Why Edwards must win: "My daughter was in Iraq for one year."

JDPriestly

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon Jan-21-08 01:25 PM
Original message

Why Edwards must win: "My daughter was in Iraq for one year."

I live in a lower middle class neighborhood in Los Angeles. Most of the houses are single family bungalows built in the 1920s and 1930s. This is the real L.A. Many, if not the majority, of the residents were born out of the U.S. We live together in a cacophony of languages, musics, smells, with Spanish predominating. The police say that there is gang activity here. There warnings are enough to cause people to lock their gates and doors and, in some cases, keep vicious dogs in their front yards.

I am walking my precinct for Edwards. Yesterday, I knocked on a door, and a man opened it a crack. When I told him my name and that I was a volunteer for Edwards, he opened the door widely and stepped outside to talk. Apologizing for his English, he blurted out: "My daughter was in Iraq for one year." Smiling resolutely, mustering up courage, he calmly told me "I want the war to end now." I told him I was sorry his daughter had to go to Iraq, and I assured him: John Edwards is your candidate. He promises to take the combat troops out within his first year in office. I gave him some papers on Edwards' positions, and he said he would have his son read them to him. He was delighted to hear that Edwards was speaking to his issue.

Regardless of how he voted in the past or why, Edwards was the first of the remaining top three candidates to pledge to take the combat troops out of Iraq within his first year in office. Hillary and Obama have followed Edwards' lead on the War. The Republicans will soon join. So, although the sincerity, the immediacy of my neighbor's concern and Edwards' response to it moved me deeply, I agree that Edwards' policy on Iraq, while the best, would not be enough by itself to cause a DUer who supports another candidate to switch to Edwards. But Edwards is not just leading on this one issue. Rather, he is leading on the largest issues: formulating policy based on moral courage rather than on political reckoning.

I know that I will hear from dozens of Obamers and Hillaryites about how they can't trust Edwards because of this or that vote or votes in the Senate. But we are living now. And now, in this present, regardless of the candidates' votes in the past, Edwards is the leader. He is the only candidate who will lead the people in the struggle against the corporate domination of our democracy. He is leading in his stance on the war. He is leading on health care. He is leading with his positions on rural American and poverty. And he is leading on the economic issues. In fact, he is the only candidate who is proposing a truly effective economic plan that will insure a secure and environmentally healthy future for America.

That is why I am sticking with John Edwards. That is why I will not give up. Forget race. Forget gender. Edwards is the leader. He is our strongest candidate. This is our last chance, DU. Edwards can win. Hillary and Obama cannot. THey are not leaders. Hillary listens to corporate advisers. Obama is inexperienced. Edwards is the candidate for 2008.