Yeah, I know. Underdog. No chance. But Edwards was more eloquent on poverty, more dignified and honest, had the best healthcare plan, didn’t pander, and was more gracious when wrong.
I’m from New Jersey. New Jersey’s primary used to be in June. June! For all my life I never got to vote for my candidate of choice, because he’d always dropped out by June. I’ve never been able to cast a vote for a true progressive, because by June all that’s left is the moderate centrist mealy-mouthed compromise candidate. Then I moved to New York, and yippee skip, I got to vote for Bill Bradley like the week before he dropped out.
I just want to cast my vote, GODDAMN IT.
I always wanted to vote for Bradley too.
Which reminds me… I’ve never voted for a Clinton in a primary. (Next week I plan on voting for Obama.)
PA has the same problem…. by the end of April the die is pretty much cast…. and usually the candidate I *wanted* to vote for has dropped out. I’ve given up on the primary season.
yeah, I wanted to vote for him too (of those that had been left). sigh
Vote for him anyway, treecat. Clinton and Obama are both mixed bags.
Yeah, I get that’s possible. A vote before he withdrew would have been virtually as symbolic. But it doesn’t feel the same.
Would you prefer that a small meeting of the local party faithful gets to pick from a list approved by the national party leaders? Because that’s what happens in England for some parties. See, for example, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/may2001/uk-m15.shtml or http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/display.var.1077344.0.tories_choose_general_election_candidate.php
Or for national party leaders, having national One Member One Vote is a fairly recent innovation of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats AIUI – Labour still used a three-college Parliamentarians, Unions and Members system last time I looked.
Democracy doesn’t necessarily mean that every deme is involved…
The fact is, Edwards was never given a chance, he was buried by the media, and this can easily be documented by looking at the amount of media coverage given to his campaign, although for months his numbers were excellent. Every race was reported as Obama and Clinton. In New Hampshire, Edwards finished a strong second, and the media uniformly reported on Clinton finishing third, and what does this mean for Clinton, yadda yadda, barely mentioning Edwards’s name. You cannot win races without media coverage and the media decided before this race began that Edwards was not a contender.