A Rake’s Progress

For weeks I have been wondering if John Edwards will do the right thing and endorse Hillary Clinton.

For much of his campaign, Edwards was dogged by questions concerning his sincerity. Could a man who was so wealthy — and conspicuously so — really be the champion of the “other America?” To his critics, that positioning looked too strategically staged and insincere. 

Edwards can put that opportunistic label to rest once and for all. The conventional wisdom is that Edwards is holding onto his endorsement, making sure he supports the clear winner. That, of course, is the wrong thing to do! The right thing is to come out and endorse Hillary NOW, before the Texas and Ohio primaries.

For one thing, with so many political lemmings jumping aboard the Good Ship Obama, it will make it clear that Edwards is a man of principle, not politics. More importantly, given his past positions, Hillary is his natural ally.

Looking at his choices — silence, Obama, or Hillary — choosing Hillary makes the most sense for Edwards, for Hillary, and our country –

– They both are committed to solutions, not just rhetoric and fancy speeches about change.

– They both are committed to real universal health care.

– They both are committed to helping America’s working poor.

– They both have expressed their commitment to rebuilding America’s middle class.

– They both have similar positions — and histories — concerning Iraq.

– They both have expressed unambiguous support for the rights of the LGBT community.

– They both have the experience, ideas, and realistic goals for helping our economy get back on track.

– They are both for ending abusive, predatory lending practices.

– They both want NAFTA renegotiated to better protect the interests’ of American workers, and to end tax incentives for corporations that move jobs overseas.

If you can reach John Edwards’ supporters with this message, please do so NOW.

Hillary, the Democratic party, and the country needs John Edwards to act today so that his choice can make a real difference on March 4th.

This came from a MySpace forum tonight in which a former Edwards supporter pleads that John Edwards throws his support towards Hillary. . . . 

I was a John Edwards supporter, in a major way. I just emailed him this:

As a John Edwards supporter, I know what kind of man he is and I will tell you he is honorable and decent. I wanted him to know something that happened to me today that I found very troubling. While I was emailing my Action post to different Hillary groups, I had to use the search on Facebook and MySpace, for groups.

When I search Hillary Clinton on Facebook, there are a few entries in the beginning that are for real. The rest start out being just a negative, don’t vote for her group, and go all the way up to pure filth and venom, for pages and pages.

When I do that same search for Barack Obama, I don’t see groups of hatred, slander, and filth against him. For pages, there are just groups for him.

Is that because he is so well loved, or because his following is at best, disgustingly filthy in their language; at worst, intimidating, bullying, threatening, …….. This is the caliber of people that Barack Obama is attracting. And, no one in his campaign is stepping up to the plate to say “Hey guys, I appreciate your support, but clean it up please.” To me, that tells me that they approve of this behavior.

I don’t want a guy who condones this. I want someone like John Edwards - decent and honorable. I say, No Thank You to Barack Obama. He would not be good for this country, not now, not ever.

Here’s the text of an editorial that appeared yesterday in the Laconia (NH) Citizen suggesting that John Edwards should leave the campaign now. Just what I was thinking!

The big question is: who would Edwards’ supporters embrace as their new candidate? All signs point to Obama, especially given Edwards’ far left — if not insincere — rhetoric.

Logic suggests it’s time for John Edwards to set aside his aspirations to become president and seek a job for which he is better qualified.

Edwards was humiliated in the Nevada caucuses Saturday, attracting only 4 percent of the vote.

Edwards was jubilant when he finished second in the first test of the candidates in Iowa, but it was euphoria soon lost. He ended far behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in New Hampshire, sliding to attract only 17 percent of the Democrats and the unenrolled in the record turnout of Granite State voters.

It’s time for Edwards to get out, just as U.S. Rep. Douglas Hunter did Saturday following a 2 percent share of the vote in Nevada’s Republican caucuses. He received only 1 percent of the vote in South Carolina on Saturday (Democrats in South Carolina vote next Saturday).

After his battering at the polls Saturday, Edwards exhibited a touch of reality, saying, “I got my butt kicked,” adding “I hope what happens in (Las) Vegas stays in Vegas.” It won’t. Polls show him running third — behind Clinton and Obama in his birth state.

But Edwards remains committed.

A former U.S. senator from North Carolina, a candidate for the Democratic nomination and John Kerry’s running mate four years ago, Edwards knows 2008 is his last reach for America’s most coveted political prize. He also knows in himself, he has come up short — way short.

Edwards tilts so far to the left it’s a wonder he doesn’t tip over. It’s been more evident in this campaign than previous ones. His has been liberal rhetoric like that right out of the early 1920s.

