JRE Buzz: Be Inspired Edition

Be Inspired over at the Daily Kos has all of the latest multimedia links to John Edwards' presentations, apostles' testimonials, appearances on talk shows, and articles which support some of JRE's plans. Be Inspired did this in part as she wrote:

John Edwards is a great presidential candidate. He speaks to the heart of the problems facing our nation. I think the best way for him to gain supporters is for people to hear him. With that in mind, I've put together a page of links to his recent media appearances.

I'm compiling these links for two reasons:

1) Those of us who have already made our decision to support him and to reach out to others online will have the resources we need at our fingertips.

2) Voters who are still in the process of deciding on a candidate need to see this!

I hope these links give you a clearer picture of John Edwards as a person and a candidate. I find that usually the more people know about him, the more they like him.

Well, this will come in handy. Thanks to Be Inspired for doing what I used to do over here, and have had less time to do the JRE Buzz.

I will leave one of the links here: Bill Mahr's interview of JRE on Real Time. Edwards is so refreshingly honest, sidesteps a bit with tricky questions that could set off gossip, and laughs at some of the zingers Mahr throws at him.

Update: the blogger said she cross-posted this same round-up at the following sites:

• Gather

• Change.org

• JREG

Those 3 could use a little love since it's too late to get it on the Recommended Diaries on Kos.

More buzz l8tr...

Tom Vilsack Bows Out of the 2008 Race

After being the first Dem candidate to declare his candidacy, fmr governor Tom Vilsack decided not to continue with a campaign for the Presidency. He announced at 11 am today in Des Moines and through this e-mail (sent to a friend who forwarded this):

Dear Friend,

I am very fortunate -- blessed in love, family, friends, job, and by this campaign.

I have the boldest plan to get us out of Iraq and a long-term policy for energy security to keep us out of future oil wars. Our campaign has built the strongest organization here in Iowa, with almost 3,000 supporters among Democratic caucus goers. We are organizationally positioned to win the caucuses in January 2008. We have everything to win the nomination and general election.

Everything except money.

That is why this morning after discussing with my wife Christie and our sons Jess and Doug we have decided to end our campaign for the presidency.

Thousands of you have given so generously of your time, energy and money. And together, we've built a campaign that has stood up and taken courageous stands on the issues that our country must face. In just the past few weeks, we've shaped the debate on the Iraq War and laid out an aggressive plan to achieve energy independence and security.

I firmly believe that our leadership on these issues ­ -- the defining issues of our time ­ -- will be recognized for years to come.

In recent weeks, just as our message has begun to resonate with voters and pundits alike, our fundraising has suffered. The fact is, each hour I spend with voters, press and policy experts is an hour taken away from our campaign paying bills.

More than any other race in history, this presidential campaign will require candidates to commit more time, energy and influence raising money than developing ideas. I worry that this process, involving hundreds of millions of dollars, holds our democracy hostage to insiders, influence and establishment when we are so in need of just the opposite.

But this is a fact I cannot change with this campaign.

I am leaving one campaign, but I am not saying goodbye. I will continue to fight for outsiders and underdogs who are the backbone of the Democratic Party and our country. Our work is far from over. Because here in Iowa ­where the first caucus will be held in less than 11 months ­ and all across this great country, voters are longing for bold leadership, big ideas and courage from our elected officials.

We want the war to end ­ -- today.

We want a real plan to provide universal access to healthcare ­ -- today.

And we want policies to keep us secure and environmentally sound by ending our addiction to oil, both foreign and domestic.

Again, thank you for everything you've done. It has been an inspiring few months and I know that, with your continued support, our work is not over.

With great appreciation,

Tom Vilsack

It was clear that Vilsack hired some of the best, but could not raise enough money to pay the staff on a monthly basis, according to Iowa Progress. It will be interesting to see if he throws his support to Obama, HRC, Dodd, or Richardson...or JRE. The letter espouses many of Edwards' ideas though.

