Wed Jun 19 2013
Departments
Election Issues

Why this Edwards voter Is now backing Obama
by Paul Rogat Loeb
February 2, 2008

I gave John Edwards more money than I've given to any candidate in my life, and I'm glad I did. He raised critical issues about America's economic divides, and got them on the Democratic agenda. He was the first major candidate to stake out strong comprehensive platforms on global warming and health care. He hammered away on the Iraq war, even using scarce campaign resources to run ads during recent key Senate votes. He'd have made a powerful nominee—and president.

I've been going through my mourning for a while for his campaign not getting more traction, so his withdrawal announcement didn't shock me. But sad as I am about his departure, I feel good about being able to switch my support to Barack Obama, and will do all I can to help him win.

I've actually been giving small donations to both since Iowa, while hoping that the Edwards campaign would belatedly catch fire, and exploring ways the two campaigns could work together. With Edwards gone, I think Obama is the natural choice for his supporters, and that Edwards should step up and endorse him as his preferred nominee. All three major Democratic candidates have their flaws and strengths—they all have excellent global warming plans, for instance. But Edwards wasn't just being rhetorical when he said that both he and Obama represent voices for change, versus Clinton's embodiment of a Washington status quo joining money and power.

Here are a dozen reasons why I feel proud to have my energy, dollars and vote now go to Obama:

1 The Iraq war: Obviously, invading Iraq remains the most damaging single action of the Bush era. Obama spoke out against it at a public rally while Clinton was echoing Bush's talking points and voting for it.  Obama's current advisors also consistently opposed the war, while Clinton's consistently supported it. It's appropriate that Clinton jumped to her feet to clap when Bush said in his recent State of the Union address that there was "no doubt" that "the surge is working."

2 Clinton's Iran vote: The Kyl-Lieberman bill gave the Bush administration so wide an opening for war that Jim Webb called it "Dick Cheney's fondest pipe dream." Hillary voted for it. Obama and Edwards opposed it.

3 The youth vote: If a Party attracts new voters for their first few elections, they tend to stick for the rest of their lives. Obama is doing this on a level unseen in decades. By tearing down the candidate who inspires them, Clinton will so embitter many young voters they'll stay home.

4 Hope matters: When people join movements to realize raised hopes, our nation has a chance of changing. When they damp their hopes, as Clinton suggests, it doesn't. Like Edwards, Obama has helped people feel they can participate in a powerful transformative narrative. That's something to embrace, not mock.

5 Follow the money: All the candidates have some problematic donors—it's the system--but Hillary's the only one with money from Rupert Murdoch. Edwards and Obama refused money from lobbyists. Clinton claimed they were just citizens speaking out, and held a massive fundraising dinner with homeland security lobbyists. Obama spearheaded a public financing bill in the Illinois legislature, while Clinton had to be shamed by a full-page Common Cause ad in the Des Moines Register to join Obama and Edwards in taking that stand.

6 John McCain: If McCain is indeed the Republican nominee, than as Frank Rich brilliantly points out, he's perfectly primed to run as the war hero with independence, maturity and integrity, against the reckless, corrupt and utterly polarizing Clintons. Never mind that McCain's integrity and independence is largely a media myth (think the Charles Keating scandal and his craven embrace of Bush in 2004), but Bill and Hillary heralding their two-for-one White House return will energize and unite an otherwise ambivalent and fractured Republican base.

7 Mark Penn: Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, runs a PR firm that prepped the Blackwater CEO for his recent congressional testimony, is aggressively involved in anti-union efforts, and has represented villains from the Argentine military junta and Philip Morris to Union Carbide after the 1984 Bhopal disaster.

8 Sleazy campaigning: Hillary stayed on the ballot in Michigan after Edwards and Obama pulled their names, then audaciously said the delegates she won unopposed should count retroactively. She, Bill and their surrogates have conducted a politics of personal attack that begins to echo Karl Rove, from distorting Obama's position on Iraq and abortion choice, to dancing out surrogates to imply that the Republicans will tar him as a drug user.

9 NAFTA: Hillary can't have it both ways in stoking nostalgia for Bill. NAFTA damaged lives and communities and widened America's economic divides. Edwards spoke out powerfully against it. Clinton now claims the agreement needs to be modified, but her husband staked all his political capital in ramming it through, helping to hollow out America's economy and split the Democratic Party for the 1994 Gingrich sweep.

10 Widening the circle: Obviously Obama spurs massive enthusiasm in the young and in the African-American community. I'm also impressed at the range of people turning out to support his campaign. At a Seattle rally I attended, the volunteer state campaign chair had started as Perot activist. The founding coordinator in the state's second-largest county, a white female Iraq war vet, voted for Bush in 2000 and written in Colin Powell in 2004 before becoming outraged about Iraq "I've always leaned conservative," she said, "but Obama's announcement speech moved me to tears. The Audacity of Hope made me rethink my beliefs. He inspires me with his honesty and integrity." As well as inspiring plenty of progressive activists, Obama is engaging people who haven't come near progressive electoral politics in years.

