John who?

I am underwhelmed with John Edwards, too. You hav to admit though, that New Orleans was a great place for him to announce he is running.

I mean think how appropriate it is for the Democrat's most underwhelming candidate to declare his candidacy in America's most underwhelming city.

You can tell by the way that he handles the shovel, that he has not operated one in his life time. You do not pack a shovel full of dirt 30 ft when you can throw it faster. A son of a mill-worker HA. Same old bullshit that he tried to foist off on to us two years ago and it did not work then

This guy is the personification of the empty suit, a political Cheshire cat of smile without substance. He completely vanished from public view during the campaign after being chosen for vice president, and that failure alone should disqualify him for consideration by loyal Democrats.

Yes, there is poverty in America. Some people slip into it due to catastophes or emergencies that wipe them out finincially. But most poverty in America these days is from one of a few sources:

1. Recent immigrants with few skills
2. Entry level first employment

We expect these. There are, however, other routes to poverty that are self-inflicted:

1. Dropping out of high school
2. Refusing to work full time
3. Refusal to stick with a job to get skills to move up.
4. Having children while young and unable to afford them
5. Single motherhood, especially among young, poorly educated women.

I work in the welfare business. I see "poverty" every day. The overwhelming majority of our clients are single women under 25 with 1 or 2 kids, and no meanss of support. Intact families do come in to apply for assistance, but usually they stay a short time and move on. Single mothers do not.

There really is a formula for NOT being poor: stay in school, get and keep any full time job, don't get married before your twenties, and don't have kids until you are married and can afford them.

I simply don't know what Edwards is talking about. Unskilled, uneducated Americans are NOT going to move up without some self-motivated changes. What he seems to want is massive income redistribution, protectionism, and forced unionization.

None of these are going to play well.

Edwards is massively unimpressive, and I think I'd say that even if I agreed with his politics. He's fit only for a sideshow, which might just explain his spectacular success at getting juries -- groups of twelve who couldn't convince a judge that they were too important to be immured in a jury box -- to give vast quantities of insurance companies' money to persons who in no way deserved it.

You're not the only one Kim. I voted for the first time in 2004, and for me it was no contest. But the Democrats put up the seriously weakest candidates they possibly could have. Honestly, if it were one of the more conservative Dems, they would have totally won. But the weird thing I've noticed about the Democrat party is that lately they're all about the strategy and not the substance (Prime example:Daily Kos 'if we all donate and write to X, surely we'll win Y'. What's his record...23-0 or 23-1 nowadays? You win with calls and donations and IDEAS AND PURPOSE*)

Sure, both sides need good looking/appealing/marketable candidates in the TV era, but the Dems really are pushing some of the crappiest players on their team these days. So what, because Edwards is from the South he's supposed to automagically appeal to a Southerner? That reeks of marketing and, quite frankly, a sense of superiority over the intended audience. Even my socialist friends understand that Edwards is applying the slickness he learned from his lawyering toward his run at President. Shoot, even Slick Willie was at least genuine.

*I don't know how to do italics

Kim, you have no clue as to what truly comprises an "underwhelming" individual; after all, since 2000 you've supported a dazed and confused "Decider"-in-chief who can't think of anything better to do than sit on his ass reading a children's book upon being informed that the country is under attack.

Tony, to use italics, type " your text here without the space directly after each of the "

Sorry, Tony, for some reason my "less than symbol" disappeared above.

Tony, use the less-than and greater-than symbols instead of the corresponding left parenthesis and right parenthesis below:

(i) your text here (/i)

Herman, thanks!

Herman, the old "kept reading" bit is tired. It didn't work on people with more than 2 brain cells to understand what was happening back then and it's even more pathetic now.

Funny, Edwards running mate (Kerry) in the last election admitted to just sitting and doing nothing for 45 mins after he heard....dazed and confused--by his own words no less.

Edwards couldn't even carry his own state during the last election. He is a TV prety face with no significant political record and HUGE liability of being a rich-white-lawyer who made a fortune on frivilous lawsuits. I don't think he'll survive the primaries.

No, you are not. The Ninth ward was a pretty depressing place before it was flooded by Katrina, but it has had Democrat mayors for as long as I can remember. Does John Edwards think people don't know this? 'Underwhelmed' is being kind.

No, you are not the only one underwhelmed.

I am severely underwhelmed with the Ambulance Chaser.

I can never tell if he's speaking from the grave on behalf of a dead fetus.

Lets look at John Edwards Objectively.

1. He was a U.S. Senator, and fully served one term, no indictments, lingering corruption questions etc. His single term doesn't taint him as a Washington Insider.

2. He is not a sitting Senator. When was the last time a serving Senator was elected President?

3. Prior to that he was a very successful Tort-Attorney, whether you liked his lawsuits or not.

4. He is apparantly a decent family man, married one time to a nice lady and has kids.

5. He is good looking, educated and articulate.

6. He credibly pulls off the allusion of caring. Heck, he might even truly care about those poor people.

7. The last seriously underwhelming Southern candidate from GA beat the late President Ford.

If John Edwards was a rich minority instead of a rich white guy, they'd be calling him the second coming of Barack Obama.

