A conservative blogger I know started a meme examining the milestones of her life in relation to the presidential elections.

I picked up the meme, with a bit of a different focus (her blog is mostly about her Christian faith).

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ok, its clear, the democrats have decided that they do indeed owe the nomination to Obama...he has run a good campaign & the handwriting is on the wall for the Democrats.

but, this will leave us a choice between four more years of Bush, but with a candidate, McCain, that is a decent sort of guy, and experienced, as opposed to Obama, who is clearly having to dance off the ropes repeatedly with speeches overshadowing his odd aquaintances.

this seems to leave a lot of people disinfranchised, like me, I want experience, a tough skin borne of battle in the trenches as well as some liberal social policies and moderate fiscal policies.

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In the Democratic primary, Barack Obama currently has one State to his credit and a second place finishing in New Hampshire, giving him a total of 25 delegates.  Hillary Clinton has won one State and she came in third place in Iowa, giving her a total of 24 delegates.  John Edwards came in second in Iowa and in third place in New Hampshire, giving him a total of 17 delegates.  As far as actual votes won, between Obama and Edwards, Obama is way ahead.

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Since the days of Reagan, America has been chasing a Theory.

Since the Clinton era, and the rise of NAFTA and Global Free Trade, our "Corporate Leaders" have been conducting an unprecedented Social Experiment.

The Experiment: Economic Darwinism

The Test Subjects in this Experiment: none other than American Workers and our "more competitive" counterparts, overseas.

Supply-siders have argued that Economic Growth comes from empowering Corporate Interests to become "More Productive", by whatever means necessary. Be it "Tax-Give-aways to the Wealthy", or "Job-Give-aways to Poor Foreigners", well that's just fine with them, long is it results in Corporate Growth.

Supply-siders are happy to trade away American Dignity for the sake of short-term Profits: "American Workers just need some retraining. They just need to apply themselves."

"We just need to learn to Adapt" ... (to Global Markets?)


That's the Theory, that's the Spin.  What are the Results of this on-going plan to outsource the American Dream?

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Responding to my previous diary, in which I do my best to encourage Clinton supporters to buck up, the MyDD community's most esteemed Clinton supporter, georgep, writes:

I believe [Edwards] does indeed inflict damage to the Democratic brand at this point.  I mean, would  a true Democrat in their right mind state that if voters select the frontrunner for the nomination, they would just trade a Republican corruption machine for a Democratic corruption machine without realizing that, given the likely outcome, there will be damage to the brand?

The rhetorical flourish that Edwards must not be "in his right mind" should be familiar to political junkies.  Can anyone name one maverick candidate, in either party, ever, who was not commonly dismissed as a nut by some of the other candidates' partisans?  (Even if history's not your thing, you gotta at least remember 2004's most famous maverick.)  Edwards is championing reform on this issue, and that's one of the distinctions between him and the frontrunner.  So he's not bashful about asserting that, among his competitors in this primary, she may not be the most likely agent for reforming the system:

EDWARDS: She thinks it's fine to continue taking lobbyists money, she thinks it's fine to be the biggest recipient of health insurance money---health industry money, defense money, etc. - and she says she will be the agent of change. Well I just don't think that's gonna happen. And I think if America believes that the system is broken - I believe it deeply - I think it's beyond broken, I think it's corrupt, I think corruption has crept into the system, and that corruption needs to be weeded out.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So do you think Sen. Clinton is corrupt?

EDWARDS: No. I think she operates within a corrupt system and defends it. And I think what happens is - and by the way I said this in the debate and I stand by it: I don't mean to sound holier-than-thou. I myself have turned my head, when I shouldn't have. And it's not OK. And it's costing America.

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