This time I felt that Edwards really separated himself from the pack and especially from Hillary. She waffled and refused to take a definitive stance on anything, a true politician using political speak - sound important but don't really make a commitment that will offend anyone. Edwards never had that problem, he took a firm stand on everything and did not waffle at all.
First came the Iraq War, Edwards stated flat out that he would immediately start bringing the troops home as fast as the generals say it's safe to do. Hillary said she might leave some troops in to still do military ops. Hard to be more different than that. This falls in line with her vote for the war with Iran earlier today, she's republican light, not a true liberal and democrat. The pundits are making a big deal this morning of the fact that none of the top three would promise to get out of Iraq by the end of their first term. This doesn't bother me, it's actually a good idea to not commit to something you can't be certain of. I'd rather see that than have people make promises when they have no idea if they can deliver.
The second instance that stood out was on Social Security, Hillary was so vague she didn't even answer it at all but just said we have to first move towards fiscal responsibility and she would not say one thing she would do to fix it. Edwards immediately came out and said he would raise the cap on the income limit on taxes, to me the single most important issue about Social Security. He said exactly what I think, that it's ridiculous that someone who makes $50 million a year will only pay FICA tax on the first $97,000 and none at all on the rest. While someone who makes $80,000 will be taxed for his entire income. Make everyone pay the tax on ALL their income and all problems will be solved and we could probably even lower the tax rate. Edwards gave real answers even if it might not please everyone.
The pundits on MSNBC all said the same thing, especially Chris Matthews, he seemed really angry that Hillary dodged so many questions. And they all gave Edwards points for being direct and honest. On the Today Show this morning Tim Russert commented on Hillary's reluctance to take a stand on many issues.
But Kucinich had the best line of the night. He said: “You can have someone who was against the war from the beginning, and voted against it consistently ever since . . . or you can have someone taller.”
2 comments:
To be honest, I am not really happy with any of them. I probably like Edwards the most, but I don't think America is bright enough to vote for him.
I like Kucinich quite a bit but America is certainly not smart enough to vote for HIM.
I had high hopes for Obama but he's been a disappointment. I'm suspecting some kind of back door deal with Hillary that if he plays it low key for the primaries he will get the VP position.
At his age that's really much better - for him if not for us. He can have 8 years as VP then 8 more years as number 1. If he becomes president now he will be out of work in his mid 50's.
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