Bear Republic Action Group

Here’s the latest from our inside source in the Elizabeth Edwards sector of John Edwards campaign for President.

EE was again creating controversy with her comments regarding Hillary. She was quoted in a Salon.com article, (btw she conducted the interview with Joan Walsh while she was visiting in San Francisco last week), as saying that her husband was actually putting out a plan that was better on women’s issues than what Mrs. Clinton has been proposing.

Her exact quote was:

“On the issues that are important to women, she has not … well, healthcare, that’s enormously important to women, all the polls say, and what she says now is, we’re going to have a national conversation about healthcare. And then she describes some cost-saving things, which John also supports, but she acts like that’s going to make healthcare affordable to everyone. And she knows it won’t. She’s not really talking about poverty, when the face of poverty is a woman’s face, often a single mother. She gave that speech on abortion a few years ago [saying abortion should be “safe, legal and rare”].

 

Look, I’m sympathetic, because when I worked as a lawyer, I was the only woman in these rooms, too, and you want to reassure them you’re as good as a man. And sometimes you feel you have to behave as a man and not talk about women’s issues. I’m sympathetic — she wants to be commander in chief. But she’s just not as vocal a women’s advocate as I want to see. John is. And then she says, or maybe her supporters say, “Support me because I’m a woman,” and I want to say to her, “Well, then support me because I’m a woman.” The question is not so much how she campaigns — that’s theater. The question is, what does her campaign tell you about how she’ll govern? And I’m not convinced she’d be as good an advocate for women. She needs a rationale greater for her campaign than I’ve heard. When she announced her candidacy she said, “I’m in it to win it.” What is that ? That’s not a rationale. Same with Senator Obama — I’ve yet to hear a rationale. John is extremely clear about what he can accomplish and why he’s the one to do it.”

 

EE was merely saying something that I have observed about the Clinton campaign as well. It seems that in an effort to compensate for the perception that being a woman means you are not as strong as a man, the Clinton campaign has continually positioned Hillary as tough, playing hardball, and can hang with the boys. My personal observation is that of all my female progressive friends and acquaintances, none of them is supporting Hillary. I find that very telling and believe that Hillary would be better served by being the woman who authored, “It Takes a Village” – talking about community, family and our need to help one another

the Corporatist Media has labeled this latest blast of fresh perspective from Mrs. Edwards as a failing in the Edwards campaign, but then what do they know. The Edwards campaign is on target – reaching the goals both financially and organizationally they set for themselves at the beginning of this campaign.

My final note – My new favorite JRE quote:

“I’ve been asked by some of the media, ‘Senator, the two Americas you talk about, is it the rich and the poor?’ No. It’s not. The two Americas are the very rich and everybody else.” John Edwards

I gotta say I love the JRE quote myself and will be using it often. Stay tuned as more is on the way. Also, if you have made your choice and want to support John Edwards campaign here is the place to do that. If you are new to contributing to a campaign be advised that money given now actually helps a campaign more than money contributed later…and yeah, that’s a hint.