11 The story we tell: Obama captures people with a narrative about where he wants to take America. His personal story is powerful, but he keeps the emphasis on the ordinary citizens who need to take action to make change. Clinton, in contrast, focuses largely on her personal story, her presumed strengths and travails. Except for the symbolism of having a woman president, it's a recipe that downplays the possibility of common action for change.

12 Citizen movements matter: Edwards not only ran for president, but worked to build a citizen movement capable of working for change whatever his candidacy's outcome. Obama has taken a similar approach, beginning when he first organized low-income Chicago communities and coordinated a still-legendary voter registration drive.  His speeches consciously encourage his supporters to join together and constitute a force equivalent to the abolitionist, union, suffrage, and civil rights movements. Like Edwards, he's working to build a movement capable of pushing his policies through the political resistance he will face (and probably of pushing him too if he fails to lead with enough courage).  In this context, Clinton's LBJ/Martin Luther King comparison, and her dismissal of the power of words to inspire people, is all too revealing. She really does believe change comes from knowing how to work the insider levers of power. Edwards and Obama know it takes more.

That's why this Edwards supporter is proud to do all I can to make Barack Obama the Democratic nominee and president.

---
Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. See www.paulloeb.org   To receive his articles directly email sympa@lists.onenw.org with the subject line: subscribe paulloeb-articles     




Recent Election Issues Articles

Why Al Franken should NOT be riding private planes
  December 23, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

The suspicious, disturbing death of election rigger Michael Connell
  December 20, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Last US House seat filled on grave of stolen 2004 election
  December 9, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

What happened this year in Ohio
  December 1, 2008
  Pete Johnson

Imaginary numbers persist in our presidential elections
  November 22, 2008
  Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

The GOP attack on democracy continues in Ohio
  November 19, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

The 2008 Presidential election: a preliminary analysis
  November 19, 2008
  Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

Election protection in Ohio (and America) isn't over
  November 17, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Recount fictions in Virginia's Fifth
  November 9, 2008
  David Swanson

The Pits: Georgia's GOP swipes the Peach State
  November 6, 2008
  Greg Palast

Grant Park on Election Night
  November 5, 2008
  Joan Brunwasser

Can the grassroots Internet-based election protection movement win the White House?
  November 3, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

How and why I just voted
  November 2, 2008
  David Swanson

No time for Nader: A letter to Nader McKinney voters
  November 2, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

'Vote stealing imperils democracy': former Montague resident charges election manipulation
  November 2, 2008
  Richie Davis

Will this Presidential election be stolen? It didn’t happen by chance...
  November 2, 2008
  Channing Redditt and Amy Maldonado

The time has come
  October 30, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Beware the Twin Towers of electronic election theft
  October 30, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Sarah Palin and the new Apostolic reformation
  October 28, 2008
  Russ Bellant

Antidotes to complacency: four reasons to act
  October 28, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Redesigning democracy
  October 22, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

A McCain "win" will be theft: resistance is planned
  October 21, 2008
  David Swanson

Critical US Supreme Court ruling against Rovian GOP vote meddling may prove temporary
  October 20, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Our national juncture
  October 17, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Suppression
  October 17, 2008
  Joe Rothstein

Cuyahoga's witch hunt
  October 13, 2008
  Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D.

Videos from Ohio Election Protection Conference
  October 12, 2008
  Free Press Staff

The Palin-Biden debate: high time to move beyond clichés
  October 11, 2008
  Ramzy Baroud

Struggle: A Documentary
  October 10, 2008
  Roger Hill

GOP attacks on American voters turn desperate, ugly and dangerous
  October 10, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Warming to Palin
  October 8, 2008
  David Swanson

Brace yourself
  October 8, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Cindy, Charlotte, and our Constitution
  October 8, 2008
  David Swanson

Rainbow PUSH Coalition registers 2090 new voters this week
  October 6, 2008
  Lauren Love

Big presidential vote count error found and fixed in New Mexico
  October 6, 2008
  Steven Rosenfeld

Ohio 2008 opens with a subpoena, a surge and calls for election protection
  October 1, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

North Carolina: The new Ohio?
  September 30, 2008
  Christopher Bifani

Foreign policy debate all about war
  September 29, 2008
  David Swanson

Be a poll worker and save American democracy
  September 26, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Why hurricane Ike demands paper ballots on November 4
  September 17, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Death becomes her: let's make her our president
  September 15, 2008
  Jason Miller

Ten ways the McCain/Palin GOP is now stealing the Ohio vote
  September 9, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

John McCain: Morally, mentally, and emotionally unfit
  September 8, 2008
  Jim Fetzer

Logical consequences
  September 4, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Rovian politics chose Sarah Palin
  September 3, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Shocking choice by John McCain
  August 31, 2008
  Robert Dewey

Ron Paul endorsement of Don Young "shocking and disappointing"
  August 27, 2008
  Richard A. Viguerie

