The importance of being John Edwards
Let me start with a confession, because I do not want Dr Guy or Parated2k to accuse me of anti american sentiments. I am in a country that routinely sends criminals to Parliament, murderers are appointed ministers and the sons of politicians can rape and pillage with impunity. So when I express a genuine admiration for the civilised political discourse in the USA, I am not being condescending or being sarcastic. I am critical of certain aspects of Bush with respect to Iraq, but what I am writing in this blog is my considered opinion and I state once again that I should not be misunderstood.
I watched with interest and considerable involvement the Mrytle Beach Debate between the 3 Democrat candidates and it was so polished and sohisticated that I salute all three of them. Wolf Blitzer was fair as a moderator and gave all the candidates time and the opportunity to answer particularly unfair comments. Since the venue was South Carolina race was on the minds of all 3 and I felt that John Edwards came up trumps in this debate as I will try to show.
Obama, Hillary and Edwards--all three of them are articulate and highly educated candidates and they treated each other with a kind of civility that is becoming rare in most parts of the world. All three of them expressed their policy options on issues like Health Care, Education and Social Security in a non judgemental manner without trivialising or misrepresenting the views of their opponent. Hillary Clinton has obviously conceded South Carolina to Obama and therefore she made no effort to address the issues that concerened the voters of SC. Her eyes were set on collecting the national nomination and probably she was already campaigning in Florida. She treated Obam, not as a political opponent but as an adversary and I felt that she musr have lost quite a few voters because of that. She got personal in her attack on Obana, especially his "present" vote in the illinois state senate and I felt obama handled her rough questions very well. He on the other hand did not atttack Hillary personally and even that difficult question, Whether Bill was the First Black President of the US, was answered with great aplomb by Obama. Can he dance like a brother? A good answer to a tough question.
John Edwards was the underdog in the debate and as Obama more than once drew attention to the fact that you have a woman, a black man and that by implication meant that John Edwards represented the White Male. But in spite of thejab, and at a pinch I will even say, an unfair comment, John Edwards cam,e up trumps in the debate. He answered all questions with ease and conviction and unlike Hillary did not indulge in trial lawyer skills at scoring debating points. He conceded the merit of the public positions of his two rivals and at the same time underscored the differences between his position and theirs. He in his own subtle way reminded the voters that if John Mccain is the Republican nominee, then he stood a better chance of beathing him. In this I agree. If Hillary or Obama are nominated then the Republicans will have an easy task.
I liked the quiet subdued manner in which John Edwards conducted himself, especially after the poor showing at Nevada where he got only 4% of the votes.
On the issue of Iraq, of all the 3 candidates only Barack Obama has been consistent. He opposed the war from the very beginning and voted against the resolution while Hillary now wants to wriggle out of that issue by misrepresenting Obama's vote. As i have said, Hillary knows that she has lost SC and is marching to the beat of the florida drummer.