Here was John Edwards' statement about Gov Vilsack's announcement, issued this afternoon:

2/23/2007
Chapel Hill, North Carolina ­

"Tom Vilsack is a terrific human being and one of the genuine treasures of our Party, so it is our loss more than his that he has chosen to end his campaign for president. His record as a leader on critical issues including education, health care, and energy independence makes one thing very clear: Tom has never forgotten where he came from or the people he serves. He is a powerful voice for the people of Iowa and America, and I am proud to call him a friend. Elizabeth and I wish Tom, Christie and their entire family the very best life can offer and look forward to working with them in the years ahead to build a country that lives up to its great promise."

Source: Iowa Politics

Note: this press release was first published on Iowa Politics, not on Edwards' blog. That is class: he wanted the Iowans to know that he appreciated Vilsack's candidacy on their turf.

Edwards Holds Health Care Town Hall in Iowa

This video (about 5 min long) lays out Edwards' plan for health care.



To read more about the plan, click here.

He's likely to be asked about it today at the AFSCME forum in Carson City today. It will be live on C-SPAN. Edwards is fourth to be interviewed.

Benny's World Linkages: Introducing New Blogs & Familiar Ones

BW readers may note I've added some new sites to my blogroll. Here they are and my comments.

Ezra Klein's blog is a good one. He's pretty fair about questioning any Dem (or Repub) on their ideas or issues. I also like his weekend volunteers there and on TAPPED. I have been getting to know a couple of them now personally via e-mails I send them. I met Ezra in Iowa when Edwards announced his candidacy on December 28th to the MSM. I was impressed how someone of his youth (sorry Ezra, you are like JRE, you are youthful looking, and it's because you are, with idealism, I think, with a mix of pragmatism) has already been on C-SPAN a couple of times and is a rising star as a pundit.

Aldon Hynes is the blog master of Orient Lodge. Hynes' posts appeal to me as Chancelucky's do because he finds 2 x 2 are 4 and 4 x 4 are 16. Hynes looks for patterns of ideas coming together, and finds them on a variety of topics. He also finds good articles to post to Newstrust, something I'm still trying to give better critiques of news articles, as opposed to Digg, which is more on what's popular, and generally more techie. Yes, in case you want to know, Hynes has been a technical consultant on the Dean and Lamont blogs, and he supports Edwards. He gets paid as a professional blogger (and rightfully so, he has a few blogads, and other gigs going, I am surmising) and I say, more power to him as he does a great job, whereas I am still learning so much from what he writes and does.

I hope Hynes reads Chancelucky's blog, as Iddybud does.

In a recent e-mail, I mentioned to Hynes that Chancelucky writes superb reviews in the world of entertainment, and still manages to find the socio-political linkages that I appreciate when I've missed them.

All of these places provide linkages to the patterns. They write from intuition, but are good at providing details to support their posts.

A great renaissance of diary writing--all on the Net.

And sometimes, not. I misspell or mistype constantly.

Tribe Blogocracy

Oliver Willis, whose site is linked here from BW and vice-versa, had been experimenting with Snap to show quick snapshots of the sites he linked for his posts. Robert Scoble uses this too.

Today Willis asked his readers whether to keep or ditch Snap. Most of us, including yours truly, advised him to ditch it. Previews are OK, but sometimes they get in the way, especially in small print, so I'd rather just click directly from the link.

He did.

That's listening to your readers.

JRE does that too on his site. Some guy on the Bivings Report gave a review of JohnEdwards.com, and while snarking Edwards for his youthful looks, complained about seeing one of the plans, on the issue of healthcare, on the homepage. What the reviewer didn't know is that is what the bloggers wanted and said so on Edwards blog. Of course, I had get my 2 comments in about that.

Unfortunately, since my technical skills are about 180 degrees from Willis, Scoble, or the webmasters at johnedwards.com, I cannot provide the same tribe blogocracy they can or will. But I appreciate those who do.