Edwards scores in debate

[surfermaw]

Edwards scores in debate
Going on offense makes this his best showing
SCOT LEHIGH
Boston Globe

Tuesday night's Rock the Vote debate quickly became a rock the front-runner forum thanks to John Edwards' deft offense and Howard Dean's dug-in defensiveness.

The exchange that stole the youth-oriented show started when a young African American man, offended by the former Vermont governor's comment that he hoped to get the votes of Southerners who had the Confederate flag in their pickup trucks, asked Dean about his sensitivity on racial issues.

Dean, declining to express any regret for his remark, said he was trying to bring working-class white Southerners back to the Democratic Party.

The Rev. Al Sharpton quickly demanded that Dean apologize. Now, the idea of Sharpton lecturing others about racial insensitivity is a bad joke. After all, isn't the country still waiting for the good reverend's apology for his demagogic conduct in the Tawana Brawley affair?
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/7203499.htm








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[chimpymustgo]

1. Edwards has consistently been among the best in the debates.

Every one - even when he gets less time than other candidates. His knowlege, warmth, and charisma are only matched by Clark (speaking of great tickets!).

[surfermaw]

2. just this morning I was thinking Clark/Edwards.

People who would understand the south,and it might take the two of them to bring them in....WE do have to have part of the south.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. I still can't believe mule head Dean wouldn't apologize to that young man

what a stubborn, egotistical man.

[DrFunkenstein]

7. And He Never Answered His Question

What will he do for Blacks in America? He said what he would do for poor whites, but that's as far as he got. It's called a tin ear.

[a_lil_wall_fly]

13. Tin ear....lol

No ear is better

[9119495]

4. I love Edwards but

the last thing we need up here is some southerner comin' up here and tellin us whats good for us.

Didn't he essentially say that only candidates from a region may speak for a region? Doesn't that doom us to more and more sectionalism?

So yes, he won the debate, but he used the "you outsiders don't understand us Southerners" line. Ugh!

[JohnKleeb]

5. do you outsiders understand us southerners?

lol do you. I hardly know a soul with a confederate flag. Hes a good man, I really do like Edwards. Keep in mind I am in Northern Va too but in my life so far, Ive seen more confederate flags in not the south but rural PA and MD.

[Meshuga]

10. I see the flag here in MD...

I saw one in a rich neighborhood yesterday!

[JohnKleeb]

17. weird

In my experience Ive seen it more in MD. I saw it in an old neighborhood a long time ago though.

[tedoll78]

6. I'm a born-and-bred Southerner..

and I absolutely HATED that line from Edwards. Freedom of speech is NOT a function of where one comes from. Perhaps the North could indeed teach us a thing or two about how to run a state properly, especially when considering the fact that we're CONSISTENTLY #'s 45 through 50 on state rankings on education, insurance, child health, environmental regulation, etc. Because of that one arrogant line, Edwards has dropped from #4 with me to #9.. even behind Kucinich.

[AP]

8. One of the things holding the south back

is that former slaves never got compensated for the labour they put into building up southern industry after the civil war. What that did was create a huge underclass which forced the wage rate down and created an irrational economy. If the south had more economic competitiveness after the civil war, created by the transfer of wealth from the artificial power monopoly of white landowners to a new black middle class who could have built up small business with any financial compensation or could have built up competitive farms, than the whole economy would have moved forward faster than it had.

By waiting 100 years to even begin to address the economic realities, the south relegated itself to those 45-50 spots on the measures you cite.

It's by addressing race, as Edwards wants to do, and by shifting more wealth to the middle class, black and white, as Edwards's platoform revolves around, that the south will become more competitive, and will no longer be held back by irrational economic realities.

It's funny that Edwards slipped from 4 to 9 by talking about the exact thing that will solve the problems you cite the fastes.

[tedoll78]

9. I like that he talked about the problems..

but his tone disgusted me in terms of personal style.

[surfermaw]

11. Little you know

The rich land owners lost their assets in slaves, land was valued very low...after the Civil War, white and blacks were in the same boats...speaking from some of the old rebels Wills.

[sandnsea]

14. Black Codes

White people have never had it as hard as black people in this country. I don't know why white people can't accept that one simple fact.

"In Mississippi, one feature of the Black Codes provided for the awarding of Black children to Whites as apprentices, in effect reducing them to slaves. Even worse, their former slave owners would have first preference for the child (Wharton, 1965, p. 84). Vagrancy laws were also used to secure unfree labor for the former slave masters. The Mississippi law stipulated that all Black males over the age of eighteen without employment would be deemed "vagrants" and subject to imprisonment and fines. This law also covered those Whites who associated with African Americans. Payment of the fines would give the payer the right to the vagrant's labor. The emergence of the convict-lease system trapped Black males into coerced labor and prisons. Mortality rates were high as the Black males so abused faced icy temperatures, non-existence medical care, random beatings, poor nutrition, utter demoralization, and concentration camp-like housing."

http://www.pressroom.com/~afrimale/stbm96.htm

[a_lil_wall_fly]

15. Bravo AP

You keep amazing me on the absoluteness of the clarity of your statement.

[genius]

12. Shartpon doesn't owe anyone an apology for the Tawana Brawley

incident. Any concerned individual would have acted the same way. The problem is a lot of Democrats have forgotten how to care about others.

[a_lil_wall_fly]

16. True...

Rev. Sharpton stated at the nice event on Tuesday: He was stabbed for what he believes in.

To me that shows me devotion to an idealogy.

Kerry, thou I'm not a big fan of his; attacked the government after getting discharged from the service from his not so pleasant term of service in Vietnam. He was not AWOL or skiing.

To me that shows me that ability to admitting a wrong action by doing the right thing.