“Who Is The People Party Candidate in 2008?”
David Sirota
CAMPAIGN THEMES
To date, it’s fair to say Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s campaigns have been about themselves. Whether that’s their own fault, a deliberate strategy or a media distortion is not important - the fact is, neither of these candidates has made any headway in staking out themes any more coherent than fuzzy poll-tested rhetoric like “leadership” or “hope,” textbook rhetoric………..
Edwards, by contrast, has been extremely disciplined in making economic class issues the central focus of his race (he has also taken a strong, consistent stand on the war first by apologizing for his initial vote, and then unequivocally supporting aggressive efforts to end it). Whether he was kicking off his campaign in hurricane-battered New Orleans or using his clout to help union drives, he has worked very hard to shine a light on the “two Americas” crisis that has, unfortunately, been aided and abetted by the Wall Street-Clinton administration pact which still dominates the Democratic Party establishment in Washington, D.C. Edwards among the three is the only one who has shown a commitment to taking stands on the core economic issues that Wall Street would rather no Democratic candidates even talk about. On “free” trade and the ability of K Street lobbyists to buy off politicians, for instance, he’s been a populist champion since way back in 2004.
......He has even called for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement - an issue Bloomberg News shows that Hillary Clinton can’t even talk about coherently, and an issue which, as I saw in my 2006 interview with him, Barack Obama desperately tries to dance around (not surprising, considering his top policy aide was the top policy aide to NAFTA proponent Bob Rubin).
CAMPAIGN TEAMS
It’s no secret that Clinton and Obama have opted to surround themselves with Wall Street and Washington insiders, with something of a competition going on between the two camps over how much corporate backing they can generate….....
Edwards, like every candidate in our current pay-to-play system, is no saint - there’s little doubt he’s raised Wall Street cash, but there’s also little doubt that he’s surrounded himself with people who have focused on working class issues. His campaign, for instance, is run by former Rep. David Bonior (D-MI), one of the great economic populists of the last two decades. Similarly, he has brought on high-level people from populist organizations like Demos and the Working Families Party.
CAMPAIGN ENEMIES
Figuring out who DOESN’T like a candidate is probably the best way to figure out what that candidate is really all about, and candidates who don’t have ideological enemies are suspect, to say the least. If you don’t have enemies, you aren’t doing anything.
So who are the candidates’ ideological opponents? Clinton used to be hated by the health industry - that is, until she started apologizing for ever pushing universal health care and then became the U.S. Senate’s number 2 recipient of health industry cash. Meanwhile, one of Clinton’s repetitive talking points is how she’s forged close friendships with fringe-right-wing Republicans in the Senate, and she’s been a helpful ally to pro-war neoconservatives on an array of Pentagon budget and Iraq War issues. Frankly, other than Republican partisans, Clinton doesn’t seem to have many ideological enemies.
Same thing for Obama, and not just because he has a magnetic personality. Though he was a community organizer, Obama’s Senate M.O. has been to avoid confrontation at all costs - and in my interview with him, he insinuated that such a posture is a deliberate goal.
Edwards, by contrast, has real ideological enemies - not a surprise considering that before entering politics, his entire career was based on challenging power. Right-wingers can belittle trial lawyers, but at their core, trial lawyers challenge entrenched and often corrupt power for a living - and that has created real adversaries for Edwards.
As Inc. Magazine reported, corporate lobbyists had a rare public temper tantrum when Edwards was put on the Democratic ticket in 2004. While Clinton and Obama fire up the cash vacuum on K Street, Edwards is persona non grata there, thanks to his refusal to take lobbyist or PAC money, his promise to crack down in a serious way on lobbyists if elected, his populist economic stances, and his unwillingness to kiss the corporate ring. “Edwards has little discernible support downtown,” the Hill wrote, referring to K Street. “And one source close to the Edwards campaign claimed that it is not working to change that.”
