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First, the issue was about a mortgage fund foreclosing on properties, not homeowners throwing out their tenants.
Second, my mother owns two rentals in Gulfport, which was devastated by the same hurricane, even though people have forgotten that. Both renters have had trouble paying, and to make matters more interesting, with the scarcity of houses in the region, rents have gone up dramatically, so she could throw them out and make a lot more money. And she's struggling as it is, so the money would come in a lot more handy for her than the extra couple of hundred K that Edwards was getting off his deal. She has covered their shortfalls, and worked with them, rather than trying to evict them and cash in. That's my inheritance she's spending, too, so this isn't idle chatter for me, it's personal. And I agree with everything she's doing. That's the way to do it with integrity.
Third, the real issue is that Edwards has criticized sub-prime lenders in the past as exploiting the poor, and yet he was invested and doing work for a hedge fund that was doing the same thing. So the question becomes, was he only lying about what he believed when he defended the poor and criticized sub-prime lenders for exploiting them, in which case he's lying about his concern for the poor, or does he really believe sub-prime lenders aren't really that bad, in which case he was attacking decent people for his own political gain? Or does he really believe sub-prime lenders are scum, in which case he believes he's scum, too?
Now, normally I'd say "Let's hear the whole story, let's see his side, maybe he didn't know, maybe it's not as bad as it looks." And, okay, I will say all of that. But this just fits in too strongly with a pattern I've seen lately. He criticizes Clinton for taking lobbyist money, when he does, too, in more secretive ways. He criticizes Obama for wanting to talk to lobbyists, when clearly he will, too. He attacks Clinton for voting for the IWR, when he did, too, and even though a lot of people don't understand why that vote wasn't a vote for war, Edwards does understand. Which means he's stabbing people in the back, for political gain. He told Kerry a secret about his son that he swore he'd never told anyone before, even though he'd told Kerry the same story the year before. And now he's taking money--both for his personal gain and for his political campaign, since this hedge fund and it's members have reportedly been donating heavily to the campaign--from a type of lender he has criticized, who is foreclosing on homes in the most abused part of the nation right now.
That just doesn't like Democratic to me. That doesn't look presidential. He's starting to look awfully slick. I'm southern, so I've heard southern accents most of my life, and I can tell when a southerner sounds disingenuous, or too smooth. Edwards sounds like that too often. This just fits in with that pattern.
That's why it's a big deal. The more people think on it, the bigger it will seem. Maybe he can convince me, convince everyone, that he was honorable here. I want to like him. I'm just having a bit of trouble doing so, lately. He needs to help me out in that regard. Pulling his money out of the fund helps. So does his pledge to help people hurt by the fund. But I want to know he's not just doing this because he got caught at something. I don't know all the details of it. So he needs to explain them.
Those are my thoughts. They don't have to be anyone else's. But all of my family is from New Orleans, and I grew up in Mississippi, so this is personal to me. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
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