Democratic Presidential nominee John Edwards is reaching out to moderates by announcing he would appoint members of the GOP to his cabinet if he is elected president. Per the AP, Edwards stated he is not so much interested in partisan affiliation as much as he is interested in competency of appointees.
This announcement comes on the heels of Edwards announcing that if elected he would develop an international anti-terrorism agency/task force, an announcement that is a radical departure from Edwards' previous statement that President Bush's War on Terror is a fraud and little more than a "bumper sticker." While it is certainly not unprecedented for the president of one party to appoint cabinet members from another party (FDR was known for this), for Edwards the move seems well at odds with his prior campaign statements. Edwards' "Two Americas" platform was neo-Marxist in theory and this hardly would make a decent mix with a Republican conservative or even a Republican moderate/liberal.
Is Edwards reaching out to the middle in order to gain ground on Hillary Clinton's lead? If so, the anti-terror/bipartisan stance will hardly endear him to leftists in the primary and his previous hard left stances will probably not be forgiven by the Blue Dog Democrats and moderates. Give him points for trying, but Edwards will never beat out Hillary for the Democrat nomination.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. I love how republicans think, even more so than democrats, that Hillary will be the nominee. I myself am a Hillary supporter, but even I recognize, regardless of her national poll numbers, she still has a hard, uphill battle for the nomination. It is in part because republicans want Hillary to be the nominee; they see her as an easy opponent to beat. I laugh at that suggestion, as Hillary, both in her past and present policies, is more moderate than any other democrat running. Her ideas, like her or not, are the most main-stream and she will appeal to republicans, as she did in upstate New York. But as I said, don't be too quick to cast Hillary as the nominee. She still has to get her poll numbers up in Iowa and New Hampshire if she wants to win.
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Patrick at 10:04PM on Sep 8th 2007
2. Hillary has been in Las Vegas twice in the past few weeks.Both times visiting Hispanic neighborhoods. She promised to walk the picket line with the culinary members if they had to strike. Do you need any more proof that illegals are voting.The local paper had a picture of the culinary members. Not a white face of black face among them. Station Casinos said they will need 50,000 people to replace jobs if we deport illegals. I suppose he said this to show what a hardship it would be. To me it meant he was working 50,000 illegals in jobs Americans could have. They just signed a contract. Good wages and benefits. Not all of the illegals are picking vegetables. A vote for Hillary is a vote for amnesty.
Margaret Bruce at 12:44PM on Sep 9th 2007
3. Tee hee! "Neo-Marxist!" What a hoot. I love it when folks don't understand what Marxism is and somehow equate it to government programs (you know, like public schools, head start, community libraries and playgrounds).
But I think most conservatives are smarter than that. The Edwards counter-terrorism plan is the most substantial one put out by any candidate- Democratic or Republican - as a way of really fighting terrorism (not just using it as a convenient excuse - dare I say "bumpersticker" - to invade countrie and settle old scores).
Don't count Edwards out.
Jen Q at 2:35PM on Sep 9th 2007
4. Sean, what a low blow to compare any Democrat's idea's to Marxism, or you are poorly educated. One key element of Marxism or Communism is Big Government, which Republicans claim to hate. Yet Bush and his friends in Congress have given us the biggest government, spending far more then Democrat's could imagine, indebting us to Communist China and others, and taking away basic rights, than every before. There are many examples of taking away voting rights, from Republican controlled electronic machines, to fewer workers and therefore discouragingly long lines in Democratic areas. And the absurd case NE of Cincinnati in 2004 when they declared, only at the moment of counting, that terrorists might attack and so they kept anyone who might catch Republican fraud out of the main building. The local FBI said it was phony and made no sense, but Bush did get an unusally high vote in that area, "somehow !?" These GOP creeps should be in jail.
R. Ross at 2:57PM on Sep 9th 2007
5. Perhaps the Edwards campaign is acknowledging the fact that we are too divided along partisan lines and are in our own 'civil war' in this country over the terrorist threat and the war in Iraq. The one who can bring us together will win the white house in 2008.
Steve Bonomo at 4:06PM on Sep 9th 2007
6. Hire Americans in this country for Casino jobs. These people who own the casinos need to start paying their workers decent salaries so that they won't have to go the illegal route and hire illegals. I am from German, Italian, Irish, and English decent and all my family members from my great-great grandparents from England, my great-grandfathers from Italy and Ireland, and my grandmother from Germany became citizens of this country. They filled out the paperwork and paid whatever money they had to to become citizens. These illegal immigrants should just move back to their birthplace if they aren't willing to fill out the paperwork and pay whatever it costs to become a citizen. We have so many people living in this country as it is. If I wanted to live in Italy and I had to pay a lot of money to live there I would as well as fill out the necessary paperwork. Don't move here if you don't have the cash to pay to become a citizen.
Sandra at 6:03PM on Sep 9th 2007
7. I like Edwards but I would like to see a female president. I am conservative but I want to see Hillary Clinton win.
Sandra at 6:11PM on Sep 9th 2007
8. WE ARE THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD THINKING OF THAT A WOMAN PRESIDENT CANT MAKE SUCCESS LIKE A MAN....COME ON THAT IS WRONG....CHECK THE HISTORY OF THE WOMEN WHO BECAME THE PREMIER IN THEIR COUNTRY....LIKE MARGARET THATCHER,GOLDA MEYER,INDIRA GANDHI,BENAZIR BHUTTO,CHANCELOR IN GERMANY,PHILIPPINES,SRILANKA,NOW IN JAMAICA AND SO ON....THEY WERE OR ARE DOING PRETTY GOOD AND GOOD LEADERS....WE ARE TOO NARROW MINDED....I AM A MAN BUT I LIKE TO SEE A WOMAN BECOMING OUR NEXT PRESIDENT.....LADIES...THIS IS YOUR BEST CHANCE.....GO FOR IT.....
gt at 9:28AM on Sep 10th 2007
9. Edwards wants to make invasive health-care screenings mandatory. Here's proof:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_2
We must be careful not to elect another crazy control freak.
daisy at 3:15AM on Sep 11th 2007
10. That is unlikely Edwards would do a thing. Anybody who makes a report in an attempt to do some gossip that any candidate like Edwards to end up reaching out to GOP is completely engaging in falsehood with an intent to damage his credibility. But that won't happen because the damage will hit the author of the fiction derived blame game. Maybe he will think twice before posting an unproven biased claim in his unjustified attack against John Edwards.
anibethc40 at 6:05AM on Sep 11th 2007