The verdict from the first two states in the Democratic nominating process is in: Barack Obama is for real; Hillary Clinton is not inevitable but won't give up; and John Edwards is the progressive populist in the race.

Now that the Democratic presidential race has practically narrowed to those three candidates, Edwards remains the progressive populist choice for change. Many progressive voters would be proud to vote for a black candidate or a female candidate with a solid chance to occupy the Oval Office, but while Obama and Clinton have been occupying the middle of the road, Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who comes from a working-class background and made his bones as a trial lawyer challenging reckless and abusive corporations, has been challenging the status quo. Although he has been derided by some for his wealth, he made his fortune by winning verdicts for his working-class clients who were injured by those corporations that are unregulated by the Republicans and lightly regulated by the D.C. Dems.

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Here's an interesting take on the presidential elections...

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/6689 0/

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A compilation from three diaries at Show Me Progress - here, here, and here.

Well, after a day's total of nine hours of driving we just got back [last night] from the Harkin Steak Fry. As a surreal experience it certainly exceeded expectations.

When we arrived into town at Highway 92 - heading east toward the balloon field - we encountered one of the slowest moving traffic jams I have ever experienced. It took us 45 minutes to get the three miles from a highway junction to the balloon field.

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Posted at Show Me Progress.

Early tomorrow morning a small group of us from Warrensburg will pile into two vehicles for the 4 1/2 hour drive to that muddy (probably) balloon field near Indianola, Iowa for the 30th Harkin Steak Fry. This to hear Democratic presidential candidates  Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson speak.

I wrote about some of my experiences at the event four years ago here.

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The following little comment on the Hillary 'lobbyist' 'defense' led to this post on who's giving what $$$ to whom:

WTF are you getting on about? (none / 0)

Obama, Clinton, Edwards, Dodd, Richardson and Biden all receive a great deal of money more or less from 'corporations', from the upper-class professions, and from the wealthy elite generally.

But the real problem is not that legalized bribery, but 'Washington lobbyists'? That molehill inspires Booman's "Do we really hate ourselves this much?"

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