Edwards didn't say 'Democrat' in Poverty Address, either

I'm writing this diary in response to the common criticism in the netroots, leveled today by Todd Beeton and Big Tent Democrat, that Barack Obama is attempting to triangulate in a manner similar to Bill Clinton during his Presidential campaigns and Administration.

Todd somewhat disingenuously compares an Edwards response to a question about the Democratic Party with today's Obama speech about urban poverty, and cites it as evidence that Obama doesn't stand up for the Democratic Party/our issues. Wouldn't it have been better to actually compare Obama's speech with the corresponding Edwards speech given about rural poverty? Well I did, and guess what I found? I found two great speeches on poverty by two great champions of the Democratic Party, delivered without a single mention of the word "Democrat."

Edwards called for a "movement" to begin to address the issue of poverty in America. He said such a movement was necessary to bring an end to both poverty and the Iraq war. He assailed lobbyists and wealthy businessmen looking to exploit American workers, and reiterated his prior call for ending poverty in America. It wasn't a policy speech as much as it was a passionate call to action, asking people to begin a movement against poverty comparable to those which brought an end to Jim Crow and Vietnam. In the entire speech, he did not utter the word "Democrat" a single time.

You can see video of the entire speech on YouTube.

I don't bring up Edwards' failure to mention "Democrat" as a way to attack him. Indeed, I don't consider it a failure at all, as the speech was coming at the end of his "One America" tour and was intended to be focused on poverty, just like Obama's Washington, DC, speech was intended to focus on urban poverty. Both speeches were great. Obama's focused more heavily on policy, but it was not without the injections of "coming together" rhetoric thematic to his campaign.

I know a lot of people on this site and elsewhere in the netroots knock Obama for such talk of bringing the country together. I think it's important to understand a few things about Obama, and about the way elections work.

1. Obama is running his campaign the way he is because he truly believes in what he's saying. His entire life, he has succeeded by bringing people together, not by demonizing people opposed to him (examples: his work as an organizer, getting elected President of the Harvard Law Review, his legislative successes in the Illinois and US Senate)

2. Obama, unlike Bill Clinton, has always fought hard for progressive principles. Out of the three "top tier" candidates, he has the most liberal Senate voting record, and has demonstrated the kind of direct, lifelong commitment to progressive issues absent in the other candidates. When he talks about the way the traditional right-left divide has failed the American people, he's not saying things like "the left is soft on crime, but I'm tough" the way Bill Clinton would. He's genuinely lamenting the lack of progress we've in the last several years on issues that he (and we, and the rest of America) truly cares about.

3. You don't win elections by calling everyone you don't like a damn dirty motherfucker. We can keep getting the same amount of votes we've been getting in Presidential elections, or we can broaden our appeal and actually win. To do so, we're going to need to win over thousands of people who have been voting for Republicans in Presidential elections more often than not for the past several decades. Maybe we can do so by diluting our beliefs, as the DLC has argued for years. I don't know if this would work, but I do know this isn't what Barack Obama wants to do. As I've said above, he cares about the issues he's spent his life fighting for too much to sell out in such a manner. He does recognize the need to broaden our appeal, and I think he's one of the best positioned candidates we've had in years to do just that. Obama is excellent at taking progressive positions and speaking about them in a way that makes them appeal to people outside the movement, people whose votes are essential to enacting such policies. Think about it: who would you rather have making the case for the Democratic Party on TV the night before the election? Who can better explain what we believe in and why we believe it to the people whose votes we need to enact our vision for the country?

Edwards gets this, too. That's why he was calling on us as Americans to fight a war on poverty. He knows we're right on the issues, and we need to present ourselves in a way that appeals to more Americans. That's the entire basis of his electability argument. And it's the reason why he eschewed partisan labels in his speech in Parkersburg.

I like Obama better than Edwards. Todd, it's okay that you like Edwards better than Obama, but I would at least ask that you hold them to the same standards, and not twist the facts to make one candidate look "bad."



Display:


Re: Edwards didn't say 'Democrat' in Poverty Addre (3.00 / 1)

This isn't a winning argument, Obama still hasn't mentioned the word "Democrat" or "Democratic" or "Democratic Party" in a single email of his the entire campaign.

What I find so amazing is how Reagan is being uplifted by many Obama supporters as a likening model of what Obama is doing.  That is so historically clueless, that I don't know where to begin refuting it. Maybe a few history books?  The schooling of Todd Bennett on that BTD thread is somewhere to start.


by Jerome Armstrong on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 04:07:18 AM EST

Re: Edwards didn't say 'Democrat' in Poverty Addre (3.00 / 0)

The line about the word "Democrat" simply isn't the case. I provided examples in your front-page post.
One Million Strong --- Join up
by psericks on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 07:25:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

That's an outright lie. (none / 0)

I don't retain read emails for long, but I easily found this:

July 16 email titled "Next Steps":

This is the first time in presidential politics that so many people have taken an active role this early. If we continue to sustain our growth it will have a huge impact on candidates up and down the Democratic ticket in 2008.

(which is actually the second occurence of the word in the message body).

Wow, you made it, Jerome. You're precisely as useful and accurate a source of information and analysis as the MSM.


by jacortina on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 09:21:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Todd Bennett?? Reagan?? (none / 0)

What do Todd Bennett and Ronald Reagan have to do with this post?

Todd Bennett doesn't speak for the Obama campaign. I think he's actually a Hillary supporter.

