Politics

Re: I would like to start with a hardy "Thank You"

lex_d — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 16:09:46 GMT

Hermes, very good reply.

Re: That's funny....

venichka — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:37:32 GMT

The Special Olympics would offer more enlightenment(at least more smiles and drool) than the Republicans and Democrats. I worked for Kennedy as an intern many years ago. At the parties he(we) attended was the only person other than his family to be admitted to the hospital after his minor surgery: Orrin Hatch. At these parties, Boxer sat atop Helms' lap, Dems and Reps backslapped and kissed cheeks. Their difs. are minor. Clinton pushed through Reaganomics.Nixon created the EPA. Not one of either party represent the working people.Not one. The Union is lost . It is high time for Kingfish Part 2.

Re: John Edwards, looking the worst in the face

John Gray — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 03:33:59 GMT

The War On Poverty was actually very successful unlike what killed it off,the war in Vietnam.Conservatives would have people believe that the War on Poverty was a failure and was nothing more than a wealth transfer scheme.Actually it was neither and it was Republicans with the "greed is good" and every man for himself and government is the root of all evil philosophies that have been blatant failures.It is because of the demonization of the poor and programs to help lift them out of poverty that the US has a higher poverty rate than any other industrialized nation.It is because of the demonization of government and taxes needed to perform basic governmental functions that we bridges collapsing in Minnesota.Meanwhile the George W.Bush's of this world make money through sweetheart deals instead of hard work and merit and then have the temerity to say that the suggestion that they should contribute more to the public welfare because they are wealthy(to whom much has been given,much is expected) is scoffed at and called socialism.

Re: John Edwards, looking the worst in the face

Breaker — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:52:28 GMT

It hard to know how well known the details of Edwards lawsuits are. The terrible accident involving Valerie was clearly the fault of a munipality and pool managment that failed to keep a pool drain cover attached. As terrible as they are, these accidents do happen. After winning $6 mil against the obvious blame worthy entities, John Edwards went after the pool drain cover manufacturer on the rather preposterous grounds (at least out side our law courts) that the manufacturer was somehow negligent. We all know about these crazy decisions that result in stepladders covered with warnings along the lines of don't do any of this long list of incredibly stupid things and that no one pays any attention to and which increase the cost of many things to everyone and do no good. (The missing warning in this case was presumably "Keep the drain cover you bought for saftey's sake securely on in the interest of saftey."

John Edward is nothing more than a typical, but obviously good, trial lawyer, who sought out extremely compelling accident victims and enriched himself. We need someone in touch with more common problems than these. John Edwards will not be able to find an innocent fall guy to sue to fix the poverty problem he's basing his campaign on.

Since Bobby's day, we've found that most remianing poverty is very culturally driven and consequently the means to alleviate it appear extremely difficult and unclear. I see no recognition of this hard reality in anything John Edwards says. Were he to be President we'd have nothing but another ineffectual "War on Poverty" with ill conceived, headline grabbling programs that would amount to nothing more than throwing money at the problem so John could "keep" his campaign promises.

Do you have your flag turned off in threadview?

Days — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 01:30:38 GMT

It shows next to your name in flat view, but your Slate flag doesn't show in the thread view. I've checked in firefox and explorer, everyone else has the slate icon but you (in threads view) so as I'm viewing the thread, there's the Slate icon next to John Dickerson's post, but not next to yours.

I'm trying to put myself in her shoes...

She reads this article and wants to respond...

she joins and does a decent job of posting (her first ever, not bad)...

then there's a hundred replies...

she reads at first and responds once and then is overwhelmed...

without the slate flag in the thread, I doubt she notices a post addressing her as Ms Edwards...

that's all, nothing wrong with your manners.

So it goes.

Freditor_G — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 00:23:50 GMT

If you have to pick your poison, I'll go with "Ms." and you take "Mrs." Either choice has the potential to offend. I was raised to think of "Ms." as good manners. Even if I disagreed with the logic, which I don't, I'd probably still use it to minimize the giving of offense. I'm just barely old enough to remember that "political correctness" used to be called "manners."

Anyhow, this conversation is irrelevant to this thread, and I'll bow out from it at this point.

My Slate logo is a disclaimer, not a cry for attention. I work for the magazine. If the disclaimer didn't make it evident, my comments still wouldn't have left room for confusion. Another non-issue, however.

Re: John Edwards, looking the worst in the face

gringo_911 — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:36:41 GMT

Well, this depends on whether he made his money honestly or not. That's pretty muc hte crust of the matter. Al Capone also started poor and made a lot of money. He can be hardly characterized as following the footsteps of the American Dream.

buzz off...

daysend — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:26:19 GMT

everything I wrote was true: your opinion not withstanding.

Re: John Edwards, looking the worst in the face

cosmicdebris — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:21:53 GMT

still clinging to the quaint idea that anybody can become president? sorry, but it takes a WHOLE BUNCH of money, and this is money edwards earned himself, as opposed to money his father, grandfather and great grandfather passed along to him. i may not vote for john edwards but he is a fine representative of the american dream.

Re: No wonder our country is in the shape it's in...

cosmicdebris — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:13:50 GMT

BRAVO!!! BRAVO!!!

spoken like a true "thinking person". thank you!

Re: John Edwards, looking the worst in the face

cosmicdebris — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:56:47 GMT

yes indeed, it is a TRAVESTY that a man who came from a blue clooar family dared to be anything but blue collar. i'm sure his parents are (were) chagrined.

Re: her generation feels differently...

cosmicdebris — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:53:15 GMT

WHAT are you talking about??? as a female member of "her" generation, may i say you are full of it?? it's an "honorific" a "title". geeze.

Re: John Edwards, looking the worst in the face

cosmicdebris — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:46:48 GMT

so, suing a doctor is, ipso facto, bad. and john edwards is therefore, bad. hmmmmm......

her generation feels differently...

daysend — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:42:58 GMT

Geoff, you make perfect sense, but it still remains that her generation would react differently to that title; Ms is short for Miss; which is the proper title for an unmarried woman. To a married woman, it feels awkward being addressed as a miss... at least in her generation. Mz is the title for a divorcee, and became a cultural symbol of feminism; if you had used Mz it would have been offensive. As it was, she probably didn't see your post without the flag.

John Edward's Political Views and Work

lauriehelenwright — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:16:48 GMT

I applaud Elizabeth Edwards. Getting a large judgment against a physician means a Judge or Jury determined Edwards had established a physician made a mistake causing permanent disability to an individual. That's not a bad thing. We are all held to a standard of professionalism for our work. Why shd doctors escape responsibility for their errors? WINNING malpractice cases is incredibily difficult. Long hours of work and courage.

John and Elizabeth Edwards have devoted time and money to the causes the candidate Edwards talks about - poverty in America and the 2 Americas. They established the center to study povery at the U of NC. You read an article in The Economist. It takes the position Edwards is directing the debate in this election by the issues he has raised. http://www.economist.com/world/na/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=9514336 Thanks for your time.