John Edwards’ seeming or pretended escape from reality notwithstanding, the contest for the Democratic nomination for president has come down to one between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Now, it’s what remains of the early primaries and caucuses and then on to Feb. 5 and Super-Duper Tuesday.

Maybe I am as much at fault as anyone. My myopic fascination with political warfare has made me oblivious to nearly everything else. If something in the news has a political edge, I notice it. If not, it passes under my mental radar unseen.

What does get my attention, though, are the stories we have seen all too often lately about children dying in our cities because our social service systems — supposedly there to protect them — are broken. Last summer we read about the kids in the City of Brotherly Love who died — some murdered — because their social service files got misplaced.

This week it is Washington’s turn: four children dead. Mayor Fenty called it “egregious” and said that social workers had a “check off the box” mentality. I call it social worker abuse.

OK. Life sucks. Bad things happen. That’s just a byproduct of being human. But for poor and minority kids, when life sucks it doesn’t mean a parking ticket, a late fee on your checking account, a son or daughter who is getting a little too mouthy and you don’t know what to do about it.

For these kids in Philly and Washington, when life sucks it means death, physical abuse, neglect, starvation, broken spirits.

What is gnawing at me right now, though, is not just the tragedy of their unending pain, but the fact that we look away and ignore it. A Rake’s Progress is primarily a blog about political matters. So let’s get political: where are our presidential candidates, our would-be leaders, in expressing grief and outrage that these events continue to happen in our country? Where are their noble solutions, or even those little incremental changes that social scientists tell us can make a difference?

Why aren’t they speaking out about Philly and Washington?

There’s all this nonsense right now about “racism” being thrown back and forth between Obama and Clinton, when the real racism is that the child corpses being carried out of the tenements in body bags are African-American and Hispanic.

Why aren’t you — reader of tens of thousands of words written in blogs, on web sites, in your social networks — why aren’t you paying attention to this, demanding that our politicians act, demanding that we do a better job of protecting the vulnerable kids in our cities?

Why are searches that lead to this blog only about Hillary, Obama, Edwards, McCain, Romney, Thompson, Giuliani, Paul?

What about doing some blog searches for “children murdered in Philadelphia,” “four girls dead in Washington,” or “social service system corrupt and broken?”

Go ahead. Google “murdered children.” See what happens.

The following list was compiled by the Washington Post. It offers some good insights if you are from New Hampshire and are wondering which “winners” your legislators supported.

There are some important names not on this last, either because they are not legislators or they endorsed someone late in the process.

As we know, state legislators Gail Morrison and Beth Arsenault endorsed Obama. Belknap County Democratic Chair, Lynn Chong, endorsed Edwards. Former NH Democratic Party Chair Kathy Sullivan showed her smarts by endorsing Hillary, as did Dick and Katrina Swett. Bill Shaheen, of course, was once upon a time, Hillary’s co-chair until he had the audacity of questioning Obama’s fitness for the nomination.

As other names and endorsements are pointed out to me, I will be happy to list them here. (Dems only, please.) 

Hillary Rodham Clinton
57 (of 139) of Democratic endorsements
Terie Norelli State Representative (D)
David M Pierce State Representative (D)
Claire D Clarke State Representative (D)
Iris Estabrook State Senator (D)
Margaret Hassan State Senator (D)
William V Knowles State Representative (D)
Jane Wood State Representative (D)
Michael J Reuschel State Representative (D)
Deanna S Rollo State Representative (D)
Michael S Rollo State Representative (D)
Trinka Russell State Representative (D)
Joan H Schulze State Representative (D)
Barbara E Shaw State Representative (D)
James R Splaine State Representative (D)
Mary A Sysyn State Representative (D)
Hector M Velez State Representative (D)
Edgar H Mears State Representative (D)
Lori A Movsesian State Representative (D)
Stephen A Johnson State Representative (D)
Eleanor G Kjellman State Representative (D)
Angeline K Kopka, State Representative (D)
Bette R Lasky State Representative (D)
Alfred C Lerandeau State Representative (D)
Melanie A Levesque State Representative (D)
Anthony P Matarazzo State Representative (D)
Thomas M McGuirk State Representative (D)
Martha McLeod State Representative (D)
Patricia M McMahon State Representative (D)
Anne C Grassie State Representative (D)
Jill Hammond State Representative (D)
Roger G Hebert State Representative (D)
Roland P Hofemann State Representative (D)
Doreen Howard State Representative (D)
Jean Jeudy State Representative (D)
John DeJoie State Representative (D)
Carole J Estes State Representative (D)
Thomas R Fargo State Representative (D)
Carol H Friedrich State Representative (D)
Raymond G Gagnon State Representative (D)
Delmar D Burridge State Representative (D)
Jane A Clemons State Representative (D)
David E Cote State Representative (D)
Peter R Cote State Representative (D)
James E Cyr State Representative (D)
Peter H Allen State Representative (D)
Suzanne E Beauchesne State Representative (D)
Catriona D Beck State Representative (D)
Bernard L Benn State Representative (D)
Roger R Berube State Representative (D)
Sylvia Larsen State Senator (D)
Deborah Reynolds State Senator (D)
Betsi DeVries State Senator (R)
Molly Kelly State Senator (D)
Kathleen Sgambati State Senator (D)
Mary J Wallner State Representative (D)
Janet G Wall State Representative (D)
Deborah H Wheeler State Representative (D)