The DNC platform: belief you can change in
  August 10, 2008
  David Swanson

Obama doesn't sweat. He should.
  July 29, 2008
  Greg Palast

Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. applauds Sen. Obama’s speech before the NAACP
  July 16, 2008
  Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Three key ways YOU can help protect the 2008 election
  July 3, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Colleges, voter registration, and a historic opportunity: a more detailed proposal
  June 19, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Obama must learn from Kucinich's election theft impeachment
  June 11, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Clinton only needs 153% of remaining delegates
  June 1, 2008
  David Swanson

The buried Florida story: why campaigning matters
  May 31, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

The myth of Clinton's popular vote lead
  May 29, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Did the Limbaugh effect also flip Michigan?
  May 29, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Edwards just put Obama over the top
  May 15, 2008
  David Swanson

Did the Limbaugh effect also flip Michigan?
  May 14, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Obama-Clinton funny math: Guam update
  May 4, 2008
  David Swanson

Did the US Supreme Court deliver the Indiana Primary to Hillary Clinton?
  May 2, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Did the US Supreme Court just elect John McCain?
  April 30, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

The 2008 election will be stolen
  April 19, 2008
  David Swanson

The done deal
  April 18, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Letter to Hillary: remember when John McCain slimed your daughter
  April 17, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Fire and race
  April 3, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Keep the Republic
  March 27, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

What it's all about...
  March 25, 2008
  Sheila Samples

Can SuperDelegates stop the scorched earth campaigning?
  March 24, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

An election without meaning
  March 23, 2008
  Peter Phillips

We have a dream
  March 23, 2008
  Phil Tajitsu Nash

Hope, change, and pissing in the wind: "Of Obama, Democrats, and the Power Elite"
  March 19, 2008
  Patrice Greanville and Jason Miller

Ohio's voting machines are now an official crime scene
  March 17, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Did Republicans give Hillary her victory in Ohio?
  March 8, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Primary day at the polls in Columbus, Ohio
  March 5, 2008
  David S. Lewis, National Affairs Editor

Obama & Clinton: who's more likely to confront global warming?
  March 4, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

If you think Karl Rove is evil, make phone calls today
  March 4, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Obama's talking points
  March 1, 2008
  Gregg Gordon

Adventures in inaudible audio with Senator Barack Obama
  February 27, 2008
  David S. Lewis, National Affairs Editor

Attention all voters: this is a must-see video
  February 26, 2008
  Free Press staff

On the campaign trail in the Buckeye State stalking the candidates: John McCain
  February 24, 2008
  David S. Lewis, National Affairs Editor

Will Clinton's advisors tell her the hard truths?
  February 22, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

How much damage will Clinton do before she folds?
  February 22, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

The Hillary nutcracker
  February 21, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Behind Obama's wave of victories: the more they know him…..
  February 17, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Hillary's hawks -- How Obama's and Clinton's advisors mirror their stands on the war
  February 11, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb, introducing a Stephen Zunes article

Poll shows John McCain faces tough road in gaining conservative support
  February 11, 2008
  Richard A. Viguerie

The Obama Factors
  February 11, 2008
  Todd Huffman

Vote against Clinton
  February 4, 2008
  David Swanson

Why this Edwards voter Is now backing Obama
  February 2, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Liveblogging Obama v. Clinton v. CNN
  February 1, 2008
  David Swanson

It's all about Hillary, not her party
  January 29, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

The South Carolina you won't see on CNN - South Carolina primary colors: black and white?
  January 26, 2008
  Greg Palast

The South Carolina you won't see on CNN - South Carolina primary colors: black and white?
  January 26, 2008
  Greg Palast

Conspiracy theorist
  January 24, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Hillary Clinton's sleaze parade
  January 20, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Bob & Harvey's 3-Step "Ohio Plan" for fair and reliable voting and vote counts
  January 16, 2008
  Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

Media misses story: Obedwards wins New Hampshire
  January 11, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Primary concerns
  January 10, 2008
  Robert C. Koehler

Clear evidence of widespread vote fraud in New Hampshire
  January 10, 2008
  Paul Joseph Watson

The Kudzu Effect: The Voting-Industrial Complex chokes our democracy
  January 6, 2008
  Sheri Myers, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Still true to ObEdwards: Why I keep donating to both Edwards and Obama
  January 6, 2008
  Paul Rogat Loeb

Clinton campaign office re-occupied by peace activists on day of Iowa voting
  January 4, 2008
  Mike Ferner




Read Election Issues Articles by Year:
2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000



FREE PRESS EMAIL UPDATE


Donate to the Free Press Election Protection Fund to help us investigate and monitor election fraud in this year's election.


Donate to The Free Press The Free Press Store

FOLLOW US ON
twitter
facebook


SEARCH THE FREEPRESS




1021 E. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43205 | 614.253.2571 | truth@freepress.org
All content © 1970-2012 The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer