(That's code for 'Because I'm A White Guy')

In the storm of even-less-concealed-than-usual animosity that was last night’s CNN Democratic presidential debate, John Edwards seemed determined to play the role of calm, expensively-coiffured port. His tsk-tsking, goody two-shoes though it may have been, reflected what a lot of us were thinking. John Edwards wanted his competitors to stop bickering and start addressing some issues.

John Edwards also wanted to talk to the Democratic base about the nature of primaries and a little thing called electability. Whichever candidate came out on top, he said, would have to go toe-to-toe with the Republican nominee- most likely John McCain- and it would behoove voters to consider who would be the most likely to beat him “in every place in the country.” Per CNN.com’s transcript:

EDWARDS: We do well in the big urban areas. The question is: Are we competitive in the rural areas, in the tougher places for Democrats to compete?

And the only thing I would say — and I think it has nothing to do with race and gender. Let me be really clear about that. It’s amazing now that being the white male…

OBAMA: You’re feeling all defensive about it, John. It’s all right, man.

EDWARDS: … is different.

What I was going to say, though, is being able to go everywhere in America and campaign and to compete — and I grew up in the rural south, in small towns all across the rural south, and I think I can go everywhere and compete head-to-head with John McCain.

Having definitively really clearly ruled out both race and gender, Edwards failed to offer an alternative explanation.

Watch the video here.

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  • i laughed all the way through the debate and di u see how fat hill was when the cam went behind the stage

  • jden723

    He is making a point. As much as I hate to admit it, republicans campaign their collective butts off every time and democrats flounder in the campaign department. When it comes down to it, you have got to be able to win some “red” states. These primaries can really amount to BS in the end. There are many candidtaes who have won so called “key primaries” and went on to lose the nomination or presidency aand vice versa. Bill Clinton himself lost New Hampshire. Democrats have to be prepared to deal with the hard question regarding whether once the curtian is pulled and people are alone in the booth to do what they want, will they pull a lever, press a button, whatever for a black man or a woman (espceically one names Clinton). There have been several prominent elections, in recent history where voters convinced minority candidates that they were riding the “waves of change” with them only to wipe out when they went behind the curtain.

  • Underdog (LOL)! He was my dawg back in the 60s when I was a kid!!

    Seriously, if either Hillary or Barack becomes the Dem nominee, it would behoove them to include Edwards on the ticket to at least try to win some of the South.

    Which leads me to another thought: Can we have a constitutional amendment to kick a few Southern states out of the Union? They’re still fighting the Civil War, and studies have shown that Southerners have a prediliction for empire rather than democracy, as has been shown thoughout its history, e.g. Dubya.

    Give ’em what they want — their own country, the modern day Confederate States of America, their own currency and military, and seal THAT USA-CSA border tighter than a mosquito’s rear end.

    Peace.