[This article continues a series begun a few months ago, when I looked at the five Democratic candidates for president who weren't in the top three. This article and two others will examine the three frontrunners. This is mostly a critique of their web pages, for informational purposes. Campaign tactics and strategy will be addressed later. The three frontrunners are being profiled in alphabetic order, as I used for the other five candidates.

You can read about the other five in my previous articles (Part 1 and Part 2). The first of the frontrunner articles ran Tuesday, about Hillary Clinton. The last article will take a look at Barack Obama.]

John Edwards

http://johnedwards.com/

John Edwards is sticking with his campaign theme of there being "Two Americas" (one rich, one poor), and wanting to bring us all to "One America."

He's sticking with it, because it's a great idea. It used to be called "Populism" -- the concept of being for "the people" instead of always for the powerful.

But call it whatever you want, he could ride this idea to victory. If (and here's the catch) he can actually get his message out to "the people." Because there are a lot of vested interests -- including Big Media -- who hate the concept of populism with a vengeance.

There's a reason there are so many puff pieces out there on John Edwards' haircuts, and that reason is he's hard to frontally attack on his issues. Most of his ideas would be wildly popular with average American voters if they knew about them. And attacking them head-on just shines a spotlight on what they are. So they attack Edwards on his own personal wealth instead.

The usual smear is: "Edwards is rich, therefore what he says about caring for poverty is a sham. No rich people care about poverty." This basic smear takes many forms, but almost all of them can be boiled down to that essence. That this completely ignores the fact of American philanthropy, and also ignores every single other candidate's personal finances just shows how shallow it truly is.

Edwards' campaign website is very polished and impressive. There is a huge section for average people to blog about the campaign, and the whole site was obviously put together by someone who knew what they were doing. This is no surprise for a frontrunner, especially one such as Edwards who has been doing a lot of outreach to the online community. But although the bells-and-whistles quotient is high, it is also chock full of solid information.

There is an extensive amount of video to check out, and transcripts of all his speeches (look under the "News Room" menu item at the top). There is also one of the best "Issues" pages I have yet seen -- with sixteen fully-detailed position papers to read. [Well, actually fifteen. The "Global Poverty" link, as of this writing, takes you to "Page not found."] Each and every one of these spells out exactly what Edwards would do as president on all aspects of the issue. I thought the one on Health Care was a little light, until I got to the end and realized there was a PDF file with even more details, if you wanted them. The only complaint I have (and it's a minor one) is some of the pages have quotes at the top from various supporters, which tend to overshadow the position papers' text.

The positions Edwards takes are almost all ones I could enthusiastically support. He has several innovative and creative ideas which seem very original -- not the recycled talking points of the "main party line." Here is Edwards on income taxes, for instance:

The American tax code is unnecessarily complicated and full of shelters and loopholes that favor wealth over work. While corporations and wealthy families can hire expensive accountants and lawyers, ordinary families face unnecessary obstacles in calculating and paying their taxes. It takes seven hours to complete even the simplest tax form, the 1040EZ. One-third of EZ filers pay tax preparers. Meanwhile, for tens of millions of taxpayers who file simple returns, the Internal Revenue Service already has all the data it needs (such as household size, wages, and interest income) to calculate the tax or refund due.

In the first of a series of Saturday Morning E-Casts, John Edwards describes his plan to overhaul the tax filing system. Under his plan, the IRS will calculate millions of families' tax bills and mail it to them on a new "Form 1." Like a credit card bill, families could verify and recalculate it or simply sign and return it. Form 1 is part of Edwards' vision of a tax code that is simpler and fairer and rewards work.

... For as many as 50 million Americans, the IRS gets all the information it needs to calculate their taxes from employers and financial institutions. Under Edwards' plan, the IRS will calculate these taxpayers' bill and mail them a completed return. Families would only need to do one thing with Form 1: sign and return it. Families with more information - such as charitable contributions, capital gains, or other more complex transactions - will not be able to use Form 1. Form 1 would save taxpayers an estimated 225 millions hours a year.

And that's just one part of what he wants to do on just one issue. The rest of the ideas are (for the most part) just as fresh and interesting. If you have been led to believe Edwards is a lightweight by the mainstream media, I strongly advise checking out the Issues page on his site and deciding for yourself whether you could support his issues or not.

On Iraq, Edwards supports the immediate withdrawal of 40,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops (down to 100,000) and then the complete withdrawal of all troops within 12 to 18 months. This may be a little timid, as the public clamor for withdrawal is growing. And it is true that Edwards holds no office currently, so he is free to say whatever he thinks about Iraq without having to back his stances up by voting for one bill or another. But you have to give Edwards some credit -- of all the people running who voted for the Iraq war in the first place, Edwards was the first one (by about a year) to come out and admit he had made a mistake.

I have to say, after looking at all the candidates' web pages (except Obama's, which I haven't read yet as he's the last one I will be covering), Edwards' site impressed me the most. It's vibrant and connected to the netroots, and of all his positions I could only find one that many Democrats may not agree with:

Protecting Lawful Gun Ownership: In small towns across America, hunting and gun ownership is a way of life. John Edwards believes that law-abiding citizens have the right to defend their families and respects the long American tradition of hunting. We can protect Second Amendment gun rights while also stopping criminals from using guns. Edwards will protect the right of law-abiding citizens to participate in gun shows, an important source of economic activity in many communities, while ensuring all that all weapons sold there are subject to an instant check. He will also crack down on gun crimes.

The site does have some small problems, like a few missing pages and old information (his minimum wage policy needs to be updated now that a new law has been passed which has raised it, for instance), but all around it's an excellent presentation of who John Edwards is, what he stands for, and what he'd try to do as president.

Washington Post stories mentioning Edwards this year : 360

"Contribute" buttons on main web page : 5 (counts one for his "store," and one for "Create your fundraising page today")

Money raised in the first quarter of 2007 : $14 million

Money raised in the second quarter of 2007 : $9 million

Biggest weakness : The media-driven obsession with painting him as a lightweight or as an opportunist or someone who doesn't really believe in what he's saying. His youthful good looks should be a big plus for him, but somehow the media (and the infamous "Breck Girl" video on the internet) has managed to make it somewhat of a liability.

One real weakness is his lack of experience, when up against some of the other contenders for the nomination, but he'll have more experience than Obama in the election, who may be his toughest competitor.

Interesting quotes from his web page :

Favorite Books

Trial of Socrates
-- I.F. Stone

Into Thin Air
-- Jon Krakauer

The Working Poor
-- David Shipler

What's John Listening To?

"The Hymn of Promise"
-- Natalie Allyn Wakeley Sleeth

"The River"
-- Bruce Springsteen

"This Shirt"
-- Mary Chapin Carpenter

Favorite Links

tarheelblue.com
(UNC Men's Basketball)
(UNC Women's Basketball)