Obama vs Edwards - Not an equal choice

From DailyKos Post

Obama vs. Edwards, not an equal choice...
by James Kroeger
Wed Jan 09,
2008 at 05:42:28 AM PST

A number of Obama supporters have been appealing
to Edwards supporters to switch their support to Obama to ensure that a
"Progressive Change" candidate gets elected instead of Hillary. They
implicitly suggest that Edwards supporters will get everything they want if
Obama ends up being elected instead of Edwards. These Obama fans
apparently do not realize that Barack Obama and John Edwards are not black and
white versions of the same thing. Obama feels all the right sentiments and
speaks about them eloquently, but his political instincts are woefully
inadequate for the task at hand. I like Barack Obama and would probably
vote for him in any other year based on his pure likability, alone. But I
cannot support him as long as John Edwards is in the race. Edwards
represents real hope to me, because he sees clearly how we Democrats must
approach our political battles with the Republicans and their Corporate
sponsors.

James Kroeger's
diary :: ::

Edwards understands that the only time the
Republican/Corporate alliance will even begin to consider compromise and
concessions is if/when they begin to fear that they are losing the battle.
That is when you become open to compromise, not sooner. The single most
important reason why Bill & Hilliary failed to achieve significant health
care reform is because they offered a compromise solution up front to the
opposition. The opposition, of course, shrilly attacked this noble attempt
at 'reasonable compromise' as SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and defeated the Clinton
attempt utterly! Thus far, Barack Obama has shown me that he plans to rely
on nothing more than his eloquence to prevail against the Republican/Corporat
firestorm that awaits us next year.

Twice, now, the media has
mis-predicted and mis-characterized the contest. They are still firmly
wedded to the paradigm that expects one candidate to turn a few early victories
into a runaway victory march. They still do not recognize the possibility
that both parties may go into their conventions without having the nomination
all wrapped up in advance. Edwards does not need to improve his numbers
that much in order to achieve a rough 3-way split in the delegates. If
something unpredicted happens in the next several weeks that gives him a boost
at the expense of both BO and HC, then he will have an equal shot at
victory.

In the meantime, he is pushing both Obama and Clinton to the
left, and forcing them to talk about the battle we face with the Republican
Party in the near future. He is giving voice to a lot of people---like
me---who want to see the Democratic Party actually win some of our future
battles with the Republicans. There is no more important discussion that
Democrats need to be focusing on in this election year than how we are going to
bring about the change we desire in 2009.

We need a lawyer, people, to
speak for us. One who will put relentless moral pressure on the
Republican/Corporate alliance to give up their resistance and join the lower 2/3
of the citizenry in a new identity of compassion and social justice. That
is how you 'bring people together' around truly moral aspirations. You
don't bring people together by simply caving in when the opposition shows it
isn't ready to compromise. I think John Edwards will actually be able to
give a Democratic Congress a backbone if he gets in the White
House.

Thank you Senator Edwards for staying in the race and giving us
that hope.