As a plaintiff attorney John Edwards fought against corporate malfeasance

[burythehatchet]

and that is exactly what he is doing now. Maybe he should have never gone to the senate and instead pursued a governorship, but what he is now is what he has always been, a fighter for equal treatment under the law.

When Elizabeth Edwards was on Tweety he made the most asanine statement regarding the medical malpratice debate that I have ever heard, he said something like "but Doctors are the good guys". This is absolutely an irrelevant statement considering that there are many horrible physicians who should not be allowed to practice but continue to do so because of the protection afforded by the AMA. But that's another story.

No one in this campaign has a more consistent sense of himself and what he stands for than John Edwards.

[melody]

1. well said n/t

[aquart]

2. Good to remember. I'm having some problems with John just now.

[Triana]

3. Elizabeth responded that the doctors (generally) are the good guys but...

...it's the insurance companies that are the main problem.

[Occam Bandage]

6. A fair statement. With only a few exceptions, doctors are the good guys.

And good people will make mistakes. After a 20-hour shift, a doctor's reaction time and cognitive abilities are on par with those of a person who is legally drunk.

[burythehatchet]

12. On this point you do not what you are talking about.

Trust me on this one.

[Occam Bandage]

16. Engaged to a surgeon. Figure is from recent JAMA. Your move.

I'm sick of people blaming doctors for malpractice. Malpractice is a systematic problem, not a plague of evil/neglectful doctors.

[burythehatchet]

17. Been an owner, manager and director of medical malpractice insurance companies for

20 years. Bt I'm sure hubby's got it figured out.

[Occam Bandage]

18. Wife. Now tell me what I said was wrong.

Are surgeons actually at their best on the 20th hour? Are the studies incorrect?

You said in another post, "they are due to poor process management, poor communications, cost cutting, and then there is the occasional screw up by the doctor." Sounds to me like you agree that they're systematic issues and not caused by a rash of bad doctors.

[burythehatchet]

20. Your statistic is completely unrelated to the issue.

Dude, I sit and read the medical records of cases that have gone wrong. Fatigue is a factor, there are many more, including incompetence. 195,000 people die each year from medical errors according to one report, its not all because of fatigue.

[Occam Bandage]

22. Did I claim it was "all because of fatigue?" No. I merely indicated that it was an issue.

Incompetence is also an issue, but even still, large amounts of what appear to be "incompetence" are actually, again, systematic problems. And don't try to argue that, because you yourself said it in a different post as well. I haven't seen anything you've said that I disagree with, and I haven't seen anything I've written that you've yet disagreed with. You seem to have a very hostile way of agreeing with people.

[burythehatchet]

9. There is some thruth to that. In my 20 years of

managing malpractice claims, the overwhelming majority are certainly not because of insurance companies, they are due to poor process management, poor communications, cost cutting, and then there is the occasional screw up by the doctor.

By the way, in my estimation, 9 out of 10 medical malpractice incidents never turn into claims.

[Occam Bandage]

4. And I'm sure he did so purely out of the goodness of his heart.

There was absolutely no possibility of ulterior motive. After all, once he was elected to the Senate, he fought really hard for people, right?

[stray cat]

5. Probably as pure of heart as you and I anyway

[Occam Bandage]

7. Undoubtedly.

[burythehatchet]

8. So the best you can come up with is he must have had an alterior motive.

That's encouraging. Thanks.

[Occam Bandage]

10. The best? Nah, just the most applicable to the OP. John Edwards has always been

a tireless champion of John Edwards, and very little else.

Fight for working class families? Sure, if you're willing to hand over a multimillion-dollar hunk of the settlement. Getting elected in a Southern state? He's your centrist, blue-dog candidate. War's popular? He'll co-sponsor it! Bush wants to strip some civil liberties? Sure, why not? Kerry says he can be VP, so long as he smiles and doesn't say much at all? Well, shucks, that sounds great. People having questions on the war? Time to say you have questions about the handling of the war. Wouldn't want to push it, though. Bush steals Ohio? Hey, don't wanna rock the boat.

A hedge fund offers you a job? Sure! They're investing heavily in predatory subprime lending? Money's good, so why not? Hey, the war's not popular any more? Guess it's time to repudiate your vote for it. Now, let's see, Obama's Mr. Fresh-Faced Charismatic Outsider, Hillary's Ms. Establishment...guess it's time for John Edwards to reinvent himself again as Mr. Ultra-Progressive Populist!

