Kerry/Edwards: If Only
John Kerry and John Edwards, through coincidence I assume, both delivered speeches knocking Bush on Katrina. Supposedly JRE had more of a proactive vision; he wants a WPA-like rebuilding agency that will employ the displaced people themselves to rebuild the city. Which isn't a bad idea, but I have to say, having never been to New Orleans, that I kind of have a Hastertian view of the whole thing. Is there any way to rebuild New Orleans and make it a lot safer than it was before? Higher levees? Hoverboards?
Anyway, as noted in Political Wire, Kerry got the line of the day:
Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq, what George Tenet is to slam-dunk intelligence, what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad, what Dick Cheney is to visionary energy policy, what Donald Rumsfeld is to basic war planning, what Tom DeLay is to ethics and what George Bush is to 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Wanted Dead or Alive.'
oh SNAP. Tom Oliphant went nuts on John Edwards though, and with good cause:
In a clue to his instinctive understanding of poverty, Edwards's summary of first principles includes the central concept (I first heard it from Hubert Humphrey on the subject of civil rights some 40 years ago) that confronting poverty is not something ''we" do for ''them."''This is something we do for us -- for all of us. It makes us stronger; it makes us better," he said.
...
Edwards is also attentive to bad ideas. Yesterday, he spent a few moments decrying post-Katrina visions of mass trailer parks and the Bush idea of pseudo-homesteaders crammed onto federally owned land.''If we know anything from a half-century of urban development, it is that concentrating poor people close to each other and away from jobs is a lousy idea," he said. ''If the Great Depression brought forth Hoovervilles, these trailer towns may someday be known as Bushvilles."
The thing I love about Tom Oliphant is that he's got the worst conflicts of interest with Kerry and Edwards of anyone I know. First off, when Kerry gave that famous Senate testimony in 1971, it was Tom Oliphant who walked him up there, and his daughter (one of the awesomest people I know, by the way) was Edwards' speechwriter on his presidential run. Still, Oliphant is sharp, insightful, and here, completely right: Edwards is awesome.
Does anyone at this point think John Edwards wouldn't be a fantastic president?