No, not the one who speaks to dead people, the one who ran with John Kerry in '04. (Yeah, OK, it could be argued that he speaks to dead people, too.) I'm real glad to he's poised to announce his candidacy again. The fact that he's going to do it in New Orleans plays well to his theme of Two Americas, though nothing could beat his announcing it on the Daily Show last time.
Although I'm pretty sick of the process and its participants, Edwards appeals to whatever shred of idealism I have left. Whether he's the real deal or the batteries on my bullsh*t detector have run low, he impresses me in a way that no politician in years has. The mere fact that he stands on a national stage and uses phrases like "a moral obligation to end poverty" puts him head and shoulders above his brethren, the overwhelming majority of whom have interest in neither moral obligations nor ending poverty.
I mean, look, it's not like he's Dorothy Day or anything, and I'm still cynical enough to believe that the very act of entering politics, especially at this level, involves bargains that Faust would blanch at, but he does strike me as a person with a sincere interest in improving lives other than just his own.
And, perhaps most important, he also strikes me as someone who is actually electable. I would love nothing more than for this country to elect a woman and/or a person of color (other than, say, Ann Coulter or JC Watts, for instance), but I do not believe that we've evolved to anywhere near the point where that's possible, unfortunately. Hillary's also way over the baggage limit for Air Force One, and I know enough feminists and lefties who just plain don't like her that I can't believe she'd garner enough support from the mainstream to be anything but an ambitious disaster.
Now an Edwards/Obama ticket? Too young probably, but a pretty interesting idea, if you ask me.
Which you didn't.
