sam_handelman's Journal: I hereby endorse: John Edwards

Firstly, tactical considerations.
  Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could either of them win, it's true (especially if the Pachyderms nominate Romney or someone equally unappealing.) However, to nominate either is an unacceptable risk, Obama because he's black and Hillary because no-one likes her. We *must* get the Republicans out of the white house; any risk of failure is too high.
  Edwards is likable. It doesn't even matter if he isn't qualified, or if he's a pretty boy (which people actually like), or a trial lawyer (focus group results: no one cares), or any of his other supposed weaknesses.
  The Republicans would inevitably *attempt* to attack him for running in spite of his wife's cancer. Even knowing that it's a huge tactical mistake, they would still do it. It'd backfire spectacularly.
  Nothing but upsides to this guy.

  For my money, Obama would make a devastatingly good running mate. All those closet rascists would *love* to see an affable, empathetic white southerner with a black sidekick. They'd be frickin' thrilled.

  Secondly, policy considerations.
  Okay, the state of American politics is so bad that most people don't even *know* the policy differences (such as they are) between the main candidates. They don't amount to much.
  However, among those who have a chance of being nominated (so not Gravel or Kucinich) Edwards has made the best policy statements. Obama is one of those people who seldom *says* much of anything, and Hillary is to the right of her husband, who was practically a Republican, on the bread-and-butter issues I care about.

Wrongo

[Captain Splendid]

Giuliani v Clinton, with Clinton for the prezdency by a couple of points. I'm even putting money down on it.

Re:

[sam_handelman]

Well, those two are ahead now, sure.

  But being ahead in May of the previous year has not, historically, been a good indicator of success.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Agreed, but my hunch is predicated not so much on Hillary and Rudy's position now, more the fact that pretty much all the other candidates really don't have a snowball's chance in hell.

Well, he is a good guy

[WillAffleckUW]

I've met him a couple of times and we briefly spoke.

But I'm still holding out for Gore/Obama.

Gore

[BandwidthHog]

Hell, we already elected him once.

I think it’s a fair bet that just about everybody who voted for him then would vote for him again. So the big question is, how many of those who voted for his opponent seven years ago now regret that? That number doesn’t need to be very large, but I think it is.

Re:

[NeMon'ess]

Gore for VP. He should have a leading role in selecting people to work at the UN and World Bank. Great publicity and helps the world think a lot better of the USA.