John Edwards and America Rising from the Misled

While corporate commentators like Chris Mathews squirm at the new poll showing Edwards surging to share the lead in Iowa, it is entirely predictable to hear him demean John Edwards supporters as hard-ankled clods in pickup trucks. That kind of corporate media editorializing, however, does not stop the hard clear message against corporate greed and the corporate welfare state that is being heard in Iowa and beyond.

Just as corporate greed was behind the effort to privatize Social Security, it, too, is bankrolling the education privatization effort in K-12 and in higher education. Turning education as a civic commitment to our citizens into a half-trillion dollar a year private commodity controlled by Wall Street is just another part of the Grover Whitehurst nightmare vision of the corporate welfare state.

If civic virtue and a democratic republic are to survive against greed, self-aggrandizing corruption, and corporate socialism, the political choice could not be clearer. To save America, it will take one America, one Coalition of the Unwilling, composed of working and middle class families, professionals and production workers, technologists and theoreticians, all intent upon America Rising from the Misled. And that is what the manipulative insider beltway hacks like Mathews and the mercenaries of K Street fear most because it represents a unified America whose goals and aims challenge the privileges of wealth, race, or religion.

From ABC:

. . . . ABC News spoke to Edwards on his way to his "closing argument" speech in Dubuque in which the candidate argued that his aggressive populism is necessary for the country, a message that he summed up as: "We have to stop the corporate greed that's killing the middle class in America."

Edwards told a friendly crowd at the Colt Drum & Bugle Corps Center in downtown Dubuque that "if we elect another president appointed by the status quo -- from either party -- the middle-class will fall further behind and our children will pay the price. ... Real change is going to take a real fight. It always does."

Implicit in his speech were criticisms of Clinton and Obama, with whom Edwards is locked in a three-way fight, according to local polls. Edwards' crowds seem to be growing, and anecdotally other campaigns say they see an uptick in his support in their internal campaign-tracking polls.

"To get real change, we need a president who will stand up against the big corporations and powerful interests that control Washington. Nobody who takes their money and defends the broken system is going to bring change," Edwards said, in a shot at the former first lady.

"And unfortunately," Edwards continued in his speech, turning his sights to Obama, "nobody who thinks we can just sit down and talk them into compromise is going to bring change either."

Edwards acknowledged in the interview that he was projecting a sunnier demeanor in these closing weeks of the campaign than previously when it came to criticism of his rivals. But he insisted his language against "the entrenched interests" is just "as aggressive and passionate." . . . .