Dear John,
I was going to wait until the tears abated, but perhaps this is a post, better written with a saline chaser….
You cared, you really cared. You cared about the poor, the uninsured, the laborer trying to make a living in this caricature of the USA which this administration has created. Where the American Dream has become the American Nightmare. Where health-care has gone from being a right to a privilege. Where the middle-class is disappearing at a rapid rate.
You are the candidate who raised the campaign bar from personal attacks to issue discussion.
You had no money to work with, but you had supporters because your refusal to accept corporate PAC money made you a favorite among the progressives who saw the difference and appreciated your integrity. But there weren’t enough of us to make up the difference. The movement and the organization were too powerful and your whistle-stop type campaign couldn’t compete.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson from the Huff Post writes:
Edwards became the first Democratic presidential candidate to go where no other Dem or certainly Republican candidate has gone in four decades and talked up poverty disgrace, universal health and economic democracy. He bucked history, negative public and political attitudes, and of course ridicule for championing these populist causes. But here’s the deal. Edwards may be out of the race but his message and the reason for that message won’t disappear like Houdini. Obama and Clinton will continue to pilfer and repackage parts of his message, while of course giving no credit to the messenger.
No matter. Edwards did himself, us and the nation proud when he boldly stepped up and tried to shame the shot callers into facing up to their sorry and disgraceful neglect of millions of poor and uninsured Americans. We owe Edwards a profound debt of gratitude for that. Here’s a guess. Edwards won’t and shouldn’t go quietly into the night. We still desperately need his voice and we should do everything we can to make sure that his voice continues to be heard.
John, you have my eternal thanks for who you are and what you did. You are truly the better angel of America.
The better angel. John, you continue to sparkle.
(h/t to Army42: Dear John, it’s not you, it’s us.)
True. But I think Edwards droppin out may have one of thre outcomes. hook, line and sinker”.
Ladkiddo,
That was perfect. You, throughout the entire Primary process, continued to bring us the best and the brightest John Edwards is. For that, know that I can tell how badly this hurts, and somehow, I just know, that John knows how hard you worked and how incredibly, and with the same level of dignity of Edwards himself, delivered the message.
I know it probably doesn’t mean much now, but Edwards was always my second choice, and not a distant second. I believe we have not seen the last of John Edwards.
Thanks Ladkiddo, from the bottom of my democratic heart - you done the man good.
Brilliant letter. Do mail it to him. I thought it was interesting he chose the word “suspended” when stepping aside.
“Why he had to go, I don’t know he wouldn’t say…”
Suspended has to do with his ability to continue to collect matching funds - so checks that haven’t been cashed yet - can receive matching funds.
You’re giving me the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ routine. I invented ‘it’s not you, it’s me’. Nobody tells me it’s not them, it’s me. If it’s anybody, it’s me!
Seinfeld?
George Castanza
If we lived in a world without tears
How would bruises find
The face to lie upon
How would scars find skin
To etch themselves into
How would broken find the bones
If we lived in a world without tears
How would heartbeats
Know when to stop
How would blood know
Which body to flow outside of
How would bullets find the guns
If we lived in a wold without tears
How would misery know
Which back door to walk through
How would trouble know
Which mind to live inside of
How would sorrow find a home
– Lucinda Williams
Rotten-
A new face? I’m not sure where to go with this, except to say, “Thank you”.