Say Anything Blog

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:

1. Edwards is a southern Democrat.  Every Democrat who has won admittance to the White House since Lyndon Johnson has been a southern Democrat.
2. 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.