A Fake Consultant Field Trip: John Edwards Visits The Fighting Trojans

It was a cool spring afternoon, the sun peeking out from behind occasionally gray and ominous patches of clouds.

The kind of spring day that carries the hope of renewal-the time of the season when it seems every team has a shot at the pennant.

The wind was blowing from right to left-the kind of wind that favors the batter.
You just knew the ball would be flyin’ out of the old yard today.

The old yard-Everett Memorial Stadium-is the home of one of the best logos in baseball: the home of the Aquasox. (Go Frogs!)

As far as I know, this is the only professional baseball team to ever take the field in tie-dye, and the “Frogstock” uniforms are a look that’s ready for “the show”.

But that doesn’t matter today.

Today we’re headed across town, to Everett Community College, the home of the Trojans, because John Edwards is expected in an hour or so.

Everett, Washington, is a former timber “hub” located more or less 30 miles up I-5 from Seattle, where logs floated downriver from the Cascade Mountains to be processed in the timber and pulp mills. As the forested land decreased, so has the processing activity downstream, and the formerly prosperous town has had to work to gain back that lost income.

Naval Station Everett, opened in 1994, supports an aircraft carrier and several other ships.

This is the city where the railroad serving the Pacific Coast makes a right turn to Chicago, but that’s hardly Everett’s biggest impact on world transportation.

That would be the Boeing assembly facility next to Paine Field, where 747, 767, and 777 subassemblies are merged into finished aircraft on production lines in the world’s largest building.

This is a blue collar town, big time.

And apparently, a town that was ready to meet John Edwards.

With an hour to go before the event, the line was already longer than the 300-seat capacity of the room. At a minimum, this would be a standing-room only crowd.

The room filled quickly, first the seats, then the standing room, then the space out behind the open door at the back of the room; and more folks showing up all the time. By my estimate between 550 and 600 turned out, for a Tuesday 2PM event.

In a move reminiscent of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Edwards’ staffers were forced to open a Riff-Raff Room for the spillover crowd.

I expected to see an early 20’s college-age crowd, but that was not what I saw-instead, staffers were observed bringing in younger faces to seat early.

The average age of the crowd was probably closer to mid-to-late thirties, with substantial numbers of audience members who appeared to be in their 60’s or older. Much of that group (perhaps 30), were in nursing uniforms, and medical programs are offered at the school.

Edwards was late, having just attended a union town hall meeting, but it was accepted with good humor by the crowd, and the Mayor of Everett, Ray Stephanson; who had to endure a collective groan from the crowd as he was introduced as the third introducer of Edwards.

But now we introduce…

John Edwards.

Quickly: selected high points from the speech…

--The crowd strongly agreed with his exhortation that the Iraq spending bill be returned, with timelines, again and again, until it is signed. (As I’m writing a rumor is being offered that “timelines” will be replaced by “guidelines” in order to craft a deal, but I cannot verify this.)

--He suggested supporters and opponents alike consider joining One Corps-not necessarily to do politics, but if they wanted, to do politically agnostic “service” work for the common good.

--Edwards proposed the US spend $3-4 billion annually to educate citizens in other countries, as a form of foreign aid that would create affinity between those students and the US. In the Middle East, these schools would present an alternative to the madrassa system, he explained, and would help enhance US security long-term.

--He discussed the economic advantages of developing alternative fuel technologies here in the US, suggesting 1-2 million “green jobs” could be created.

--As he has often, he reminded the crowd: “You must be patriotic about something other than war”.

--“Distributed generation” and the idea of providing incentives to utility companies to compensate for lost sales caused by improved conservation efforts-wait a minute…what was that?

Yes, I said that correctly-Edwards wants to compensate the utilities for lost sales caused by conservation. Why? Otherwise there is no incentive for a utility to sell less electricity-no benefit to the producer for a change in the structure of the market, and the producer is less likely to cooperate. The crowd seemed to be in agreement.

Why conservation? We use 22 million barrels of oil a day, he reports; 12 million of that is imported.

--He again proposed a goal of 25% of electrical generation be supplied by alternative fuels, and a goal of 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050.

--He discussed the “dysfunctional” nature of our health system, another topic that was well received by the crowd.

--A very popular proposal was his “college for everyone” national service initiative. It’s easy to explain: volunteer ten hours a week, and your tuition and books are paid for. It was not just students applauding this proposal, I might add.

I’m not going to walk through all the questions, but I’ll tell you the best, most honest answer I heard all day. When asked about RFID chips and their effect on privacy, Edwards, in an especially bold move, looked the questioner dead in the eye, and answered: “I don’t know.”

