Levees Not War

We couldn’t bear to listen to the president’s State of the Union Speech Monday night, but we were happy to find this in the transcript:

“Tonight the armies of compassion continue the march to a new day in the Gulf Coast. America honors the strength and resilience of the people of this region. We reaffirm our pledge to help them build stronger and better than before. And tonight I’m pleased to announce that in April we will host this year’s North American Summit of Canada, Mexico, and the United States in the great city of New Orleans. [Applause.]”

New Orleans, 1936 (detail) by Walker Evans. Library of Congress.

The Presidential Debates commission in its wisdom deemed the great city not ready to host a presidential debate in the fall—not ready like, say, Oxford, Mississippi, with its thousands of hotel rooms and convention infrastructure. But the leaders of Canada and Mexico and the United States will come for the annual “Three Amigos Summit.” [See our friend Oyster’s take on this news, “Thank You for That,” at Your Right Hand Thief.]

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Congratulations to Barack Obama for a strong, kick-ass victory in South Carolina and a beautiful, stirring speech. That refrain “Yes We Can” is just what people need to hear. We just wish he’d kicked one butt instead of two (by coming in second).

John Edwards’s campaign strategists have been calling in to ask our advice, and here’s what we tell them: Johnny, it’s the economy. You were right to capitalize on voters’ fatigue with Obama–Clinton squabbles, but give us specific economic remedies and repeat over and over. Economic Security for a Change.

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Crooks and Liars alerts us to a powerful letter of encouragement from Martin Luther King III to John Edwards, written after their meeting over the MLK Weekend. An excerpt follows. Click here for a .pdf.

Also, undecided voters watching CNN’s Monday night’s South Carolina debate saw Edwards as the winner over Obama and Clinton.

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Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech (excerpt)
OSLO, NORWAY, DECEMBER 10, 1964

“I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept the idea that the ‘isness’ of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal ‘oughtness’ that forever confronts him.

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Perhaps it was because the whole world was waiting to see whom among the 2008 presidential candidate Levees Not War would endorse—or maybe there was another reason—but the admirable HuffingtonPost featured our John Edwards endorsement in their “Off the Bus” campaign section (‘Ground Level Coverage of Campaign ’08’). The editors chose an amusing headline: ‘NOLA Endorsement: Edwards Will “Kick Repubs in the Balls”.’ Actually what we said (as you can see below) was: ‘Democrats need a tough candidate who won’t hesitate to kick the Republicans in the balls’—but who’s quibbling?

HuffPo’s mention was also picked up by a German blog, Gebloggtewelten.de, under the heading ‘Alles Wieder Gut?’ Our German is a little rusty, but if translations come through, we’ll provide a rendering in English for those who just can’t wait to find out what the Germans are saying about John Edwards and Levees Not War.

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John Edwards announcing his candidacy for president, New Orleans, Dec. 28, 2006.

Democrats need a tough candidate who won’t hesitate to kick the Republicans in the balls

It is not often we wish we lived in New Hampshire (nice place to visit), but we sorely wish we could be there on Tuesday to ‘vote early and often’ for John Edwards. Although we do not at all dislike the prospect of a President Obama, and though the nation would be in good hands if any one of the four Democratic candidates in Saturday’s New Hampshire debate were to win the White House, we have long preferred the 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate and former senator from North Carolina. (Edwards/Obama? In what order? The ‘change’ candidates could alternate being president/vice president.)

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