Bold Predictions For 2008

• December 28, 2006

I have a somewhat bold set of predictions for the 2008 Presidential race. I believe that John Edwards is going to win the Democrat party nod to run for the White House, and that his populist and class-warfare-driven campaign (even if he loses) will push Republicans (and perhaps even moderate Democrats) in the field to the left on domestic issues.
I believe this for two reasons:

Edwards is a southern Democrat. Every Democrat who has won admittance to the White House since Lyndon Johnson has been a southern Democrat.
Edwards’ “two Americas” campaign aimed at expanding government entitlements and attacking big business is going to be eaten up by an ever-more populist American electorate which is fed a daily diet of anti-business, pro-class warfare propaganda (Big Tobacco! Big Oil! Big Wal-Mart!) from the media.

This is going to happen. Edwards is the perfect candidate for the Dems against the GOP’s crop of paltry conservatives. Unless there is a dark horse GOP candidate waiting in the wings who can capture the hearts and minds of Americans the way Ronald Reagan did, I expect the wishy-washy “conservative” Republicans eyeballing the White House right now are going to have to move to the left on fiscal and domestic policies to look palatable next to Edwards, whose “I’m here to help you/you’re being cheated” rhetoric is going to be hard to top with any sort of policies based on making people more responsible for their own lives and decisions.
It seems as though most people in this country don’t want to be personally responsible. They don’t want to be free to succeed or fail. They want to be taken care of by the government. They want safety nets, even if that means higher taxes and an expansive government that is more intrusive into their lives (though I’m not sure how many of them actually understand those consequences) and Edwards is the perfect candidate to give them that.
Mark my words, John Edwards is the candidate to watch over the next couple of years.
***Updated by The Whistler***
As much as I don’t like to step on Rob’s posts (it is his Blog after all) I just had to post this video of John Edwards.

Tags: Cultural Marxism, Domestic Issues, Nanny State, Politics

http://Array Bat One

Goon,

While there is certainly nothing “pretty” about Hillary, none of the three have much experience, or substance, to offer the American people.

Kinda makes me wonder about the Democrats’ priorities that they put so much emphasis on telegenic fluff.

Meanwhile, the rest of the nation, or most of it, will be honoring the recently-deceased 38th President, Gerald Ford. And it seems to me leaders like Ford, plainspoken, straightforward men who said and did the right thing for their country, used to be a staple of the Democrat party. (Harry Truman comes easily to mind.) Can’t say the same about this latest version of Moe, Larry, and Curly, though.
Bat One

Reading carefully through the story of the Reid-Durbin junket that was far too important to be interrupted for the official funeral of a former President, I note that one of those going along for the ride was ND Senator Kent Conrad.

It’s tempting to note the utter lack of class displayed by the Democrat leadership… but doing so would be tediously redundant. Calling Reid a “partisan hack” does the man far more credit than he deserves.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

One of the drawbacks that Edwards has going against him, aside from being a slimy, amoral trial lawyer, is his willingness to assassinate the character of good men for the sake of political advantage.
I watched him on Fox News Sunday, as his discussed the nomination controversy of Judge Charles Pickering.
As a refresher, Pickering was accused of being a racist for attempting to grant leniency to a cross burner. An examination of the facts show that Pickering, who had risked his life standing up to the Klan, was seeking a clarification of the Federal sentencing guidelines which were contradictory and coincidentally unjust in giving a harsher sentence to an accomplice than the ringleader of the group that burned the cross.

Were he a competent, honest lawyer, Edwards should have been able to make the distinction. Instead, he parroted the Democratic party’s talking points that Pickering was a racist and so was Bush (and all Republicans) for appointing him.

I watched him lie with a straight face, and no remorse for attempting to assassinate the character of a man devoted to racial equality, for the hope of gaining a small electoral advantage for himself and his party. Disgusting!
jdubious

meh. Rob makes some good points, but I think either Giuliani or McCain would wipe the floor with this prettyboy. No policy experience, no substance, really, other than that class-war rhetoric.

I think that Giuliani could neutralize some of that rhetoric by virtue of his moderacy, and that McCain would just roll over it… he’d nuke the kid from orbit.

That class-war stuff didn’t do much last time around, and while populist impulses may surface more frequently in the coming years, I doubt it’ll be enough to lend the GoldenHaired Wonder enough gravitas to matter.
EDWARDS:Classwarclasswarclasswar
GIULIANI:I AM THE HERO OF NEW YORK!
MCCAIN:I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE!
http://wizbangblog.com/ Jay Tea

Of course, one huge factor in this is that Edwards is a former personal-injury lawyer — the world’s experts on “I’m here to help you/you’re being cheated.”

If ever there was a group of people whose sole existence revolves around telling people “it’s not your fault, you’re a victim,” I don’t know who they might be.

