E.J. on John Edwards

Is former Senator John Edwards trying to get back in the fray? E.J. Dionne writes in the Washington Post:

Edwards is well positioned to offer Third Way 3.0. He's a young southerner, a working-class kid made good whose dad was a deacon in his church. He speaks admiringly of Clinton's skills, particularly the former president's ability to make others feel that he identifies with their struggles.

But Edwards's instincts tell him that tepid politics are exactly what the Democrats don't need now. "I don't think this is about moderate, conservative, liberal," he says. "Americans are looking for strength, an idealistic strength. They want to know what we'd do on Day One if we ran the country."

Moral issues matter, Edwards says, but Democrats won't look moral by getting into a bidding war over how often they can invoke the name of G-d. Instead, Democrats should speak with conviction about an issue that has always animated them: the alleviation of poverty. "I think it is a moral issue; it's something we should be willing to fight about and stand up for," he says.

Those who counsel caution, he says, would let calculation push Democrats away from their historical commitments. "They think it's associated with some political label," he says, carefully avoiding the L-word himself. "They think that a lot of people who live in poverty don't vote and don't participate and so they don't think there's a lot of political capital there."

Edwards, who is planning to set up a center to study ways to alleviate poverty, is enough of a politician to insist that he wants to advocate not only on behalf of the destitute but also for those just finding their footing on mobility's ladder. But he offers the unexpected claim that the very voters who have strayed from the Democrats would respond forcefully to the moral imperative of aiding the poor.

"The people who love their guns and love their faith, they care about this," Edwards says. "There is a deep abiding feeling of moral responsibility people have about those who are doing everything right and are still having a hard time."

I like John Edwards but what hurt him this year is what will hurt him in 2008. He does not have the neccessary executive experience needed to run the White House. He really hurt himself by not running for re-election like Senator Joe Lieberman did in 2000.

On Sammy Sosa going to the Baltimore Orioles:
I could care less. I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan. I will say that my favorite team in the American League is the Boston Red Sox. I was neutral in the World Series.

Boston is doing good this past year. The New England Patriots. The Boston Red Sox. John Kerry. Okay, so two out of three wasn't that bad, was it?