Well, the reason why I can't get on board with Edwards is because of his run with Kerry, his membership in the Democratic Leadership Council/New Democrats Republican CEO-led club, and (in my view) his blatantly political votes to support the invasion of Iraq. However, since finishing with the Kerry campaign, he does seem to be distancing himself from the corporate right wing of the Democratic party. I just don't know whether he is doing it for political expediency, or because of a true change of heart. Most politicians, I wouldn't spend a second wondering. But this is a guy who has been a professional chameleon his whole adult life, so I see an internal consistency that genuinely seems driven by personal growth and development. Of course, he is still a blindly ambitious convention politician, so I won't go to the polls to vote for him. But...

...he is, without a doubt, the most improved candidate of 2007. I love that he changed course on his previous votes on the war, though he hasn't explained why in a way that satisfies me personally. I can accept that now, because it is all water under the bridge at this point--what matters is where we go in the future, not where we've been in the past. Besides, the US political system is in such a royal clusterfuck at this point, even god can't explain it.

I also didn't like Edwards' connection (getting a paycheck) from the Wall Street firm that was involved in the subprime mortgage scandals in post-Katrina New Orleans. But hey--when he found out about it, at least he divested & pulled money out of his own pocket to help the families screwed over by subprime vultures associated with that investment firm.

That fiasco was both used cynically by his campaign in my book (he launched his campaign from a New Orleans back yard), but it also forced him to take a position that is the most progressive of all the top 3 Dems (which ain't sayin' much), on legislation to reign it in. But then, he was a very successful plaintiff's trial lawyer, so I'd be surprised philosophically to see him take any other position.

Too bad nobody on his team can figure out how to sell him to the American MSM as a character out of a John Grisham novel. He'd be a shoe-in then, with his charming southern drawl, his handsome and youthful face, and that confident air of trial lawyer for the plaintiff money about him.