The Zong

Actually, don’t kid yourself. There were always two.

With Edwards out of the race, my vote for Edwards in the primary seems like it’s gonna be a little tough to pull off, and I guess I won’t be finishing my voter’s guide to the primary because it’s pretty clear at this point that Barack Obama is far, far more progressive than Hillary Clinton.

It’s a disappointing development, to be sure. Edwards was never a perfect candidate, but he evolved into one of the most progressive presidential candidates that this country has ever seen. Mother Jones has a nice little obituary for his presidential campaign:

Edwards staked out clear and progressive positions on health care, poverty, labor, and economic stimulus weeks and sometimes months before Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did. He took standard Democratic positions, but bled them of their prevarications and their hesitancy and, yes, their cowardice. He took the rhetoric of the Democratic Party and gave it backbone. In New Hampshire, I heard him compare at length the economic struggle of one hard-working family with the insane annual salary of a corporate CEO. He was the only serious presidential contender I’ve ever seen that was willing to engage in open and unapologetic class warfare.

As a result, he repeatedly pulled his competitors for the Democratic nomination to the left. In fact, this may have hurt him: Obama and Clinton adopted his polices and to some degree, his rhetoric. With little substantive difference with the frontrunners, he didn’t get the media coverage he deserved (He got it from Mother Jones!), but his fingerprints will remain on this race and possibly on the next presidency.

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. It’s crappy to think that Edwards’ campaign was doomed from the beginning because the media simply decided who was going to be a viable candidate, and although he may never be president, there will be a lot of room in an Obama or a Clinton cabinet for Edwards, whose desire to fuck up greedy corporations might fit in nicely at the Justice Department.

Anyhow, this is the second time in a year or so that I’ve had my heart broken by a Southern Democrat. I guess it’s time to start looking northward for a leader. Best of luck to you and yours, Senator Obama.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Suck it, Rudy!

- M.G.