Democracy for Vancouver

the next first lady?

Just got back from the Elizabeth Edwards event at The Benson in downtown Portland where she spoke to an estimated 300 people.  The crowd was a good mix of labor, Democratic Party supporters (including some very notable Clark County higher ups), and just plain folks looking for answers on how to resolve the disaster that is the Bush presidency.   

Her speech was as she admitted very short, only briefly touching on her battle with cancer, as she chose to spend the majority of time fielding questions from the audience.  The questions ranged from Latin American policy to international AIDS funding.  As Edwards noted, most Democratic candidates are in agreement in those areas.  A question on education saw Edwards clearly in her element, discussing the No Child Left Behind fiasco and replacing it with a more values based system of testing rather than the standardized, one-size-fits-all mess we have now.  It was pretty obvious that Ms. Edwards had a command of the educational issue and enjoyed engaging the question, at first congratulating the questioner, a teacher, for her service. 

Oh, and if you’d just indulge my inner sexist within for a moment, Democratic women are hot!  Ms. Edwards, as well as the other women in the ballroom are such a glaring contrast to the current Stepford Wife in Chief.  There’s a genuineness with Edwards that’s so missing from today’s era of prepackaged politicians (*cough, Romney, cough*) and their wives.  Ok, back to serious political discussion, ahem.

The major campaign theme that you’ll be hearing more about in the weeks to come is the electability issue.  As Elizabeth Edwards explained, the campaign clearly opens up more of the map, especially the border Southern states than the other Democratic front-runners.  As much as I like Obama, we have to face the fact that Harold Ford, although leading in the polls in last year’s Tennessee senate race, still lost.  Both Clinton and Obama have to run the table as far as not losing any states that Kerry won in 2004, while still needing Ohio.  A questioner from the audience asked about voting machines, and the answer Elizabeth gave was an Edwards campaign will ensure that the vote totals are not even close enough to dispute. 

Locally, it’s rather hard to see how either Oregon or Washington will have much influence over the Democratic Party nomination.  There is a gubernatorial election coming up, but even more importantly will be two county commissioner races.  Hopefully, activists who are attracted to presidential campaigns will channel some of their energies onto the local scene to help elect downticket progressive candidates.  We’ll see.