John Edwards
34 (of 139) of Democratic endorsements
Sharon L Nordgren State Representative (D)
James G Phinizy State Representative (D)
Timothy N Robertson State Representative (D)
Robert A Srnec State Representative (D)
Frank A Tupper State Representative (D)
Dennis P Vachon State Representative (D)
Judith E Day State Representative (D)
Vincent E Greco State Representative (D)
Suzanne Harvey State Representative (D)
Robert J Watson State Representative (D)
Carolyn M Lisle State Representative (D)
Ron J Mack State Representative (D)
Susi Nord State Representative (D)
Jessie L Osborne State Representative (D)
Jennifer M Brown State Representative (D)
Donald A Brueggemann State Representative (D)
Jacqueline A Cali-Pitts State Representative (D)
Claudia A Chase State Representative (D)
Frank W Davis State Representative (D)
Peter Burling State Senator (D)
Joseph Foster State Senator (D)
Timothy Butterworth State Representative (D)
Charles F Weed State Representative (D)
Gary B Richardson State Representative (D)
Robert L Theberge State Representative (D)
Joseph M Miller State Representative (D)
David Gottesman State Senator (D)
Marlene M DeChane State Representative (D)
Stephen T DeStefano State Representative (D)
J. Timothy Dunn State Representative (D)
Peter S Espiefs State Representative (D)
David E Essex State Representative (D)
Linda T Foster State Representative (D)
Patrick F Garrity State Representative (D)

Mike Gravel
0 (of 139) of Democratic endorsements

Dennis Kucinich
2 (of 139) of Democratic endorsements
Barbara C French State Representative (D)
Lee M Hammond State Representative (D)

Barack Obama
32 (of 139) of Democratic endorsements
Dennis F Abbott State Representative (D)
Kris E Roberts State Representative (D)
Cindy Rosenwald State Representative (D)
Tara A Sad State Representative (D)
Kimberley S Casey State Representative (D)
Jacalyn Cilley State Senator (D)
Eileen C Flockhart State Representative (D)
Martha Fuller Clark State Senator (D)
John W Henson State Representative (D)
Sarah A Hutz State Representative (D)
Lucy McV Weber State Representative (D)
Nickolas J Levasseur State Representative (D)
Jesse J Martineau State Representative (D)
Margaret E Porter State Representative (D)
Susan W Almy State Representative (R)
Deborah L Billian, State Representative (D)
Elizabeth D Blanchard State Representative (D)
David A Borden State Representative (D)
Carla M Skinder State Representative (D)
Harold Janeway State Senator (D)
Nancy H Warren State Representative (D)
C. Pennington Brown State Representative (D)
Shawn M Mickelonis State Representative (D)
Bonnie G Mitchell State Representative (D)
Kay Oppenheimer State Representative (D)
James F Powers State Representative (D)
Jane P Kelley State Representative (D)
Sally H Kelly State Representative (D)
James E Kennedy State Representative (D)
Sid Lovett State Representative (D)
Edward A Butler State Representative (D)
Jennifer Daler State Representative (D)

Bill Richardson
14 (of 139) of Democratic endorsements
Jane E Beaulieu State Representative (D)
Susan R Kepner State Representative (D)
Joel F Winters State Representative (D)
Daniel W McKenna State Representative (D)
Lily Mesa State Representative (D)
Mary Ann Knowles State Representative (D)
Eileen S Ehlers State Representative (D)
Armand D Forest State Representative (D)
Dana S Hilliard State Representative (D)
Candace C W Bouchard State Representative (D)
Stephen P Spratt State Representative (D)
Scott A Merrick State Representative (D)
Tara G Reardon State Representative (D)
John K Knowles State Representative (D)