John Edwards Turns Patriotism Test into Moral Answer

Jim Cook 1/15/2008
[5] comments

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards were each asked in turn a “how much do you love military recruiters?” question just now in the NBC Democratic Debate of January 15 2008. This is soundbite bait for the conservative commentators — if you’re really patriotic, see, you just have to adore military recruiters. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama very straightforwardly answered the question by replying that gosh, they just adore military recruiters to death and would love to give them loofa baths and pedicures. John Edwards turned the question around and pointed out that more important than supporting military recruiters is paying soldiers a reasonable base pay, giving them reasonable medical care, and taking care of the mess made by war when soldiers come home crippled in body and mind. That’s a question about a government’s moral responsibility and accountability for its messes, and it’s much more salient to the current circumstances in America than how much the candidates adore military recruiters.

This entry was posted in Democrats, Election 2008, Moral Values, Politics, War and Peace. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to John Edwards Turns Patriotism Test into Moral Answer

  1. Tom says:
    1/16/2008 at 8:22 am

    i know you have problems with him, but i think Edwards is the person to vote for in this coming election. He’s the only one standing up for the “average citizen” who doesn’t haul down 6 figures, and trying to rein in corporate America (at least he’s the only one who spoke about it in the Iowa debates).
    Also please check out “The candidate taboos” (an article at counterpunch.org) about what all the candidates are NOT saying.

    Reply
  2. J. Clifford says:
    1/16/2008 at 8:34 am

    I am certainly disturbed by Obama and Clinton’s dependence upon big defense contractors. Why do you think Edwards isn’t getting more support, Tom?

    I personally found Edwards’s stand on gay marriage to be a kind of wishy washy expression of a history of bigotry that’s hard to break. What did you think about that?

    Reply
  3. Anonymous says:
    1/16/2008 at 12:25 pm

    i couldn’t care less about gender bending issues (i don’t like bigotry, i support their “rights”, but can’t do much about the abounding stupidity we face in the U.S.), and am much more interested in getting corporate America out of our government.

    Reply
  4. Tom says:
    1/16/2008 at 12:45 pm

    the third comment was from me (i forgot to sign in, sorry).

    Reply
  5. J. Clifford says:
    1/16/2008 at 1:16 pm

    Well, Tom, we CAN do something about their rights, and their “rights” are not in quotes – they’re guaranteed by the Constitution’s equal protection under the law clause. So, it’s not just some gender bending fringe issue. It’s about whether John Edwards will support the Constitution. He says he opposes equal marriage rights.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>