J.
Bat One

During the 2004 campaign, the Democrat field of candidates was derisively referred to as the 7 dwarfs (with appropriate apologies to “little people” who certainly should have taken offense.)

This time around we have Hillary with one term as a US Senator, Barack Obama with the same single term as a US Senator, and now John Edwards who also had one single term as a US Senator and has been out of office for two years. The three top Democrat candidates have a total of less than 10 years experience holding elected office at the national level.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

I think we are in trouble poltically when the Dems take over the house. Harry Reid is a partisan hack but I expect that kind of stuff from him. I sure Hillary will go to the funeral with her husband in exhile Bill.
http://anangrydakotademocrat.blogspot.com/ bak72

I agree with you Rob that Edwards will be the Democrat to watch in 2008. I think that his 2008 message will be how to lift everybody up instead of the class warfare message of 2004.
HG

Whistler,

Most definately.
robert108

Bat: As a conservative, a lot of the leftie mindset is a mystery to me. It’s hard for me to believe that Americans would want such an inferior and deadly system for this country, when the one we have is infinitely better in every way. I have to guess that they have been seduced by the false promises of Marxism, and really believe it will “work” if only the right people try it(as the Clintons said). Nothing else makes sense, I guess. I think when emotion-based ideology is activated, the ability to think and reason gets turned off. That’s my guess, at any rate.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

Obama and his Shady Rezko deal

I heard about this deal today will listening the Rush Limbaugh show, funny how this isn’t getting any press as well as Harry Reid’s shady deal. I thought the dems were going to be ethical. They aren’t even the offically in session yet and they are already breaking those promises.
Apparently the Rules only apply to the GOP. Time for Bloggers to take the fight to the people.
HG

If Edward’s democrat opponents televise this clip in primetime, it is over for Edwards. There is nothing attractive about effeminate political leadership.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I think that his 2008 message will be how to lift everybody up

You mean by tearing everyone down?
Bat One

R108,

Sadly, it also shows how ignorant and irresponsible their supporters truly are.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

He is nothing more than a pretty face. Pretty Transparent candidate too.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

HG: You don’t think Hillary would have low friends in high places that would see to that do you?
Bat One

John Edwards’ presidential campaign announcement, and his “Back to the future” embrace of the failed economic policies of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society have caught the attention of economist and pundit, Larry Kudlow. Kudlow’s response is exactly the sort of common sense, pro-growth, economics literate message that ought to roll off the tongue of every honest candidate for any state-wide or national office.

On the domestic side, Edwards fares just as badly. He’s recycling an old page from the liberal Democratic playbook, saying that he wants to make fighting poverty the great moral issue of our time. He says he’ll accomplish this by taxing the rich in order to help the poor. Oh, really?

Tax capital in order to create new jobs? Huh? Haven’t we learned that you can’t create new jobs (for the poor or anyone else) without healthy businesses and plentiful new business creation?

… Edwards forgets that entrepreneurs, not government, create long-lasting jobs and growth. Rather than government spending, it is economic freedom, through a strong incentive structure inside a market economy, that opens the door to new opportunities so that the non-rich can get rich.

What’s more, Edwards has failed to consider that poverty has fallen steadily for decades.

Pro-growth, market-oriented policies launched by Ronald Reagan 25 years ago unleashed record wealth creation and economic growth that continues to this very day. In fact, economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth has shown that total compensation and consumer spending for all five income quintiles have steadily increased over the past three decades.

Furthermore, Alan Reynolds has shown that the percentage of households with income (adjusted for inflation) lower than $35,000 has actually fallen from 52.8 percent to 40.9 percent since 1967. (Wait — it gets even better.) Households with a real income higher than $50,000 rose from 24.9 percent to a remarkable 44.1 percent.

In other words, the middle class is shrinking because America’s families are getting wealthier.

Read that last again! THE MIDDLE CLASS IS SHRINKING BECAUSE AMERICA’S FAMILERS ARE GETTING WEALTHIER!

Wealthier, indeed. And the figures cited by former White House economists Kudlow and Alan Reynolds do not begin to take into consideration the increased wealth we all enjoy due to the increases in technology and productivity… even after adjusting for inflation.

As noted last week by Proofreader Emeritus our standard of living in this country has continued to grow far ahead of any mere adjustment for inflation.

John Edwards is not a stupid man. He made over $35 million dollars in the decade prior to his single term as a Senator from North Carolina as a plaintiff’s attorney suing doctors out of business. That he would offer a platform of recycled economic class warfare as the domestic focus of his political ambition speaks volumes of the man’s total lack of integrity.

It doesn’t say a lot for those who would nominate him, either.
robert108

Bat: Great post! I have never forgotten his “There are two Americas” quote in the ’04 election; it was pure Marxism. It shows how arrogant the lefties have gotten.

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