The controversy over Senator Obama's use of Reagan as an example of a successful agent of change continues across the blogosphere.  Today, the owner of Daily Kos added his views including his opinion of John Edwards's reaction to Obama's comments:

Update: Edwards joins Bill Clinton:

Ronald Reagan, the man who busted unions, the man who did everything in his power to destroy the organized labor movement, the man who created a tax structure that favored the richest Americans against middle class and working families, ... we know that Ronald Reagan is not an example of change for a presidential candidate running in the Democratic Party.

A nicely crafted straw man argument, if I've ever seen one. Bravo, John, for being an ass and dishonestly distorting what Obama said!

[brief note of clarification: John Edwards did not "join" Bill Clinton. He did not refer to Bill Clinton nor Clinton to him.  He did not agree with Clinton.  He spoke his own mind in his own words.  But nice trying to pin those two together...]

cross-posted from Daily Kos

Nevada's caucuses are this Saturday morning; South Carolina's primary follows the following Saturday.

We're half-way through the "early states" part of this process with a long way still to go till the convention in August, and I'm sad to say I have only 31 more Thursday EENRs left to write.  Who knew when TomP, NCDem Amy and a few stalwart others started this exceptional series that we'd be able to keep it up this long.  Who knew we'd be having this much fun!

Nataline Sarkisyan's father said today that there is a hole in his heart since losing his daughter.  "Cigna killed my daughter," he said. "Vote for this man; vote for John Edwards."

"They tried negotiating with the insurance company," John Edwards responded.  "If negotiating worked, we'd have universal health care already."

Senator Edwards also laid out three clear criteria for people to ask candidates to evaluate who should be our next president:

1. Are you for fundamental change in Washington or continuing the status quo?


2. If you are for fundamental change, will you fight for it?


3. Is this change personal for you?

cross-posted from Daily Kos, original date: Thurs 12/27/07

By this time next week, we should know a lot more about the state of the Democratic presidential primary race. Every time I look at my cell phone, I see the countdown.  Every time I check in at the Edwards web site, I see the countdown.  When it went from 'more than a week away' to '7 days', I about flipped.  Then a little while ago, as time marches on, it become less than a week away.  Yow-za!  Brain freeze! (and hence the original 'unnamed' edition of tonight's EENR)

So, let's all take a moment to do something very very important....

breathe.

That's right - oxygen is very important to our ability to tolerate the stresses that are coming up over the next 6+ days and beyond as the Edwards Express rolls through Iowa and on to New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and February 5th.  So, whether you're stuck behind your computer screen or getting ready to head out for another round of snowy canvassing or dialing another phone number to another undecided voter, here's a very good exercise for the next month or so:

cross-posted from Daily Kos

Welcome to the Thurday edition of the Edwards Evening News Round-Up (the title will become obvious shortly!). As usual with this campaign, it's been a rollicking day: from a new union endorsement to a 1,000 student rally, from a blast at the Bush mortgage plan to volunteering for Ohio's 5th District special election, with a little global warming thrown in for good measure. Here are tonight's stories:

• CWA Nevada


• Global Warming: Al Gore vs. Lieberman-Warner


• Homeownership


• Ohio's 5th


• More Support and a bit of Walking for Edwards

cross-posted at Daily Kos
I had the opportunity today to attend the press conference following the Kaiser Foundation's Presidential Health Care Forum. (H/T to Tracy Joan of the Edwards campaign for getting me in.) I thought you might be interested in the questions asked and Senator Edwards' answers, and will provide them here.

The forum itself was held at the offices of the Kaiser Family Foundation in downtown Washington, DC.

The Presidential Candidate Forums, organized by Families USA and the Federation of American Hospitals, are designed to elicit detailed discussion with Democratic and Republican presidential candidates about health reform. Candidates are interviewed by a panel of prominent journalists from ABC News, National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal, and the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

There were A LOT of very disappointed people Saturday afternoon, when uStream.tv failed to deliver the John Edwards breakout session as announced. Well, along comes PoliticsTV.com to the rescue!!

Check it out below the fold...

Many of us know about the work John and Elizabeth Edwards have done on behalf of young people -- from the computer lab set up in their son Wade's name to the College for Everyone program in Greene County NC to help high school students from this rural and impoverished area go on to college.

[cross-posted at JRE blog]