Sure, he was a DLC Dem when he started out, and he correctly saw that there was an alternative horse to ride in this year’s campaign. I never believed it came from the heart, but the way our system is structurally set up now, no one for whom it comes from the heart would get near the nomination. So creating a progressive tendency to which the fakers need to appeal is progress, however minimal.

You can repeat this next election and ad infinitum. It’s especially true when people won’t accept that a politician is Progressive or Liberal unless they’ve behaved that way in the past in positions won at the state level. Therefore we won’t have many Progressives or Liberals EVER become president. There aren’t enough states where they can win state-wide positions to build their cred.

Did Edwards go into hibernation on the poverty issue or was it just not reported by the media? I don’t know the answer to that question and I’m not sure if anyone else knows the answer either. If true then I will join with others in criticizing him if he used the poverty issue merely as a prop for his campaign and dropped it when his campaign ended.

With regard to the scholarship program another MSM outlet quotes the director of the program as saying that the program was originally set up to only run for 3 years. If that’s true then the accusation that Edwards did something wrong when the program was ended after 3 years is questionable.

I for one would like to see more factual reporting about the scholarship program instead of all the gory details about his affair. I’d also like to see some stories about what Edwards has done on the poverty issue since his campaign ended. Until we see more facts I think the snark may be premature. Let’s have some good solid reporting so that all of us can judge for ourselves instead of relying on speculation by people who never liked Edwards in the first place.

Edwards’ scholarship program ends

The Associated Press

RALEIGH — The scholarship program started by former N.C. Sen. John Edwards that has sent rural high school graduates to college free is ending after three years, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The College for Everyone program at Greene Central High School in eastern North Carolina will end this year, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.

The pilot program has sent 190 Greene County students to college and cost $600,000 in its first two years. It was started in 2005, the year after Edwards was the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Under the program, students who qualified received tuition, fees and books at a public college for a year. Students were required to work at least 10hours a week during college, stay out of trouble and take college preparatory classes in high school.

Program director Pamela Hampton-Garland said the program was designed to last three years.

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=300782

I was an Edwards’ supporter because of the policies that he campaigned on in the Primary and even though the media barely covered his campaign he still managed to lead both Clinton & Obama in a more progressive direction (although Obama has since gone in another direction).

When Edwards confirmed the Enquirer charges my first thought was – How stupid can he be? I was angry with him for letting his libido end his career and I was sad too because I think he could have been a strong voice in challenging the lobbyist arrangement in Washington.

Yes, what Edwards did was stupid and I’m angry and sad about it but not half as angry or sad as I was when Obama voted for FISA or when Hillary failed to lead on the FISA vote.

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If this mighty recession we are beginning gets incredibly bad and all the “homeowners” become renters, the whole paradigm may change. If the election was in 2009 or 2010 it may have been a different election for Edwards and that type of message.

That said, I bet the TradMed knows this and they don’t want Edwards’ candidacy to rise from the dead in four or eight years. They are trying to put the final nails in his coffin for good now. Now he will be like Al Gore was at first after 2000. “That poor Al Gore he was so awful he lost the election and has no personality. So pitiful.” Hopefully that won’t last forever. Edwards had some good ideas that he was championing. Unfortunately lots of the things he championed were challenges to the moneyed interests.

Remember what happened to Huey Long and his populist message…I think he had more than 40 bullets in him. This is not the type of message the “people in power” of either party want to champion. The things that go with this type of message are very dangerous to the moneyed interests that fund our politicians. Things like worker rights, unions, health care for all, a real solution to unending poverty. These are not concerns of moneyed interests. Only people who have genuine feelings for their fellow man care about these issues. Some of the people who care have money, some of them don’t but all of the real people in power are happy with the status quo. If they weren’t something would have changed after the 2006 election. Witness GWB still in office. Witness massive bailouts of Wall Street that small fry you and I will have to pay for, our grand kids will have to pay for. Witness the constant shredding of the Constitution and our presumptive nominee in cahoots with some of it.

So Edwards was not so much proven to be wrong as he was ignored by TradMed and moneyed interests. I am positive that if he had been covered he would have gotten more traction. McSame is getting lots of free press from TradMed. If the election is close it will be partially due to TradMed free airplay of his every dispicable lying ad. Edwards couldn’t get coverage for the truth but McSame can get coverage for lie after lie.

Oh and as for the affair. I think it is none of our business. What percent of marriages end in divorce, and what percent cheat? Not defending it I am just saying it makes him human like the rest of us. I would rather have a cheater in the White House than a meglomaniacal alcoholic who can’t put two coherent sentences together.

Just saying….

here’s the thing – the coverage is just WAY over the top. It’s like “they” want to kill him dead, dead, dead, to prevent any comebacks down the road.

remember, IOKIYAR.

The article EW cited also says:

The program cost a total of $600,000 for the first two years and helped 190 students go to such colleges as East Carolina University, Lenoir Community College and N.C. State University. The program will help a third class, Greene County students who graduated this spring, attend college starting in the fall.

So if the third year (this school year) runs about the same as the first two, that would be about 285 kids who got a free year of college, at a cost of almost a million dollars. I don’t think that qualifies as “a lie”.

Another snip from the same article:

Pamela Hampton-Garland, the director of College for Everyone, said the Greene County effort was always designed as a three-year pilot.

Sounds to me like the program was a template, designed to prove the value and cost-effectiveness of helping kids who don’t have a lot of options.

Patrick Miller, Greene County school superintendent, said the Edwards program helped raise the college-application rate from about 26 percent several years ago to 94 percent this year.

Although the College for Everyone Program is being phased out, Miller said he hoped it helped create a culture of college-going in the county.

Whatever else is said about JRE, this program doesn’t sound like a lie to me.

What a disappointing post

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I couldn’t agree more. Monday morning quarterbacks are seldom wrong even though they knew the game was rigged.

I live in Raleigh and have watched John and Elizabeth Edwards give to the community in major ways over and over. The learning center across the street from Broughton HS in Raleigh continues to assist students who need a hand up and a push from behind to succeed. The scholarship program in Greene County for college aid was originally planned as a 3 year program. Seniors who graduated this spring will receive assistance as planned.

I’ll take John at his word that he saw his own failings for the reason he committed adultery. I refuse to pile on as was evident here and in so many other reactions to his announcement last Friday.

Progressives in this nation are now further away from any action plan to help the middle and lower class. I knew corporations would rejoice at his failings. I just didn’t know it would be a virus and spread to very competent journalists. EW, you’re better than this.

With gratitude,
and very sad to be thinking this about Empty Wheel,
Heather