Quote:
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards says Jesus would be appalled at how the United States has ignored the plight of the suffering, and that he believes children should have private time to pray at school.
Edwards, in an interview with the Web site Beliefnet.com, said Jesus would be most upset with the selfishness of Americans and the country's willingness to go to war "when it's not necessary."
"I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs," Edwards told the site. "I think he would be appalled, actually."
(source link)
Before you write agreeing with him as I know many of you agree that the US is a selfish country I am talking the intelligence of what he said as a political statement.
First, in regards to the religiosity of the statement I don't think Edwards gains much as Democrats are far less likely (by a margin of 2-1) to regularly attend church services then Republicans. Then again, I don't think he will lose much on it either. It's the other part, that about the "selfish" America that Edwards needs to avoid.
Edwards, as a candidate, presents himself as a sort of "common man" who works against "special interests" such as "big corporations." You will note that this story is not about big corporations, it is about the selfishness of generic American. This is where John Edwards must be very careful. His target audience is not the far-left, but rather the center-left. These people, who are more blue collar then white collar, are less-likely to be receptive to messages that imply that the "average American" is not generous (which is false, BTW, in terms of charity).
Edwards must keep it clear that he is the "moderate, safe" candidate, because he will never be the run away frontrunner Attempts to gain support from the far-left of the party (especially highly questionable attempts to use religious symbolism, although this may not have been such an attempt) will not propel him to the top. The simple fact is former Senator Edwards, like Senator Kerry before him, is the "fall back" candidate at this time. Both Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama have major weaknesses and they could collapse like Howard Dean, and Wesley Clark last time around. If John Edwards wishes to make up run mistakes like this will not help him. If he repeats them, it is likely it will be someone like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson who will be waiting in the winds to run against the GOP nominee.
Update: thx to headphase for noting my typo re: Bill Richardson.
Last edited by jimservo on 05 Mar 2007, 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
05 Mar 2007, 6:54 pm
