Sunday, December 23, 2007

Who's afraid of John Edwards?

There was a spate of bogs and commentary this past week linking Mike Huckabee and John Edwards because of their similar populist rhetoric. To some "populist" is a term of derision, to others, not be, it's not. Now Obama is attacking the suddenly threatening Edwards and Hillary supporters are attacking Obama, masking their Clinton connection by invoking Edwards. Could it be that Edwards who has been lurking in third place in most polls is gaining traction?

The one candidate the elites really fear is Edwards. When you read the fine print in the Obama campaign, especially about heath care, you get the impression that he really doesn't understand that real problem dogging the country is greed and that while the middle class is plummeting to the ground, the "Greed is good" crowd is still soaring - with only a few notable, sacrificial exceptions. Wall Street bonuses set a record this year, again.

The concept that the solution for America's Health crisis is through the HMO's giving-up their greedy ways through reasoning is ludicrous.

Might I suggest one fractured biblical reference to Isaiah: "When the lion and the lamb lay down together, the lion does not awake hungry." [Not original by me. Might have been coined by Jesse Jackson]

Or maybe, as one in who still believes in the sanctity of the ideals of the Declaration of Independence: "My house is a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves." [Not a paraphrase]

Come to think of it, that's the kind of language Huckabee is using and if you want to read an insightful dissection of why liberals lose, I might suggest Gary Wills: "Under God: Religion and American Politics." [Please note: NOT George Will]

The debate moment that pushed Huckabee to the forefront, in my opinion, is when he stepped in, took Giuliani off the hook, and answered the question about "Do you believe in the Bible?" by responding in words paraphrasing the Golden Rule and the parable of the Last Judgment and then brushed-off nearly everything else as too complex to discuss. It was a brilliant moment and any Democrat ought to have been able to do the same. I think the only one who could do so honestly is John Edwards.

As for the other Democrats, too many of them are represented by Hillary supporter and consumer sell-out Barney Frank. See the November 6, post that follows. Perhaps the most pernicious aspect of the Hillary campaign is her attempt to hook-up public officials with the lobbyist cartel and “share the wealth.”

There I go again, thinking like a populist.