The questions answered, he did the crowd, and seemed (forgive me Hillary) to have a “Bill Clinton” crowd presence-the “acknowledge you to the exclusion of all others” kind of perceived genuine interest that seemed to serve him well in this crowd today.

Afterwards, Edwards came out back for a quick media huddle, and then once more he was off to shake hands-this time with the supporters who had been in the Riff-Raff room.

Then into the van, and off to another night on the rubber chicken circuit-the Law Day dinner being the fundraising stop for the evening.

So there you have it: the visiting player comes to town, makes a few pitches, fields a few questions-and looked like he might have knocked one out of the park.

Not a bad day at the old ballyard, if you ask me.

On A Cracked Rib, Or, America, Meet Courage

“Every event I attended, somebody cried on my shoulder…”
--Elizabeth Edwards, March 22nd, 2007.

Before we go any further, a couple comments:

I barely looked at John Edward’s face during the press conference today.

But what a story Elizabeth’s face told.

I saw her smile, and I saw her courage, and I saw her fear.

I cannot thank both of you enough for allowing us to share this moment.

Elizabeth commented that she was glad to be able to tell her family first.

If you didn’t know it before, you have a bigger family here, and we are right here with you.

Just like you, we’re scared.

But just like you, we’re ready to take this thing we have forward together.

I’m a big fan of IZ Kamakiwiwo’ole. Who the hell is that? He’s the Hawaiian singer and player who does that hauntingly beautiful ukulele version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “What A Wonderful World” merged together. Which is a fantastic musical choice for the moment.

But not the best. There’s another song on that album: “Henehene Kou 'Aka”.

Unlike the other song, this one is lighter, happier, and looks to the future.

As we should.

So reassure the kids for us, let’s all have a little cry together, load up the ipod with happy music, and let’s move this thing along.

And with that said, let’s talk politics.

As is my custom, the remainder of this analysis is very much a “just the facts, ma’am” examination of cold, hard realities.

First, in an outcome unique to American politics, I think this is going to push the couple into the top tier of this race, if it’s handled well.

And oh my God was it handled well today. The Edwards couple has given us a lesson in family values that ends any R candidate’s chances of grabbing that issue for this cycle, if that already hadn’t occurred.

This event will be an opportunity to advance the discussion around national health care. What more powerful driver is there than Elizabeth representing all Americans with an uncertain health future and unsure how they’ll get the kind of care the Edwards family expects?

Here’s the tough one. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT attempt to campaign fundraise over this.

It will appear cold and heartless.

If money will come from this, let it come of its own accord.

On the other hand, a “pink ribbon” link, to support cancer research, or to help the American Cancer Society provide wigs and prosthetics for those who can’t afford them would be a magnificent gesture that would carry the imprimatur of truth, coming from this family in this situation.

Tell George and Jonathan to step away from the keyboard for today and let this one develop naturally.

One more thing-accept the invitation from “ellen”.

It will be an iconic event that will deliver woman voters better than any other campaign appearance you will make this cycle. Bring your doctor, and be just as open and loving as you were today, and you will not go wrong. (Be polite, too. Bring Ellen a present.)

Right now there isn’t much else we need to say.

And that’s good news in itself.

The fight goes on, and the fighters are all still in place.

The problems haven’t changed, but the way Americans perceive the ability of the Edwards’ to solve those problems may have. In a good way.

To sum up, in one sentence: medically, not so good; but politically, unbelievably good.

And finally, slipping out of the “fake consultant” character for a moment…

…if we should meet in person, you can borrow my shoulder anytime.

On Unexpected Opportunities, Or, Wanna Win Texas?

Every logical bone in every D body tells us Texas is enemy territory.

Texas voted for Mr. Bush over Kerry 61% to 38%. The state is so R they didn’t even bother to count Ron Paul’s votes in Texas 14, as he ran unopposed.

The Governor is primarily known for his ineptitude and that classic nickname: Rick “Goodhair” Perry (modified by Molly Ivins to “The Coiffure” in 2006).

Texas Lege veteran Warren Chisum has recently been linked to the “Non-moving Earth” movement (all Copernicus, no Galileo on that site, I might add), which may or may not be an effort to distract from his record, and he’s not even on his best form here.

In this story Chisum proposes diverting cash the State currently gives to poor families (the TANF program) into a “Healthy Marriage Initiative” that hopes to solve the biggest problem facing impoverished Texas families-poverty-through an ad campaign promoting marriage.

Texas does things big, and so it is with Legislative redistricting. You’ll recall D legislators actually fled the State to try to prevent the important votes on the issue.

