Edwards

Saw him on Wednesday at SMSU. I was surprised at how liberal he was. The coverage has spent so much time on his good looks, charisma, campaigning ability (yes, he is good on the stump), that they seem to have buried his positions. He is running and us vs them campaign, wants to focus on poverty and race as well as more sensible issues like education and the economy. I think he has taken the analogies to JFK so to heart that he thinks its 1964.

I talked to several other attendees, and eavesdropped on several conversations. Everyone I talked to or overheard went mad over one of two topics. There are the protectionists who think that somehow jobs and incomes can be preserved against foreign competition of we adopt anti-competitive policies, and there were those who thought the war on terror was a means to some ultimate ends (other than that of ending the scourge of terror). I am supposed to be attending a MeetUp deal for conservatives next week. We'll see if they are as crazy, albeit differently crazy, as their Dem peers. I have in my experience found other sensible people in the world, some of whom disagree with me, so I know they exist. I am perfectly happy to entertain not only other values for sake of argument, but also other assumptions (necessary for understanding), so its not a question of agreement with me on ends, means, or fundamentals. I just want people to organize the ideas they have in a way that they make sense in relation to one another.