WORKING CLASS HERO

I am painfully aware of how far behind the news curve this post is, but I really can’t let the most important story moment of last week go uncommented on. I’m not referring to Hillary’s predictable 40 point trouncing of Obama in West Virginia (nor the equally predictable media downplaying of its significance), I’m talking about John Edwards’ long delayed endorsement.

John E had originally been expected to endorse Obama immediately after withdrawing from the race. He didn’t. That was smart. By holding back he remained a player, perhaps the key player, in an increasingly “too close to call” struggle. If it came down to a floor fight at the convention – which is still highly likely – he would be holding trump.

So why endorse now, just when conventional wisdom (which has been notoriously wrong this cycle) says the fight is all but over? Isn’t that the worse time to do it?

It wouldbe, if he was seeking personal power – say a spot on the ticket. By moving when he did Edwards proved he isn’t in it just for himself. Media blowhards were beginning to trumpet the line that Hillary’s voters are “poorer and less educated” in the sort of media mantra that has lasting damaging effect. What they should say is “working class”, but at least they didn’t say “white trash” which you could feel many of them thinking very loudly. To keep that wedge from being driven into party unity, to keep working class blacks from being separated from working class whites Edwards stepped forward. He gave away personal power for the common good.

That is what heroes do. They take a stand that brings people together. If you listen to his endorsement speech (which you can at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzkAjd3xQ7w ) you’ll notice how much time he spends praising Hillary up front. 

John Edwards is a working class hero, and it his endorsement now is a real class act. He would make a great Attorney General. Bobby Kennedy to Obama’s JFK, and like Bobby he should be a intimate advisor during Obama’s upcoming campaign.

Comments

[Cam Beck]

First - It's great to have you back.

Second - If by referring to Edwards as a "working class hero," you mean "someone who, as an attorney general, is likely to bring the health care industry to its knees and make it harder to obtain for working class people than it currently is now," then sure. He'd be a smash.

[Max]

Hi Cam -

Actually I wasn't thinking about health care so much as about actual labor law. I just went through a long strike, and I know that the scales have tipped pretty far towards large corporations. The result is that union membership is way down from its high back in the 60s and the middle class has stopped growing and is contracting (which I don't think is a good thing for any democracy). The US is running very large deficits, and large corporations are being allowed to dodge their fair tax burden with "creative interpretation" of the legal code. Nothing wrong with taking a shot at getting away with something, as long as someone - The Attorney General - is making sure that everyone stays within the lines and that you have a price to pay if you get a little too creative. John E seems to me the type of bulldog that could handle that job.

And when I say hero I mean that John Edwards has a working class point of view - that is, he tends to see problems from the perspective of how they effect a guy on the plant floor.

And thanks, its good to be back. I'll have my posting chops up to speed soon.

[Cam Beck]

In a narrow sense, I think you're exactly right. Edwards has a real knack for finding the right buttons to push to whip up the emotions of *certain* people on the plant floor. He's very attuned to them and knows how to rile up their passions.

But his economic chops are worse than elementary -- they're dangerous. Either out of ignorance or malice, his policies would hurt the working class more than they would help, even as he brings them to an approving frenzy with his rhetoric.