Thank your for your comment, Gregor. I am puzzled by why such a short, hateful and unsubstantial post would be recommended when most posts are well thought out or elevating in some way. I'm disappointed that this would get play.

I signed on for the first time in my life to work for a political campaign having been depressed and saddened by the campaign of 1968. I wish I had worked for the great Jesse Jackson campaign of 1988 where he won 11 primaries and scared the crap out of the DLC corporate wing of the Democratic Party. I have heard story after story of how the poor whites of Appalachian hugged him when he showed up there. First time since RFK that a candidate had come there. The next time would be John Edwards last year.

I signed on in 2003 when I heard an obscure Southern senator tell an audience that we had to "reward work over wealth". That resonated with me. It filled me with hope that we could turn away from the gospel of greed and the takeover of our America by the corporations.

I read everything I could about this guy. I read that he was awesome in a courtroom as he defended victims like Valerie Lackey whose intestines were sucked down a pool drain. Lawyers who opposed him said, "you didn't see him coming until it was too late." The judge of the Lackey case said that he had never in his 25 years on the bench seen such a summation. Elizabeth said that his questioning of Judge Pickering was "civil, thorough, and unrelenting."

We have seen civil politicians and smart thorough ones occasionally, but it was the unrelenting part that grabbed me. He wouldn't be pushed around. I was proud of the Edwards campaign in Des Moines in 2004. If we had one more week, we would have won. (I later talked to an MSNBC reporter that corrected me and said, "If you had 3 more days, you would have won."

He meant it about solving poverty. He had picked up the mantle of Jesse and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Silly me for mentioning these men who also had some women problems).
Really smart people know that to solve basic problems of this planet, one must first address economic injustice. From that will come solutions to the environment, food supplies, war and peace.

If it weren't for John, issues of labor, health care and corporate corruption would have gotten little attention by the top two candidates. So I will always be grateful that we pushed the DLC candidates to the center on these important issues.
If John were President, the Labor Secretary would be his closest adviser like Frances Perkins was for FDR. Labor would finally take its rightful place at the head of the table.

But he was not controllable enough to get the nomination. Like Howard Dean, he didn't want to be a front man.

I signed on for a cause bigger than the man. I continue to speak out for workers who are 99% of us. I hope we can find someone of his simple eloquence who cares about regular people.

Sorry I can't get all Puritan about this even though I once was betrayed in a similar way. But be my guest to write posts that try to sound cool, but don't even understand that "douche bag" is a stupid term that we retired long ago from smart conversation.