And I don't see where I mentioned Reagan in this post. Even so, I don't think it's a bad thing to evaluate the past successes of both your ideological soulmates and opponents--observe Edwards and Obama attempting to draw parallels with the Kennedy campaigns. There are also certain lessons to be learned from Reagan, which have already been absorbed by Democratic candidates: speaking in soundbites, the use of background to enhance a point being made, etc. He's not being uplifted for what he believed in, he's being uplifted for the talents he indisputably possessed. He won every state in the 1984 general election other than Minnesota--as much as I may detest the man for what he did to the country, I don't think there can be any argument that he was a good campaigner. But just to reiterate, that doesn't really have anything to do with my post.

To speak to the email thing: Obama and his supporters, as you've probably been made aware by now, have in fact used the word "Democratic" campaign emails. But even so, nobody else used the word more than 3 times. I mean, you're really starting to dig pretty deep in your effort to discredit his progressive credentials... it's starting to get truly bizarre


Never separate the life you live from the words you speak. -Sen. Paul Wellstone (Minnesota)
by Max Fletcher on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 12:03:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Are you sure about this? (none / 0)

"You don't win elections by calling everyone you don't like a damn dirty motherfucker." Strawman.

The transformative Democratics presidents, FDR and Johnson, have been unabashed partisan progressives. I suppose JFK's feel-good moderate presidency is Obama's model, but he did relatively little to change the country.

As for this, "he's not saying things like "the left is soft on crime, but I'm tough," that's true as far as it goes, but Obama did give a much-praised speech last summer in which he said essentially that Dems are uncomfortable with religion but I'm not. And for many months he said defunding would hurt the troops--undermining the push for defunding.

In any case, I actually think Obama's campaign is getting a little sharper, more populist, perhaps even more partisan. The threat that Edwards poses with his popularity among the base seems to be clarifying his mind.


by david mizner on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 08:34:43 AM EST

Re: Are you sure about this? (none / 0)

So, in his initial run up to the Presidency in 1931 and 1932, you claim that FDR commonly used strong partisan rhetoric?

Odd. This speech certainly doesn't support that:

Campaign Speech in Atlanta, Ga., October 24, 1932:

I am confident after the 4th of March next that the American people will find a greater co-operation between these two great branches of government - a better relationship in which not only democrats but republicans as well take part.

Damn his 'Kumbaya'-singing, come-together tripe.

Later in that speech, he specifically took two Democratic legislators to task (pointing out their party and, therefore Democratic wrongdoing):

It is only fair to say that the bill appropriating funds to purchase additional stock in the federal land bank was introduced in the house of representatives by a democratic representative from the state of Alabama, Mr. Stegall; and in the senate the amount was increased from $100,000,000 to $125,000,000 by an amendment offered by another democrat from the state of Alabama, Senator Hugo Black.

While he goes after the Hoover administration, he does NOT go after 'Republicans' at any time in that speech.

In fact, according to the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University:

In campaign speeches, he favored a buoyant, optimistic, gently paternal tone spiced with humor.

That's in commentary on his first inaugural address (a speech with no reference to either party or partisanship).

Should we look earlier in his campaign?

The "Portland Speech", September 21, 1932:

When questions like these are under consideration, we are not Democrats, we are not Republicans; we are a people united in a common patriotism. This is the spirit of my entire campaign.

And, guess what? That's the ONLY incidence of the word 'Democrat' in the whole speech (no 'Democratic', either).

Earlier?

Campaign Address at Columbus, Ohio, August 20, 1932:

I regret that necessity, for destructive criticism is never justified for its own sake. And yet, to build we must first clear the ground. We must find out why the Republican leadership--and mind you, all the way through this campaign I am not talking about the millions of fine men and women who make up the Republican Party, I am addressing my remarks to the Republican leadership--why that Republican leadership built so unwisely.

Apologetics to the Republican BASE (as opposed to its leadership) is NOT the language of "unabashed partisanship".

How about the speech that really launched his candidacy, the one TIme Magazine called 'rabble rousing' and the very politcally active Charlie Chaplin said "Lifted American politics out of its cynical drowse and established the most inspiring era in American history."

FDR's 'Forgotten Man' Speech, April 7, 1932
Just into the speech, the SECOND sentence is:

I do not want to feel that I am addressing an audience of Democrats or that I speak merely as a Democrat myself. The present condition of our national affairs is too serious to be viewed through partisan eyes for partisan purposes.

What a sellout, denying the party like that.

The speech ends:

It is high time to get back to fundamentals. It is high time to admit with courage that we are in the midst of an emergency at least equal to that of war. Let us mobilize to meet it.

And between that earlier quote and those ending lines, the words 'Democrat', 'Democratic', 'Republican', are completely absent.

While FDR assuredly WAS quite partisan, you (and, obviously, Jerome) seem to have a basic problem confusing rhetorical style with action and agenda.


by jacortina on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 10:22:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Edwards didn't say 'Democrat' in Poverty Addre (none / 0)

That's a fair comparison, certainly, looking at Edwards's and Obama's poverty speeches side by side, fair enough. But the fact is, Edwards talks about being a Democrat much more than Obama does and I don't think it's a slur to observe that Obama seems to be consciously avoiding partisan rhetoric. The flaw in the way you seem to look at partisan rhetoric is that it somehow necessarily means going negative. why can't he talk about why he's a proud Democrat while still advancing a unity message? How else are people going to see that there are stark differences between the parties? Also, your assumption that I dislike Obama and am using this blog to somehow shill for Edwards takes a way too simplified view of how I see the candidates and assumes that criticism and support are mutually exclusive. I think the progressive blogosphere has proven that an flawed assumption.


by Todd Beeton on Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 12:14:49 PM EST


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