Another reason to back Edwards: Sitting Senators have a difficult time winning the General Election

[tcfrogs]

For a variety of reasons, we have not had a currently elected U.S. Senator win the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960. The corporate M$M may be ignoring John Edwards to some extent, but he would stand the best chance to win a general election in 2008.

[Meshuga]

1. What is the advantage of an ex-senator who is not holding any office?

I don't see why this is a reason to back Edwards. Do you have a logical explanation or is this based on superstition?

[tcfrogs]

6. Simply pointing out a fact

Sitting or "standing" U.S. Senators have traditionally fared poorly in the general election.

[Cant trust em]

8. Seriously

What is the precedent of electing someone who essentially hasn't done anything in the public sphere for the last 4 years?

[Parche]

2. what about standing Senators?

:shrug: :hi:

[I work for workers]

7. They can get lunch from lobbyists. nt

[dmallind]

3. I'd love to see him win but this is a weak reason

The reason congresspeople have a tough time is you can portray any vote against a bill that instituted 500 absolute horrors and one small concession to, say, childcare as the voice of doom saying "Senator X voted to let babies die in the street because he didn't want to spend just $1 a year for the average American family".

But what stops them doing that about Edwards' tenure? It's recent enough, unlike Gravel's, where people will remember the vague idea even.

I think he could fight back well against such attacks, and his fairly short stay means there's less to pick from, but those attacks would surely be made against him (which is a bugger of course, because now Bill's out it can and will be used against ALL our candidates)

[Connie_Corleone]

4. It's usually because of their voting record.

So, Edwards would be in the same boat because he's been apologizing for several major votes he made while Senator.

[HeraldSquare212]

5. Well, that's one of the reasons I supported Richardson,

but the last former Senator elected was Richard Nixon, or eight years after JFK, so that doesn't seem to matter much either. Usually Governors have won the White House - people seem to prefer electing someone with executive experience.