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  2. Barbara Ehrenreich endorses John Edwards

Barbara Ehrenreich endorses John Edwards

By clock on March 30, 2007.

On her blog, of course:

For my money, John Edwards is the best candidate out there. Clinton has Iraqi and American blood on her hands; Obama has yet to lay out clear economic alternatives; and, although they might once have been Republican moderates, McCain and Giuliani are shamelessly snuggling up to the Christianist Right. I like Edwards because he's taken up the banner of the little guy and gal in America's grossly one-sided class war. He's laid out a plan for universal health insurance; he wants to repeal Bush's tax cuts for the rich; he shows up at workers' picket lines.

I met him on a panel last fall, he is good-looking enough to merit Coulter's suspicion that he can't possibly be straight (though, really, Ann, if you want to crank up your "gay-dar," you should get away from those pimply right-wingers and meet some new guys.) He's modest, low-key, friendly, and, although he's wealthy now, he spoke movingly from his family's experience of poverty.

Read the rest - quite moving about Elizabeth Edwards from one cancer-survivor to another.

Hat-tip: TomP (if you are a DK user, please recommend this Diary).

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I like Obama's fight for the little guy a lot more than Edwards. Obama has done more for the poor, has been doing it for longer, has gotten his hands a lot dirtier, and seems to actually understand the issues better. But we still have a long ways to go in this election...

It's a toss up for me between Edwards, Obama, and Richardson at this point. Unfortunately all 3 are apparently against gay marriage, waffling with the old "they deserve equal rights, but not marriage" which just stinks of separate but equal. Apparently a gay man has the right to marry a woman, just like a black man had the right to marry a black woman (but not a white one) in so many states.

All that is why my time and money is going to Kucinich. Among his positions:

I believe that equality of opportunity should be afforded to all Americans regardless of race, color, creed, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. For that reason I support the right of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons to have the full protections and rights afforded under civil law including the right to marry the person of their choice.

We must make it a top priority to restore the value of the federal minimum wage, bringing it up to at least its 1968 level and indexing it to automatically keep pace with the cost of living. This will allow workers to quit their second or third jobs and spend more time with their families.

My goal is to combine this with the creation of a truly universal single-payer health care system, universal free preschool, free college tuition at state colleges and universities, a public jobs program to restore our infrastructure, and withdrawal from NAFTA and the WTO in favor of bilateral trade pacts that protect workers' rights here and abroad. This will transform the lives of working people, and without the efforts of working people who have made the living wage an issue, this would not be possible.

Can he win? Not if he doesn't get support from people who agree with him - and at the very least his campaign may be able to push the center of the spectrum a little further left - even if that only means to the actual goddamn center.

I used to support Kucinich, but until I recently found out about some of the opinions he held just a few short years ago.

-- He supported the Bush's gag rule on overseas Americans
-- He supported the Child Custody Protection Act which would have made it illegal for someone to help a teen age girl obtain an out of state abortion
-- Against RU-486 funding

I knew he was a little "out there" but this was hilarious:

"Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the universe. Matter transcends to return to spirit. The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: One with the universe. Whole and holy. From one source, endless creative energy, bursting forth, kinetic, elemental. We, the earth, air, water and fire-source of nearly fifteen billion years of cosmic spiraling."

And don't get me started on the poorly named "Department of Peace." The best I can say about it is that I don't believe he meant that in the Orwellian way. ;)

This is why Kucinich is not for me.
This is why Clark is not for me.
This is why Obama is not for me.
This is why Clinton is not for me.
They may be for you, but not for me. And there is a good reason why all LGTB and women's groups are endorsing Edwards...just do some blogesearching.

Language is important. What we CALL something, matters.

We are not fighting a "war" in Iraq, it's an occupation.

"Surge" is a nonsense word, it's an escalation.

And I hope not many of us want what Barbara E. says she wants: "universal health insurance". No more health insurance! Kucinic has the wording right: "a truly universal single-payer health care system".