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Christopher Hitchens on John Edwards' endorsement of Barack Obama
The Mirror ^ | May 15, 2008 | Christopher Hitchens

Posted on 05/15/2008 7:32:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The endorsement of Senator Barack Obama by former Senator John Edwards is a signal, though not an absolutely decisive one, of a shift in the commitment of the Democratic Party's unpledged centre.

It is partly a result of sheer momentum - Edwards said as much when he said that the voters had evidently made their choice "and so have I" - but partly also a feeling of alarm at the way in which Mrs Clinton has polarised the campaign, and gone so far as to polarise it along ethnic and racial lines.

Edwards himself ran a campaign very much along class lines, and is a white liberal from a southern state. He is known to have expressed private disdain for the way in which both Clintons have been campaigning, and is also known to have received regular telephone calls frrom Senator Obama soliciting his endorsement.

The fact that he withheld this so long, and then flew all the way to the hotly-disputed state of Michigan to be by Obama's side, suggests very strongly that it is only recent developments that swayed his decision, and the most recent devleopment is the emergence of Mrs Clinton as the self-declared candidate of the "white" vote.

Advertisement It's almost impossible to exaggerate the shock that this tactic has created in liberal Democratic ranks, echoing the alarm and repugnance that was felt for Richard Nixon's so-called "Southern strategy" a generation ago. It is particularly ironic, given the very heavy emphasis that both the Clintons have placed until recently on their close relationship with America's black community. The level of their support among black voters, in all recent polls, has been subjected to a precipitate drop that reflects considerable anger and resentment.

Senator Edwards cannot absolutely commit the delegates he would have brought to the convention in Denver but he was the party's joint standard-bearer in the last contest and he is symbolic of the way in which a section of the party is at least acknowledging what is beginning to look inevitable. However, when I described his own shift as "not absolutely decisive" I meant to draw attention to something that did NOT happen at the Michigan endorsement. Senator Edward's campaign and indeed career have been heavily dependent on the input and participation of his wife Elizabeth, who very often appeared on her own as the spokeswoman and is known to wield great influence with him as well as to occupy a very warm place in the heart of the Democratic party's rank-and-file. She did not fly to Michigan with Senator Edwards and, lest anyone attribute this to her recent battle with illness, also let it be known that she was not lending her name to the endorsement. So there are still some areas where the Obama charm has not yet fully penetrated.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois; US: Michigan; US: New York; US: North Carolina
KEYWORDS: 2008endorsements; democrats; election; elections; endorsements; hillary; hitchens; johnedwards; johnwdwards; obama
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To: T.L.Sink
"It’s just a common figure of speech, as in “political plumb."

I think the word you're looking for is plum not plumb.

plum 1 (plm) n 1. a. Any of several shrubs or small trees of the genus Prunus, bearing smooth-skinned, fleshy, edible fruit with a single hard-shelled stone that encloses the seed. b. The fruit of any of these trees. 2. a. Any of several trees bearing plumlike fruit The fruit of such a tree 3. A raisin, when added to a pudding or cake 4. A sugarplum 5. A dark purple to deep reddish purple

6. An especially desirable position, assignment, or reward: an ambassadorship granted as a political plum.

21 posted on 05/16/2008 3:42:39 AM PDT by Mila
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To: cubreporter; Alia

Elizabeth is the man of the Edwards family.


22 posted on 05/16/2008 5:16:55 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Yes, but how does that help?)
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To: toddlintown

...”I also like how the rich cracker Edwards plays the class divide.”...”These 2 morons were made for each other.”

What are the chances that part of their eventual agenda would be to secure cash-money slave reparations?


23 posted on 05/16/2008 6:15:34 AM PDT by equaviator ("There's a plane on the horizon coming in...see it?")
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To: Tax-chick

I don’t know about that and I certainly pray for her with her cancer and hope she will overcome that. However, she is NOT a superdelegate that I know of anyway and so why would her endorsement of hilllereee mean anything anyway????


24 posted on 05/16/2008 9:30:44 AM PDT by cubreporter
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To: T.L.Sink

I thought it was a “political plum” as in the fruit. “Political plumb” would be like a lead balloon.


25 posted on 05/17/2008 7:01:29 AM PDT by reg45
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