Matt

IN THE NAME OF THE HAIR I COMPEL YOU! VOTE FOR EDWARDS! THE POWER OF THE HAIR COMPELS YOU!

After looking at the Internet video where this guy primps in front of a mirror for far, far too long, I can't see this guy without laughing.

And wasn't that his role last time: "Go hide John, we'll tell you when we need your hair".

Isn't it funny that John Edward, so-called psychic, was broomed from the public just in time for John Edwards to run for President.

THIS is John Edwards.

Please, somebody, explain to me why Dan Quayle was supposed to be such a joke, yet John Edwards is so obviously worthy of consideration as a presidential candidate. From what I've seen, Edwards is no Dan Quayle ...

Ya gotta admit..NOLA was a good publicity pick...reminding America how Bush stayed on vacation (remember the Mccain Birthday?)while a city drowned...not to mention "Heck of a job Brownie"..even though he is not running all the Dems will be running as "we are not Bush"...(it worked in the recent elections)
As for underwhelming...revisit the Bush campaign in it's early days...as for me Edwards is better than Clinton..I am still waiting for a moderate Republican other than Rudy to step up that I could support...

You have to judge him by his record.

His legal career, although financially successful, was based on deceit and self-enrichment at the expense of the truth. The Voice of Dead Fetuses act is transparently untruthful.

Like Kerry, his legislative career includes what accomplishments?

His celebrity career consists most notably of that preening video, which is pretty convincing and pretty damning.

No way.

Compared to Barack Hussein Obama, John Edwards' career is a tower of achievement.

SS

For all his talk about the responsibility of the rich to help the poor, Edwards has never worked pro-bono.

He not only couldn't carry either Carolina in a general election, he would be trounced by a weak Republican candidate in both states.

I think Edwards is great but I just don't know what has changed since 2004 except that he is two years older. The more I think about the Dems in 2008, the more I think the nomination is Al Gore's to lose: he was robbed in 2000, has been consistently right on Iraq (unlike Hillary), and will not have a problem with either cash or name recognition... I wrote a story on this at www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com

"Disco boy!! Run to the toilet and comb your hair..."

In the interest of discussion I wonder if there are any democrats you folks would find suitable to be president? Please don't say Joe Liberman as he is not a democrat.

I suspect that if Mother Theresa lived here and said sge was a democrat most of you would find a way to criticize her.

H

Hugh, Zell Miller perhaps?

Oyster

You never disappoint me.

I think Edwards is great but I just don't know what has changed since 2004 except that he is two years older. The more I think about the Dems in 2008, the more I think the nomination is Al Gore's to lose: he was robbed in 2000, has been consistently right on Iraq (unlike Hillary), and will not have a problem with either cash or name recognition... I wrote a story on this at www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com

I do agree, that overall John Edwards is underwhelming. Being an arch conservative, my opinion of him matters little, I can't imagine voting for him. Hugh has a point, there isn't a Democratic candidate that conservatives would consider acceptable.

That said, Edwards could be an interesting contrast/option to Hillary Clinton. Even though a lightweight, he comes across as much nicer and possibly more moderate than Hillary. Help the poor platforms are traditionally Democrat and are a change from the anti-Bush/anti-war platforms most hold.

Ultimately Ewards can be a nice foil during the primaries, but I doubt he has any measurable chance at the actual nomination. But, it is still a free country, and it's his time and money to invest.

John Edwards co-sponsored the massive increase in H-1b visas that blew away tech as an upwardly mobile career for Americans - it's never recovered from this massive betrayal

He also favored benefits for illegal aliens, that drive down wages of our poorest americans

he voted for the iraq war, that send our porrer young people to their deaths in iraq

And he voted for the patriot act, which threatens the Consititution

He's a first class jerk

Ripper, we heard you the first time.

I remember being somewhat impressed with Edwards on first look back during the 04 primary campaign. Not impressed with the man himself (announcing your candidacy on THE DAILY SHOW????), but I was impressed that he was the ONLY Democratic candidate that seemed to be articulating any forward-looking vision of the future. The rest of the crowd was in lockstep, screaming the tiresome "we're not Bush" mantra that nogo referred to earlier.

The fact that Edwards' more unique message was snuffed out after he accepted the VP slot is probably an eloquent statement about the woeful condition of Presidential election politics today.

The best way to keep from being poor in America is, still, to be born into it.

Estate tax anyone?

"The best way to keep from being poor in America is, still, to be born into it."

I assume but "it" you meant "wealth". And if that's the case I strongly disagree with you as it seems that many who are born into wealth end up being socialist regressives (i.e., democrats).

The best way to not be poor is to get an education, not have kids out of wedlock and even then not until you can afford them, and to have a traditional American work ethic.

oops "but" should have been "by"

Great teeth.