None of this looks good for Ds who want to chalk up a big “W” in the ’08 Presidential. But perhaps all is not lost.

sarantx, over at the John Edwards site, points us to a trail that leads to State Senator Eliot Shapleigh’s “Texas On The Brink” report. A quick look at sarantx’s post and you see the troubles with Texas might just be self-inflicted.

Interestingly, it’s a particularly tough place to be living and female-near highest birth and cervical cancer rates, yet near the bottom in health care and wealth (only 6 other states had more women below the poverty line).

Now here’s the good news. Voter registration for Texas women is 43rd of the 50 states, and turnout is 49th (41.7% average turnout 1998-2000). The State estimates that in 2005 there were 11,513,750 Texas women, which suggests 6.7 million females of voting age did not vote. What was the difference between Mr. Bush and Kerry in Texas in 2004? 1,692,768 votes. That’s pretty good news.

That’s potential.

How might we harvest some of those 6.7 million potential votes?

I have some ideas.

Anyone here following the story of the Texas Youth Commission raise your hands. OK, for the rest of you, I’ll work backwards. The Superintendent of the Ayers halfway house was arrested for shredding documents March 9th. On March 7th the Texas Rangers, among others, had to be called in to take over another State agency’s jail operations, and this seems to have occurred because the employees of that agency were a danger to the minors in their care (that’s right-the inmates were happy to be involved in a police raid).

There are more than 750 allegations of sexual abuse, and they emanate from every single one of the State’s juvenile detention facilities. Apparently these folks adopted a unique interpretation of “No Child Left Behind”.

A Lege-appointed committee asked for the resignation of the Board of the Commission during their first meeting. When the Board declined, Senate Bill 1921 was introduced to do it for them. The Governor has a representative involved now as well.

It appears there were at least two years of warnings which were ignored by the TYC management and the Governor's Administration.

And much like Mark Foley in ’06, there’s a huge R hypocrisy issue here that can be used to start a dialogue.

How many mothers would support abusing a child?

How many mothers want their State abusing children?

What “Messes With Texas” more than an ongoing policy of covering up child rape?

And there’s the first opening to get the Rs out of office.

We need to change-for the kids.

“How long do you want to keep paying taxes to have our kids abused in our town/county/State?” “Don’t our kids deserve not to be messed with again?”

There’s a national issue that can be addressed, as well. This is where you point out that unless we treat our veterans (and Texas is a State full of current and future veterans) better; it will be the husbands and children of Texas women who will suffer.

These are two great issues to rally around.

Start targeting women Sunday after church. Start going to the beauty parlor, and grocery stores and getting women registered. Are you a Texas high school student? Why not do a registration drive at the football games this fall? Target the moms in the crowd particularly, as women are the group least likely to be registered.

Get the female seniors in your school registered as well, now and next year. They likely know someone who can tell a story just like the stories in the news, and they probably want change.

The message here should be empowerment-invite women to take control of the process of creating their own power, to organize the campaign; and (are you listening D Party?) that Ds will spend the money now to get this on the way, for the sake of Texas women. And their kids.

Just as the Hillary/Apple internet ad was cheap and amazingly effective, a few copies of Final Cut Pro and access might get this movement even more push, with a neighbor to neighbor element that will play well in the State.

By the way, any fellas reading this? You could be improving the lives of potential woman voters at beaches across the State as a Volunteer Deputy Registrar bearing a message of empowerment this summer. How’s that for doing a public service?

Remember-there is more effort involved in getting non-voters to the polls, but the results are worth it. A recently empowered voter will likely vote again-ask D voters from ‘06 if they are likely ’08 voters. I’ll bet the “yes” answer is well above 50%. I submit you’ll see the same here-if women feel they can really make a difference in the lives of their kids, it makes a committed voter.

So let’s sum it all up.

Texas is a tough nut to crack, but the chance may be there at last.

Capturing 25% of non-voting Texas women would have changed the ’04 results to a D victory, with no other changes in voting patterns.

There are two issues that could create an outrage vote-just as in ’06. (Unless Tom DeLay runs again-then there’s three…)

Investment in tools to get Texas women and their neighbors registered to vote, and involved in D campaigns, could pay off big time-but the effort needs to start now. A D victory in ’08 will be based on success in ’07.

If we get lucky, we just might get another Ann Richards out of the deal, too.

If we can pull that off, even the Dixie Chicks will be proud of Texas again.

On Pushing The Envelope, Or, Let’s Meet The Neighbors

Over the past week or so, we’ve discussed the likelihood that the “who’s getting nominated” question will not be decided for a few months yet.

