Benny's World

Thursday, November 13, 2008

John Edwards on Palin: Too Inexperienced to be President

Today Karl Rove and Rove's worst nightmare John Edwards debated about George Bush's record on the economy, health care, foreign policy at the Commercial Finance Association's annual meeting in SF this morning. Clearly many differences, and I'm still trying to get more details about what they said.

But what I could find from Try-City Herald was they agreed that Palin would need a lot more honing in foreign policy and health care if she contemplates a run in 2012.

From TCH:

Edwards said Palin's inexperience was too much for John McCain's campaign to overcome.

"The problem was, over time, particularly in the vice-presidential debate ... it was fairly obvious she wasn't ready to be president, and that made people nervous," he said.

Otherwise, JRE was greeted warmly by the packed room of nearly 1000 attendees, whereas two demonstrators who called Rove a "war criminal" before being ushered out of the hall by security.

Rove claimed that's how SFranciscans say hello since a similar incident happened to him there last month.

Not so with JRE. They essentially said "welcome back."

(Picture courtesy of THC).

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Elizabeth Edwards on Time's Person of the Year Panel


Apparently it is today.

"..a panel of distinguished guest including Elizabeth Edwards, Seth Meyers, Suze Orman, John Slattery (Roger Sterling!), and Brian Williams will discuss who most deserves to be named Person of the Year. I think we can all assume that 'You' will not be getting a second nod."

My guess is that Barack Obama is a shoo-in.

(h/t Fishbowl NY)

Update: Apparently the discussion was more about the road ahead for Barack Obama. Here's what Elizabeth opined (courtesy of CNET):

The road out of the economic crisis is "not a refund check...not more houses with more flat-screen TVs...(but) bridges that work and schools that inspire students."
--Elizabeth Edwards




Apparently Brian Williams agreed. Interesting.

UPDATE: video link from Time videos. Seth Myers stole the show.

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Great Snark

Replica of the NYT in the future.

http://www.nytimes-se.com/

If only half of the headlines would come true.

(h/t cruz)

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

John Edwards Emerges from the Shadows

As noted on my blogroll, John Edwards was slated to speak at Hoosierville, and indeed he did. About 1000 students attended the talk which was about the general election.

(photo courtesy of the IDS)

IU's student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, has more on this talk, but to add from what I read on the Daily Kos, it sounds like JRE kind of stayed on message about Barack Obama. He also acknowledged the 200,000 homeless veterans.

I want to make a special comment here.

I've been very appalled at what I read by fellow Dems about John Edwards at the DU , Open Left, the Daily Kos, and to a certain extent, by one of the editorial board members at Progressive Blue. Most have treated Edwards as though he were a pariah in the party, even though someone like Joe Lieberman (an independent who caucused most of the time with the Dems) who is fighting to keep his chairmanship, was worse by campaigning for John McCain, and questioned Barack Obama's leadership. I don't know why all of the sudden we have purity trolls out there when we know that the lure of any politician is power, and their misgiving about it can end up on the tabloids of the National Enquirer.

Martin Luther King Jr was a great leader, but he was sinner like Edwards. He had his share of womanizing during his time. One of the differences of course, is that the sentiment of John Edwards is more of disdain because his sin was revealed after it became known that Elizabeth had permanent cancer.

I remind readers of what Elizabeth wrote at the Daily Kos back in August:

Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently – caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him.

John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well. Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.

The pain of the long journey since 2006 was about to be renewed.

John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch. Admitting one’s mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame. The toll on our family of news helicopters over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown. But now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue. I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.


There are many who wish John Edwards would disappear, go home to Elizabeth, Emma Claire and Jack, and not crawl out of the hole. I disagree. The issue of poverty has not disappeared. Poverty is going to be in the forefront, more than ever, because people are losing their homes. Banks are doing what they want with the $700B bailout and our taxpayer dollars will never be recooped. I seriously doubt they will try to renegotiate with foreclosed owners because their losses have been covered and no need to sell the assets back to the government.

As much as I like Obama and Biden, poverty disappeared from their rhetoric most of the general election cycle. It was good that they talked about the middle class, but frequently, they didn't say that many of them were one bankruptcy away from sliding into the ditch.

There are too many uninsured people, and too many in poverty or undernourished.

