Presidential Views

It doesn't take a scholar to see that when an election in the States occurs, all else stops in Washington DC. Always has, always will. I want to take note for a moment here about a specific candidacy.

Everyone hears constantly of the titanic battle between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). It is quite a tussle, especially since both bring their own unique qualities to the table. I have my own choice between the two, and it is both fun and frustrating to watch. But John Edwards is dropping out today. For someone with such a high profile, I imagine that people know so little about the man and what he is experiencing at present....He began his campaign with full knowledge of the fact that his wife, Elizabeth, is fighting a recurrance of breast cancer. A couple of years before, they went through the death of a son -- the man is barely 50 years old, I think. And he is ending his campaign as he started it -- in New Orleans, working with Habitat for Humanity, building houses for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina...and constantly pointing to New Orleans as a prime example of government ignoring the needs of its most vulnerable citizens. Edwards is a principled man with a high regard for the poor and the homeless, a rarity in American politics. He made his money as a lawyer before he was elected as a senator from South Carolina in 1998. He was on Al Gore's short list as a possible vice-presidential candidate. When Edwards join John Kerry's campaign in 2004 as the VP candidate, he was not afraid to speak out when he thought the campaign itself was going in a damaging direction.

I point all this out because these days, a genuine article in the political arena is so hard to find. I never agreed with all his views, but I certainly understood them and give him all the credit for standing firm. Now there are rumors that he has a heretofore unknown agreement to offer his delegates to Obama in exchange for yet another path to political office...I hope that's not the case. His ethics are his strong point in a world of vacillating and vapid personalities. I know that sometimes the realities of politics are such that the bargaining will continue. But I hope the man stands his ground and does what he feels is right...not the opportunistic thing.