: America Needs a Plan to Forestall Iraq Genocide

John Edwards - On Youtube...

This is why I like Youtube.

Are Media Out to Get John Edwards?

Jeff Cohen on John Edwards..

Today, elite media are doing their best to raise Edwards' unfavorable rating. But the independent media and the Netroots are four years stronger than during Howard Dean's rise and fall.