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John Edwards carries the least baggage and the most credibility in his quest to be the next president of the United States ~ he is also the biggest threat to the corporate and special interests who have found their home in the Cheney/Bush administration: Allen L Roland
Here is a rundown of the assets and liabilities of the Democratic candidates on the verge of the Iowa caucus ~ listed alphabetically and compiled by Walter Shapiro on Salon.com.
Dennis Kucinich is not listed because although his message is certainly relevant ~ he is not being taken seriously by Iowans and, as such, has become irrelevant.
Shapiro strikes the right chord on Edwards with these words ~ " No candidate can better answer the why-I-want-to-be-president question ~ and his populism may reflect the mood of the country better than the more cautious stylings of his rivals. Elizabeth Edwards may also come close to rivaling Bill Clinton as the most politically appealing 2008 spouse."
As such, John Edwards carries the least baggage and the most credibility in his quest to be the next president of the United States ~ he is also the biggest threat to the corporate and special interests who have found their home in the Cheney/Bush administration.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/12/30.html
With the Iowa caucuses looming, victory-hungry Democrats want to know -- who is the most "electable"? Here's our best (totally wild) guess as to how each candidate might fare in November.
By Walter Shapiro / Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/29/electability_democrats/index.html?source=newsletter
Joe BidenAssets: No Democrat has a surer grasp of foreign policy, which could be a significant advantage if McCain or Giuliani were the Republican nominee. Biden -- who raised his two sons largely by himself after his wife and young daughter were killed in a 1972 automobile accident -- boasts an inspiring personal story. Biden has also demonstrated a consistent ability to dominate in the debates -- and has even learned (sometimes) the virtues of brevity.
Liabilities: Biden is a candidate who does not understand the political virtues of what is called "message discipline." (This cousin of bondage requires a candidate to repeat the same phrases even when he is bored out of his mind.) Biden has also made several verbal slip-ups in this campaign (such as calling Obama "clean" and "articulate") that would be far more damaging if repeated in the fall campaign.
Assets: Until recently, she seemed to be running a campaign and maintaining a record that seemed more fixated on minimizing risks in the general election than on inspiring Democrats in the primaries. Despite her debate stumble about driver's licenses for illegal aliens, she is the apostle of message discipline -- the anti-Biden, if you will. She inspires loyalty: Most of the key members of her campaign team have been with her (and Bill Clinton) in the political foxholes for more than a decade. Like Obama, she would raise record-setting money if she were nominee. And more than any other candidate running, she understands the rigors of a national campaign.
Liabilities: In poll after poll, she records far higher negative ratings than Obama or Edwards. An Associated Press-Yahoo poll, conducted in mid-December, found that 47 percent of the voters viewed her "unfavorably." (With slightly different question wording, 44 percent of those surveyed in the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll had "negative" feelings about her.) These anti-Hillary voters may end up not voting for any Democrat, but these polling statistics do suggest that she is the candidate operating with the smallest margin for error. While the idea of a woman president and a Clinton restoration may have long-term political appeal, she is the Democrat who has to work the hardest to prove her "likability."
Assets: A buoyant campaigner, he boasts a quarter century of experience on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Dodd -- a former Peace Corps volunteers who speaks fluent Spanish -- is the most zealous proponent of national service in the race. As a former Democratic Party chairman, he is also far less prone than Biden to foot-in-the-mouth disease.
Liabilities: Somehow Chris Dodd has not been able to break out of his niche as the generic Northeastern politician, a species that led the Democrats to defeat in 1988 and 2004. He also (like Biden) has a long Senate voting record for the Republican opposition research teams to exploit in attack ads.
Assets: As the only Southerner in the race, he is a master at making time-tested campaign lines sound as though he is speaking them for the first time. Despite media flaps over his hair care and the square footage of his house, Edwards developed a strategy for this race and has followed it to the letter. No candidate can better answer the why-I-want-to-be-president question -- and his populism may reflect the mood of the country better than the more cautious stylings of his rivals. Elizabeth Edwards may also come close to rivaling Bill Clinton as the most politically appealing 2008 spouse.
Liabilities: Despite having run for vice president in 2004, Edwards is probably the Democrat with the shakiest claim to being a foreign-policy president. Edwards is also the only first-tier Democrat to accept federal matching funds and the strict spending limitations that go with them. What this means is that Edwards would be effectively broke between the time he won the Democratic nomination and the election ~ while being forbidden under law from raising any more money. Edwards would, in effect, be a political orphan being supported by the Democratic National Committee and independent-expenditure groups.
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Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio www.conscioustalk.net
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