Thank you, John Edwards

Today John Edwards withdrew from the 2008 US Presidential race. That's a real shame. Edwards' campaign often spoke of “two Americas”, one for the rich and powerful and one for everyone else. He was the only candidate to talk about the dangers of corporate greed, saying that he grew up believing that the person who worked in a mill was as good as the person who owned the mill.

I liked John Edwards' message, and I voted for him in the Illinois Democratic Primary. US citizens who live overseas permanently can vote in national elections for Federal office (President/Vice President, US Senator and US Representative) from the US Congressional District where they were last registered to vote in the US. In my case, it was the Congressional District for the northern end of Chicago. Because of distance and time needed to mail things, overseas ballots are sent out early (in my case, December). I mailed my ballot back to Chicago several weeks ago.

As it happens, my vote for Edwards was meaningless, even before he dropped out. Illinois has one of the dumbest primary election systems in America. First, the voter casts a vote for the person wanted for the nomination. This is called the “beauty contest” because no delegates come with that; it's essentially just a taxpayer-funded opinion poll of voters. The delegates are selected directly in an election in each Congressional District—if the candidate has any. Edwards had no delegates running in the Congressional District I vote it.

Edwards campaign was probably doomed from the start, with all the attention going to Clinton and Obama and their “historic” campaigns. I hope that his themes of ending poverty and providing universal healthcare are adopted, because they were the best in the pack.

So, you may be wondering, what did I think was wrong with Obama and Clinton? Let me be clear: Whichever one of them is the Democratic nominee will get my vote. There's no way I'd vote for any of the remaining Republicans, and Bloomberg? Yeah, right. And pigs will fly.

Having said all that, Obama is without a doubt the best speaker in the 2008 presidential race, however, too often he says nothing, but he says it really well. Clinton, on the other hand, says a lot, but not necessarily what I want to hear. Neither candidate speaks to me or my ideals as well as Edwards did, which is why I voted for him. But with Edwards gone, I actually wouldn't be unhappy with either one; they were my second choices. To be honest, right now it doesn't matter to me which one is the nominee.

To me, the most important thing is electing someone to undo all the damage caused by the Bush-Cheney regime. Either Clinton or Obama would at least start the process, but none of the Republicans would. That choice is clear.

I'm glad John Edwards was in the race. He raised issues that need to be talked about and dealt with. I hope that the person elected in November will deal with some of those issues.