And that’s why the “creative class” [cough] has abandoned my friend with the bleeding feet to her fate. Go die, working people! But Elizabeth Edwards has a conscience, and she says Hillary’s plan is the best:

Edwards — who recently began work as a senior fellow at the liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress — said she believed Clinton’s health care plan was more inclusive than that of the Illinois senator.

“You need that universality in order to get the cost savings … I just have more confidence in Sen. Clinton’s policy than Sen. Obama’s on this particular issue,” [Elizabeth Edwards] said.

I can’t imagine why. Hey, Obama’s got more money than God, so if he’s confident in his fake policy, why isn’t he flooding PA with more Harry & Louise ads, and demagoguing his plan, as usual?  Read more 

[Welcome, Digby readers!]

Nothing became John Edward’s campaign for the Presidency more than the manner of his leaving it.

As noted by Lambert, that was some damn speech.

Let me note, in response to some of the comments in that thread, I don’t think his talk of “one America” was any kind of sop to Obama.

More likely it was meant to make clear that one of his central campaign themes, the fight for economic justice, is a unifying one for all liberal/progressives, (sorry, but I refuse to stop calling myself a liberal), the middle class, the working class, the working poor, and those too poor and marginalized to find employment, as well as being a reference to Michael Harrington’s formulation of “the other America,” which JFK made part of his campaign in 1960, especially in those visits to West Virginia, where grinding poverty was on such conspicuous display.

It wasn’t just the speech, though, the theatrics were perfect in their multiple meanings - NOLA, the Ninth Ward, Habitat For Humanity, Elizabeth at his side, surrounded by family and friends, new ones and old ones, and the meaningful symbolism of their commitment as a family, right after the speech, to join in with a community dedicated to raising up housing out of the watery ruins of New Orleans, a gesture that said, yes a candidacy was ending but not the movement whose values and ideas that candidacy was meant to embody.

All that said, and swallowing the lump in my throat, what are we to make of Edwards’ campaign and its failure to get sufficient traction to take him through Super Tuesday; what can we learn from its strengths and its weaknesses, what worked, what didn’t, and why?  Read more 

Just got in from an Edwards fundraiser, and I’m pretty tired; it was a long drive there and back for me after an early morning. But I thought I’d share a few thoughts. She was kind enough to speak with me briefly, and to the group of supporters as a whole at some length. Bottom line: Elizabeth is the Real Deal, a human being with a heart, someone who is Doing It because she cares about the future, and not because there is gain in it for her.  Read more 

I can’t imagine… Well, I have pity for the poor bastard who was holding up the sign saying “Marry me, Ann.” Especially if he ever gets his wish.  Read more 

And no one even set her up.

No, she managed to punk herself. She’s always punking herself. You could say her entire oeuvre is one long exercise in self-punking. What else could you call a nutty revisionist history that seeks to reassure us the internment of Japanese Americans in WW2 was justified, no need for apologies, because “Japs” are “Japs” and even the American ones were a threat, and why are we letting a politically correct version of history keep us from learning the right lesson from that proud moment in our history, so we can apply it to Muslim Americans today?

Of course no one takes that book seriously, except her rightwing brethren, which doesn’t stop Malkin from getting astonishing amounts of media attention.

The punking I have in mind is minor in comparison, but it’s contemporary with the delight she took in holding this blog up to derision, along with other liberal blogs, for getting “punked,“ her word, by a deliberately faked story, complete with photoshopping, and coordination between three different websites.

This little story probably says less about Malkin and more about the dismal state of our free press, from whence she got it, pretty much copying it into her blog, as she so often does, and then running with it by way of a few of her signature flourishes.

Here’s the gist:  Read more 

Elizabeth Edwards

and Kay Yow

are both battling recurrences of breast cancer.  Read more 

Just watched the Edwards’ presser.  Read more 

I’m sure you all know the Edwards will be having a joint new conference, called for noon, EST, and that whatever the announcement is to be, it follows on Elizabeth’s visit to her doctor, and that given the fact of her discovery that she had breast cancer soon after the 2004 election, that fears there has been a reoccurance are natural, as are speculations that Edwards may be withdrawing from the Presidential race.  Read more