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...and the anger of seeing a lot of work seemingly go for naught when a campaign one has invested a lot in physically and emotionally just...ends.
I can understand the venting. The hard words. Even the venom.
But there is an odd “personality cult-ism” I'm starting to see around some of the more rabid Edwards supporters. And that's a helluva thing considering the almost “messianic” ways of the really fervent Obama and Hillary people around here. Edwards was supposed to be the antidote for all of that, and now in his “suspension of campaign” he has been elevated to that status too, by not a few people.
I liked Edwards. I think he was actually the near-perfect medium between the “charm” of Obama and the “policy wonk”-iness of Clinton. But he just didn't pull the votes. I haven't seen any talk of election rigging against him, so the SC results must have been quite bruising. It was his back yard and he sadly got trounced. There should be anger. Anger at the media for not having the attention span or integrity to devote a decent amount of time to ALL three major candidates. Anger maybe over easily swayed “magpie” (shiny-thing attracted) voters who overlooked Edwards.
But I guess the reality is that campaigns end—in spite of the best efforts of decent candidates. Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, Ed Muskie and Wes Clark come to mind. Either the votes come or they don't.
It's not always some nefarious plot by a “Star Chamber”, or “The Cigarette Smoking Man” and his J. Press-suited cronies. Obama ain't God, Hillary ain't Joan of Arc, and John Edwards ain't Jesus. We can't worship them through these tropes and ascribe perfect deity status to them. They're human beings. They are POLITICIANS. They sometimes make politically pragmatic decisions. They weigh time, money, and calculate reasonable results based on the expenditure of said things. The “he would NEVER do that”, “he didn't write that farewell speech”, and re-casting of Kennedy—who a lot of people mocked around here until he backed Obama—into being some sort of lightning-tossing, campaign-ending Zeus on high is a bit hard on the believability meter.
I'm not being mean when I say this: If mere “pressure” from someone or something (outside of death or outright ruination) can sway a so called “perfectly principled” candidate to abandon his justice-fueled campaign, then I guess I'd look askance at at said candidate's “perfect principles”. As I don't think any of them have that trait, I'm going with a pragmatic decision's having been made.
A depressing, annoying pragmatic decision, but sometimes...it is what it is.
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