To those of you who wish John Edwards gone, I say to you: you owe a lot to this man for pushing the progressive envelope. You owe him for a victory to the WH and you owe him some graciousness for admitting his sin when he did, and for dropping out when he did. Yes, his hubris has cost him political capital, but I for one am better off for knowing him, and his progressive agenda is likely to make it in many forms in Congress and Obama's cabinet. David Bonior is on the senior economic advisory team and likely to be the Labor Secretary. Many staffers who went over to Obama will have jobs on the Hill or in an Obama West Wing. And today, Max Baucus has decided to take up the populist cause of mandated health insurance.

John, you screwed up dude. But I never felt you betrayed me. You didn't betray your supporters either. You betrayed your family and put them in a horrible spotlight that no one wanted. However, I cannot judge you by your indiscretion. I can judge you for your ideas, and most of them were right.

Come out of the shadows, John. Continue to wear your ring. When the door seems to be closing, your family is waiting for you but so are your hardcore supporters. I'm ready to hear more about what you propose to do about poverty and push the others to take action too.

UPDATE: Bonior has told the press he is not interested in the Labor Secretary's job

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Monday, November 10, 2008

Harvard Overreacts on the Budget

Largest endowment in the country, and the President of Harvard sends out this ridiculous e-mail (source, Yahoo):

Faust warned in an e-mail to faculty, staff and students that "we must recognize that Harvard is not invulnerable to the seismic financial shocks in the larger world. Our own economic landscape has been significantly altered."

"We need to be prepared to absorb unprecedented endowment losses and plan for a period of greater financial restraint," she said.

Harvard's is the nation's largest university endowment and provides about a third of the annual operating budget. Faust said the school is looking at ways to cut spending and will review compensation costs, which account for nearly half of the budget.


Harvard lost 3.32B or less from stocks, not from revenues. And they will cut back by not giving raises to and/or making health premiums higher for academic officers and union staff, not getting rid of incompetent administrators or cutting back on salaries of higher ups and faculty who aren't teaching per se. I don't get it.

I can hear Thumblina playing her violin for "Harvard, Fair Harvard."

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Letter from Elizabeth Edwards to Barack Obama

Great Crises Call for Bold Leadership
by Elizabeth Edwards 11-10-2008

Dear President-elect Obama,

Although it has been said that every great president needs a crisis during which to exhibit his greatness, it is also true, but less said, that the greatness is displayed in the bold strokes that man is willing to embrace in such times: Lincoln and emancipation, Franklin Roosevelt and sweeping social programs. The crises are here. Do not fail your destiny. Treat health care as a moral issue, not a political one. Consider those in poverty and those in fear of poverty as a test of our national character. Save God's planet while there is still time. This is your moment.



God's Politics blog by Jim Wallis


She's right. I hope he will get started on SCHIP asap.

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Sunday, November 09, 2008

Vegan Diets

I admire those who can do without animal products of any sort. But I wonder what the working poor do, other than eating veggies raw or without little flavor. It's expensive to buy soy and other products. I ate potatoes, pinto beans, and cornbread many times growing up, but we still had margarine for the cornbread.

Anyone wish to weigh out how to be on vegan diet for those on food stamps?

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Tech Rumbles Past the OSU Cowboys

Tech had another good night, this time against the number 8 Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys made the first touchdown of the night, but Tech scored shortly after--and never looked back.

From the Tech Athletics website:

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- Around the time Michael Crabtree caught his second touchdown and stood in the back of the end zone staring at the crowd -- or maybe when he celebrated his third score with a high-flying chest bump into Graham Harrell -- the questions about Texas Tech vanished.

That victory over then-No. 1 Texas was no emotion-fueled fluke.

The No. 2 Red Raiders truly are one of the best teams in the country.

Harrell and Crabtree picked up right where they left off against the Longhorns, leading Texas Tech to touchdowns on seven straight possessions on the way to trashing No. 8 Oklahoma State 56-20 Saturday night and solidifying an inside track to the national championship game.

"I feel like every week we have something to prove," Crabtree said. "We really don't too much worry about what other people think. We worry about what we can control, and that's us, and that's our team."

Now that the Red Raiders have gotten by two straight top-10 foes, one more awaits: No. 6 Oklahoma. In Norman.


Quarterback Graham Harrell complete 40 of 50 passes for 456 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Way to go Red Raiders!

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