Reply #20: I'll whole heartily support him if he is our nominee but he's always been low on my list

[seasat]

While I believe Road to Damascus type conversions are possible, I want to see some concrete action to back up their words before I believe their conversion.

Edwards has the lowest ACLU and League of Conservation Voter ratings of all our candidates. He supported a Department of Domestic Intelligence in his 2004 campaign. He stated that we need to put "One nation under God" back in the pledge during his DLC speech. He co-sponsored the IWR and wrote an oped so heavily in support of it that the State Dept put it on their website. He voted against raising CAFE standards for light trucks and SUVs. He voted for mountain top removal coal mining. He voted for the Yucca Mountain repository after much scientific evidence had come out on why it was a dangerous site. He helped usher through the repeal of the Glass-Stegelmann act that allowed banks to form mega-financial corporations like CitiCorp. Those are just several of the many votes and positions he had that are polar opposite to his current positions. If he had stayed in the Senate and voted his current positions, then I might have more faith in him.

He is the least experienced of the candidates in his public service. He only served one term and was absent almost 42% of the time his last two years. His only foreign policy experience is serving on a study group about Russia for the Council on Foreign Relations after he got out of the Senate.

He hasn't run a great campaign. He accepted public financing which will hamper him in the run up to the convention. He campaigned for years in Iowa and lost. He didn't start advertising heavily until late in the campaign. His populist message hasn't resonated with the majority of voters, despite evidence that voters are more open to it this year.

Even liberal party officials like Feingold have rejected endorsing him. That shows me that either they don't trust him or he doesn't work well within the party. I seriously doubt that it's his populist message. I want a candidate that can move our agenda through congress. His lack of experience and party support doesn't bode well for him being able to do that.

While I agree with his policies more than Obama or Clinton, I have trouble believing that he has the ability to follow through with them if elected.