We assume that, at least through summer (“you don’t introduce new products in August”), D candidates will concentrate on reinforcing the D message generically, while fundraising for their own causes. We assume the real dog-eat-dog “pick me, not them” part of the battle waits till Labor Day and beyond.

Our little blogging community has also seen a couple of recent examples of the power of shared effort. Our muscles are being flexed, and it feels pretty good.

We have an entire summer ahead of us, and potential power to direct.

So I have a suggestion: why don’t we spend some time over the next few months, each of us, personally, visiting the internet towns and villages where Rs gather. Let’s politely introduce ourselves, let’s respectfully address issues of concern, where we find them; and let’s start the process of reminding purple voters we find there that reason, common sense, and good government are more likely to be achieved by choosing a D candidate over any likely R candidate.

To put it another way, rather than waiting for our candidates to begin rustling up votes for the D side, let’s do it ourselves.

This may not be as impossible an idea as you might think. There is a huge sense of Republican concern that the Party does not have what it takes to win in ’08, and this is our chance to take advantage of it.

Unlike Dick Cheney, I will not tell you that we will be greeted as liberators.

Instead, don’t be surprised if you encounter something more like this...

“I feel that ‘fake consultant’ s concerns are shared by a lot of people. I live in California where we have a large amount of illegals. It sounds like a bad idea to deny schooling to the children. In reality over fifty percent of the Hispanic kids drop out of school by the ninth grade here in California. Girls become pregant quite frequently at twelve or thirteen years old. The males are usually members of a gang by the time they’re fifteen. As ‘fake consultant’ mentions “idle hands are the Devils’ playground” and yes — these idle layaround Mexican kids love to kill people and rape and drive drunk and kill innocent people. They’ll have three generations of off spring going while a normal White couple is still contemplating their first child.

If the illegal parents were rounded up and deported back to Mexico or Central America where they came from, they would probably take their children with them — although there is a big market now on having teenage girls in Central America ‘make’ babies so their pimps (for lack of a better word) can sell the baby to parentless Whites here in America. Possibly some of the deportees would raise extra cash by selling their ‘ninos’ before they were deported.”

...which was a response from a comment I made on Buchanan.org.

When something like this is posted on TPMCafe, or Kos, or (insert your favorite community here), it’s considered trollism, and is quickly removed.

You will, if you decide to visit the neighbors, have to adjust to a different definition of polite behavior. Don’t despair. There is also an opportunity to engage with more moderate citizens of the villages as well.

That engagement, and the opinions of those who read but don’t post-there is the value of making the social effort.

We are in a battle for purple voters in this cycle, and every one will matter.

Let us now begin to visit those voters where they collect, and let’s-again, politely and with respect-start a conversation about what makes more sense for our shared country.

If we are met with responses like the one above, it’s a bonus. Purple voters who see this are more likely to consider our reasoned response. If we instead, are met with more calm responses, let’s tell our story, let them tell theirs, and let the purple voters decide.

Again, this too can help to move more purple voters into looking at any D candidate in a better light.

So where are these Conservative-leaning purple voters?

Redstate is important enough that it has become the...well, the Redstate of Conservative communities. Just like your home village, there are diarists who bring attention to the news as they see it. You’ll find interesting articles and links, just as you would expect, and a full recitation of the R talking points.

I posted and responded here in ’06, and at the time I was surprised at how often moderate voices would appear. I was not all that surprised at how often immoderate voices would appear, however. Questioning the patriotism of dissenters is a common practice. So consider yourself warned.

Visit Buchahan.org. You will be surprised with the strident disagreement these Conservatives have with this Administration. The site is not enormously active, but it is highly informative in showing not all Rs move in lockstep.

I have not become a member here or really visited, but if you wish to reach deep within the beast, here’s the Ann Coulter chat room. I anticipate few real purple voters here, but I’m often wrong, and this could be another example.

In an effort to induce audience participation, I’ll leave this list incomplete, and give you reader/participants the chance to fill it in a bit.

You might be surprised, should you wander in the Republican woods, not only how diverse opinions can be, but how much of what I perceive as a sense of desperation you’ll note in your interactions over there.

If you don’t have a good feeling about ‘08 now, it’s likely that after a few visits, you will.

So let’s sum up.

We have power, we have a summer to kill, and we have the ability to lay the groundwork for the ’08 election, so that any D candidate can hit the ground with a running start.

We can gain education, inspiration, and maybe even some of those highly desirable purple votes by taking a trip to the home of the neighbors.

Here’s the best part-by comparing our experiences, we gain a roadmap for the time ahead.

So go meet the neighbors-it’s good for us, and good for them, too.

Then let’s all get together and talk about it.

Now get out of here-and we’ll see you back with a report real soon.