Friday, May 9, 2008

John Edwards: One Righteous Dude


John Edwards is -- in the opinion of this Blogger -- the most inspiring figure in American politics today. When he dropped out of the race for the White House earlier this year, I was depressed for damn near a month, dragging my sorry ass around and bemoaning the fate of the Republic. The former vice presidential candidate and North Carolina senator has been keeping a low profile, careful to avoid endorsing Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Barack Obama. During the hotly contested North Carolina primary earlier this week, Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, took their kids on a well-deserved (but, no doubt, carefully timed) vacation to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida.

John and Elizabeth turned up in a recent issue of People magazine, in which they shared their views about the remaining Democratic frontrunners. But both of them were hopelessly vague. Anyone yearning for some juicy gossip from the Edwards about campaign trail hijinks would be sorely disappointed.

Despair not, Edwards watchers, for the Righteous Dude of American politics appeared on the Today Show this morning and had some glowing praise for Senator Obama. Said Edwards:

"What he brings to the table is the capacity, number one, to unite the Democratic Party. Number two, to bring in new voters, to bring in people who haven't been involved in the process over a long time and to get people excited about this change."

Edwards still won't endorse Obama. Always modest, Edwards remarked that Obama "has done pretty well without any endorsement from John Edwards." (Although Edwards created quite a stir in the Blogosphere this morning when he appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning and said something that sounded remarkably like "I voted for him" in reference to Obama; for the full story, see USA Today's On Politics Blog).

Whatever the case may be, it's just great to see Edwards back in action. At this point, a best case scenario would see: 1) a Democrat taking the White House in '08; and 2) John Edwards playing a prominent role in the new administration.

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