Levees Not War's Endorsement: John Edwards Will 'Kick Republicans In The Balls'

Source: Huffington Post

(pic: JRE when he announced his 2008 bid in NOLA)










By Karen Dalton-Beninato

Gulf Coast voters have an Edwards endorsement today from Levees Not War with the unambiguous headline, "Democrats need a tough candidate who won't hesitate to kick the Republicans in the balls." They say:

"It is not often we wish we lived in New Hampshire (nice place to visit), but we sorely wish we could be there on Tuesday to 'vote early and often' for John Edwards . . . It is not only that John Edwards had the good sense and correct priorities to launch his campaign for the presidency from New Orleans (take note, presidential debate site committee). And it's not just Edwards' plan to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq within 10 months--something his competitors haven't offered. We don't favor Edwards only because he alone has spoken consistently as a populist public defender against the 'iron grip' of corporate special interests on Washington. Nor is he our favorite merely because he has the best health care plan (Paul Krugman's praise sounds right to us).


We vote for John Edwards for all of these reasons, but especially because Democrats need a tough, combative lead candidate to whip the Republicans, who are vicious fighters in a presidential campaign--especially when they're desperate. Barack Obama is marvelous and would also be a good president, but we worry he doesn't have the aggressiveness to kick the Republican operatives in the balls, the way they always do to Democrats. In Nov. 2004 it was Edwards the courtroom attorney who wanted to challenge the Ohio vote counts before conceding, but John Kerry decided otherwise.

John Edwards has the optimism, the intelligence, and the gut-fire and bulldog tenacity to get the job done . . . He's also a realist. He knows the status quo won't give an inch without a struggle. About dealing with corporate interests such as the drug and oil and insurance companies, he says, "Some people argue that we're going to sit at a table with these people and they're going to voluntarily give their power away. I think it is a complete fantasy; it will never happen." We often say 'We Want Roosevelt Again.' We know we're not going to get Franklin Delano, but in John Edwards we see just about the closest thing to FDR we've seen in many years."

Read more here.

FYI: Levees Not War is a New Orleans based organization that focuses on the environment.