Playing into my '08 predictions: Edwards a threat

Hillary's camp came out today: They admitted their fear of John Edwards.

Washington Post reports that Edward's and Clinton having been mincing words in Iowa as the caucus nears, but Clinton is not making the best case for herself. In a discussion about Edwards signature issue of poverty, Clinton began citing the success of her husband's administration in the are of economics to bolster her rep.

"People talk about poverty in this campaign," Clinton said during a crowded event [in Independence, Iowa], noting her husband's ... was an era of great progress on the issue. "Well, we lifted more people out of poverty during the 1990s than at any time in our history. We had policies that actually helped to create 22.7 million new jobs..."

Let's pick this apart for a second.

Edwards claims that no one is talking poverty, so instead of citing her own record, Hillary jumps on the I-Used-To-Run-The-White-House train. Then, she claims that more people were "lifted out of poverty" than "any other time in our history." Huh?

 

Can you say Reconstruction Era? Can you say New Deal? 

Emerging from the Great Depression the US did a 180 degree economic turn-around, and I'm sorry Hil, but you can't match the level of disparity that was reached in those days. Roosevelt raised GDP 128 percent in 1944 when the US joined World War II. In the '30s, unemployment fell 20 percent due to New Deal policies. Large families who were in poverty in 1930 rose to the top of the middle-class bracket because they had four or five workers in the labor force, all of whom were working overtime by the beginning of World War II. So, Hil, take a look at your history... you may have outnumbered the New Deal, but you - oh, I mean, your husband certainly didn't out percentage the era.

And what's with taking credit for Bill's record anyway? This is exactly what is going to kill Hillary come DNC time. She has no record of her own to call upon. Yes, she has international notoriety. Yes, she can pull on her husband for pointers. Yes, she has had White House experience. But she was the First Lady, not a politician or a bureaucrat.  

In the end, when all polls have been taken and all the primaries are down, when the chips are laid down and nomination time rolls around, the Democrats will not nominate Hillary for one simple reason: she's not electable. No more than Barack Obama or me.

The DNC will see the nomination of John Edwards for Democratic Presidential Candidate. He is the only candidate with enough national name recognition, charm, whiteness, Protestant-ness, maleness and money to get the job done in November. 

Following his nomination (and this is just a hunch) Hillary's feelings will be really hurt and 

Barack's war chest will seem a waste, so they will run independent - separately of course - massacring the Democratic vote by splintering it into three, and another Republican will become president. God willing it will not be another neo-con, but maybe someone with a little more heart and a little less passion for oil money. 

But don't practice santeria; I ain't got no crystal ball; and if I had a million dollars, well, I wouldn't bet on this outcome. It's just a hunch.