John Edwards' celebration of working people

When you put the ad in context with John Edwards' life and his entire campaign, this criticism is unfair. It is the first of many ads and, regardless of the fact that we are all seeing it, it is being aired in IA. It probably reflects the people he has met there.

The reality is that he fights for all working people, regardless their color. He recognizes them all has heroes.

He will no doubt have ads in other states made up of people in those states. The underlying charge here that Edwards is racist, or even that he is blind to people of color, is patently absurd.

Sansouci: I looked up the census data for the diversity by region:

Total Black White Other
Total 288,281 37,645 194,874 55,761
West 66,247 3,658 37,890 24,699
Midwest 64,784 6,921 52,116 5,747
Northeast53,704 6,920 39,434 7,350
South 103,545 20,147 65,434 17,965

So by your logic, the south is more representative of the nation as a whole and should therefore have inordinate influence in Presidential primaries. :)

If people of color are invisible to him now, I cant see him embrace them after getting elected. Bush, despite his failure of handling Katrina, had one of the most diverse cabinet.

One person of color cant even stand for his people, let alone other minorities. He prides in taking cheap shots at people of alternate sexual orientation, he prides himself of owning to statements of starting a nuclear war with pakistan.. what next? what was his position on illegal immigration again?

Clinton, despite all the negatives, atleast has centrist views. I am positive my taxes wont increase under her (if I ever get to $200K, I dont mind giving some donations for right causes).. my healthcare costs wont boom and I am positive getting a better handle at mid-east situation would help me pay less at the pump.. Besides her, i want to know more about Joe Biden. hello MSNBC are you listening?

Steve- Got it. You are right, thank.

Spock- Tell us one thing Obama has done for Illinois since he became Senator or even before that? and btw, Hillary was re-elected in NYC. She served all her first full term and we liked or not she is recognized like one of the best Senators in DC and has delivered to NY State. Since elected she has been working hard for the State unlike Giuliani who all he has done is using 9/11 to get himself rich.

who cares what color the people in his add are. color color race what is wrong with you people who cares what color. it only matters what he is saying. and there are white people in america to.

Good point, Peter. Part of my guess is that Obama will abandon the 'love-fest' tactics, and make it a real political fight in Iowa. But I called it a 'three-way CAGE fight'. Watch out, bud--if you call it a 'CAT fight', with that slang term's 'girl-on-girl' connotation, you may be accused of 'piling on'!!!

Peter - You attack Obama for becoming Senator to run for President, Well why do you think Hilary did, she has done NOTHING for NY either!

Jeremiah - You speak the truth about Pres. Bush (about time)"If only he were as clever as George W. Bush -- you know, the guy who had black people in his ads and has been such a great president for black people (and for the rest of us)."

President Bush has done the most for All Americans - More Black homeowners, more money for the Blacks, More Blacks in positions of power.

About time someone one spoke the truth!

3 way cat fight? Please,you mean 2 way cat fight Hillary and Edwards) and a bird on the side try to be tough (Obama)? Talking about being sincere, if wasn't because of Obama's love fest with the press, big money from the lobbyist here in Illinois and celebrities he wouldn't be in the fight at all. I am a Dem from Illinois and still wondering where is Obama, we elected him to be our senator and all he has done is running for President event to he pledged to serve the full term.
Are we Dems are ready to pick a "featherweight candidate" like Obama knowing the to please the GOP. I still waiting to see what he stands for here in Illinois and for our country. All I know is that he's getting rich and alot of money from the books.
The Dem need a real strong candidate that stands against the GOP misleading machine in general elections.

It would be interesting, politically, to see if this theme works for Edwards, but if the ad itself becomes an issue because of its racial makeup, then we really won't be able to tell. The caucuses are just two months away now, with Edwards polling in third. I thought that he and Obama would get a boost from Hillary's poor debate performance the other night. But again, Hillary-corp seems to be spinning legitimate questions about her evasiveness as the men 'piling on'. So far, I have seen at least some of the major media buying into her spin, so we won't really know how voters would have reacted to Hillary's debate flip-flops, if they were left to make their own decisions. My guess is that the ad is a good attempt to separate Edwards from the others in Iowa, without using a personal attack that Iowans seem to penalize candidates for. And I think the two-way love-fest in Iowa between Hillary and Obama just became a three-way cage fight.