But I'm sure he was only driven by a desire to fight for people the entire time.

[burythehatchet]

11. Thanks. Do you have any similar concerns with your candidate?

i.e., are you one of those who feels his guy is spotless?

I don't care to get into vitriol tonight but I will say that it is disappointing that Edwards would be criticized for making a living and succeeding at it.

[Occam Bandage]

14. Tons. Obama was my third choice.

But Richardson quickly proved unelectable (and not in the Kucinch sense, but rather in the "oh my God he's a trainwreck on legs" sense), and Biden just dropped out.

I find Obama's habit of missing votes to be cowardly, and his anti-war stance disingenuous; I think he almost certainly would have voted for the IWR had he been in the Senate at the time.

I don't criticize Edwards for being a successful lawyer. Seriously, good for him. I don't like seeing it presented as evidence that he's a selfless "fighter," though, because it isn't.

[burythehatchet]

21. That's just it, I don't care one wit if he isn't selfless, I want him to do

exactly what he is saying he wants to do. That's why I chose him. Without money he wouldn't have been here.

[spooky3]

24. I think you're missing his point

If JRE turned his same talents and energies to represent corporations, he would have made many times more money than he made.

Ask any lawyer who is honest about where the BIG money is. It isn't in taking the cases of individual plaintiffs versus corporate defendants.

Therefore, there had to be a reason why he chose the riskier strategy and made it work.

[AzDar]

13. He's exactly the person we need to (attempt) to fix Bushie's mess.

This Country NEEDS John Edwards!

[frazzled]

15. But what has he done to fight the INSTITUTION of corporate greed and malfeasance?

Individual court cases are not the issue here. I am asking about what he did, legislatively, to fight corporate greed and malfeasance? The insitution of corporate greed and malfeasance.

(Citing court cases is a little bit like saying, back in the 1950s, that you had some black friends while doing nothing to oppose the institutions of racism.)

I want to know what he has done besides rhetoric?

I really want to know why, if he is so opposed to corporate malfeasance and greed, he has not taken the minimal stand even of removing his $16 million (or whatever insane amount it is) from the Fortress hedge fund .... just even as a symbolic move to protest their tax-evasion in the Cayman Islands and their role in the subprime mess? This would be an easy step for him, to put his money where his mouth is, yet I am not aware that he has removed one penny from this fund.

Just today, in the Business section of the NY Times, there was an article about the obscene compensations that hedge-fund managers received this year (we're talking billions for individuals, not millions). Why has Mr. Edwards not removed his funds from such a hedge fund in protest of such practices?

Why has he not returned the $500,000 he earned while working for Fortress? He claims not to have known they were heavily investing in subprime investments during the time he was there, which means he probably did not take the time to even look at their investments, since it was a hefty portion of their holdings. Which means he didn't earn whatever they were paying him. Which means, as an act of good faith he should return it. (It's a drop in the bucket for him anyway).

I truly am befuddled why I can't, myself, point to a single real thing John Edwards has done that would lead me to believe that he could deal with this real problem of corporate greed and malfeasance. Standing in court or on the soapbox aren't enough for me. I need to see action, and I haven't.

[burythehatchet]

19. A personal injury lawsuit is an attempt to make an injured person whole.

The secondary effect of the process is to force institutions to change the behavior that causes injury.

In the medical field, for example, staffing rations would be at a certain level without the threat of accountability for inadequate care. With that threat, along with regulations, institutions are forced to behave.

[frazzled]

23. Product liabilitly is only one issue

And there are thousands upon thousands of personal injury lawyers, like Edwards, who work on such cases.

I am asking about issues like offshore tax structure for corporations, like CEO compensation, like accounting procedures ... all the things that lie BEHIND corporations' abilities to behave badly and to fail to contribute to the American economy in an equitable way.

I am asking for legislative cures, not jury awards. I fully understand the ramifications of large damage awards. But those have done nothing to stop corporate malfeasance on the wider scale.

I still await answers about what Edwards has ever done beyond his well-compensated courtroom forays. I doubt I will receive anything of substance.

[burythehatchet]

25. You and I are wanting the same thing. My belief is that

as a trial lawyer John was able to pursue one path, and as president he will have the power to change the items you mention, which, by the way, are so critical to our economic health.

[burythehatchet]

26. PREACH BROTHER, PREACH