Justus For All

WRAL.com

Former vice presidential nominee John Edwards declared his candidacy Thursday for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, saying the United States needs a new spirit of activism and leadership for an unstable, chaotic world.Clad in blue jeans, an open-necked shirt and with his sleeves rolled up, Edwards chose the backyard of a victim of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans’ devastated Ninth Ward for his unorthodox announcement.

“We want people in this campaign to actually take action now, not later, not after the next election,” the former North Carolina senator said, sounding as much like a recruiter as a presidential campaigner.

Edwards, 53, is calling for an increase in community service and cuts in poverty, global warming and troops in Iraq. He said he made a mistake in voting for a resolution to go to war with Iraq, but also noted that he didn’t conduct the war. He said the Bush administration’s leadership in Iraq has been a disaster and that it would be a mistake to send in more troops.

My general impression of Edwards is that he is a nice enough guy without a lot of expirience.  I think he has an outside chance of winning the election, but only if we have reletive peace in the next two years.  Should we see another terror attack on our soil I don’t think Edwards will look like a viable candidate.

Politically, Edwards stands for just about everything I oppose, protectionism, isolationism, populism and class warfare, that he does so with generally positive rather than negative rhetoric is nice, but hardly makes up for it.  That leaves asside the damage he did as a trial lawyer, winning millions for his clients (and himself) through bogus claims that ob-gyns caused cerebral palsy by failing to perform c-sections.
Edwards is an able politician, but I certainly think that the democrats can do better.