JRE Buzz: Saturday Morning Edition

OMGawd, the last few days have been cra-a-zy on the blogsophere, and quite a bit of it about the Edwards campaign. Good and bad, but I will report the good.

Yesterday, Edwards announced he would not participate in the CBC/Fox News Debate in Sept. Personally, I don't know what the CBC was thinking on this one as Fox wants to control the whole thing. Edwards campaign is about transparency. He's saying Fox News is Faux News with a direct bias against Democratic candidates, and they ain't being honest with the viewers. Here's his statement, through Deputy Campaign Director Jonathon Prince:

"We just called the CBC to let them know that we're looking forward to their January debate with CNN but we're not going to participate in the proposed debate with Fox. The CBC champions critical issues that matter enormously to the future of our country, and we look forward to discussing them throughout this campaign and at their debate in January. But we believe there's just no reason for Democrats to give Fox a platform to advance the right-wing agenda while pretending they're objective. If there was any uncertainty as to Fox's objectivity, it was put to rest when they attacked Democratic candidates, Democratic constituency groups, and the Nevada Democratic party when their last proposed debate was cancelled for lack of support."

It will be interesting to see what the other candidates do, but the rumor is that Bill Richardson wouldn't like participate either. Both Edwards and Richardson are smart on this one as the DNC isn't allowing this to be one of their 6 sanctioned debates. Thank you, Howard Dean!

Now, on to some other news.

The Edwards family (all but Cate) was traveling and doing some town halls. There are some good vlogs and CJ reports about them. Most seemed impressed with Edwards' ideas and specifics with them. Rather than list them, I suggest going to the JRE Blog Roundup that was posted yesterday.

Elizabeth was on Oprah. I admit I thought the whole hour was going to be with EE, but it lasted maybe 5-7 minutes. I have mixed feelings about it because Oprah didn't appear to be her sympathetic or empathetic self. I hope her reaction to JRE and EE's decision to continue on, "to live life" isn't based on her support for Barack Obama or is a talking point for him.

I just listened to JRE's Saturday morning e-cast about Form One. http://johnedwards.com/media/podcasts/20 070407/

Edwards explains that it takes 7 hours to fill out a 1040EZ form. He's right that the average American has to spend hours, sometimes days to gather the data, then one calculates the tax etc. In his proposal, the IRS would do the work for us, send us our numbers since they already have the data, then either we agree and sign it, or do our own with a different form.

The big winner would be those who qualify for Earned Income Tax Credits and never it knew it.

I like this idea because it's example of how government should work for us when we've prepaid for their services.

The man has plans. I cannot wait for the SC debate on the 26th. The candidates will try to gnaw and attack his ideas, but I think SC viewers will see the campaign is about us, and not about big money or egos.

Lastly, I want to encourage BW readers to tune into Daily Kos about 8:30 CT for the Edwards Evening News. There are three anchors: TomP from St. Louis, Ladylib from TN, and Sally in SF. You get daily news about Edwards, and the water is really fine for a swim if you wish. Bloggers are friendly.

Update: Watch this awesome video of stops in NH earlier this week, courtesy of the Washington Post.


More buzz l8tr...