As I've previously stated here, Sen. Edwards really, really wants to portray himself as a populist whose interests are the same as those of common man. Unfortunately, just like Granny donning a mini-skirt, a tie-died blouse, and Go-Go boots to pass herself off as a hot chick, he can't quite pull off the look as witnessed by this lily-white ad. I've traveled extensively in Iowa, and Sen. Edwards does a great disservice to Iowans by portraying their state unrealistically. Once again, his populist message doesn't quite mesh with his reality.

Seriously?

This is your hard-hitting scoop of the day?

John Edwards LAUNCHED his campaign in New Orleans with people of all races (but mostly black) trying to recover from Katrina. His best speech was on Martin Luther King day to a mostly black audience. He has a great record on racial issues.

But,I guess he doesn't ensure that there are black people in every ad he does. If only he were as clever as George W. Bush -- you know, the guy who had black people in his ads and has been such a great president for black people (and for the rest of us).

John Edwards ad reminds me of the movie "Deliverance". Yeah, he's campaigning on ONE AMERICA all right -- ONE WHITE AMERICA!

Raoul - oh please - He ignores his neighbors, he made his money from the companies now fore-closing on New Orleans residents.

He uses minorities to his advantage and thats all, but nothing new for a lib.

Oh and the hyphenated labels did not come from Conservatives, it came from the democrat party and libs.

Raoul - There is questions on that unions vote, it supposedly went to Obama and then new leaders came in and changed it.

Engawyer - The Dem party is a party that hold minorities down, and the Black Cauacus is all Dems because they will not let in non-Dems.

Greg - The Democrat agenda is clear to anybody that opens their eye - Socialism!

Steve Ivy - What has he done, oh thats right a poverty tour where he charged 1000$ to attend!

The sad part here is that libs are so blind, that the Dem/lib candidates can come out and say We want to make America a Socialist country and only certain White people can have money' and you libs of whatever persuasion will still defend them.

If you libs want to pay more taxes, please pay mine!

Jake you are on the right track. Don't let up on the real message of Edwards campaign. I hope George features you on This Week because you are filling a huge gap in the journalist community-Socratic questioning and critical thinking.

The house? Do you know Edwards has a pool AND a basketball court? Do you also know they are both ENCLOSED? That's why there are so many "square feet," because the guy wants his family to swim and play basketball all year round, winter too. Square feet add up fast when you enclose a BASKETBALL COURT! Let alone a basketball court AND a pool. That was in Esquire. How many times have you hear that repeated in the media?

FDR was from a well to do even aristocratic American family. He did a lot for the poor. The Kennedy's did their bit too and they had money. Why can't Edwards have a basketball court and care about working folk too?

With the Al Sharpton and types running the show, it takes an act of courage to even allude to a "white person". There's a lot of racism going around and there isn't one group with clean hands--especially those who scream "racism" at the drop of a hat..

The Edwards campaign is the ONLY ONE so far that has done anything at all to focus on poverty. He has proven that he wants to help poor people of all races. He took his campaign on a "poverty tour" to poor communities all across America just a few months ago to focus on a group that everyone else is totally ignoring. He has spoken often and eloquently about helping America's poorest families, families that the Bush and Clinton dynasties have completely ignored. Edwards was born and raised poor and unlike every other serious candidate in this race he still remembers his roots. The very idea of trying to label him as a racist is STUPID!!! He has tons of people of all races on his campaign staff.

As a former Iowan, and a black man, I can say that Iowans in general need a reality check. My grandfather (also black) was, in fact, a farmer. I am a software developer. To the average Iowan, we are aberrations. But we do exist. Their "reality" is WRONG, and desperately needs to be changed. Just because Iowans are ignorant about black folks doesn't mean people should kowtow to that ignorance. It only perpetuates stereotypes.

I suppose Edwards feels that there just aren't enough minorities in Iowa to make a difference one way or another. That's fine. But the argument that portraying blacks doing jobs that are typically attributed to whites is "PC" and somehow wrong is doing a disservice to those of us who actually do those jobs.