John Edwards Should NOT Endorse

After he dropped out of the race I wrote an article praising John Edwards and in the past two weeks friends of mine have called and emailed asking, 'who and when is John Edwards going to endorse?' Edwards has kept a low profile and far away from the fight of Obama-Clinton and think it has kept him from lowering himself at all the way Bill Richardson has in his battles with James Carville (which Carville is winning).

Like many in politics I believe Edwards thought the race would be over by now. Now the question is does he throw his support behind a candidate before his home state votes on Tuesday? Read an article yesterday which said the Edwards will spend this week in Florida avoiding the campaign in North Carolina.

I see it this way. While both candidates paid lip service to Edwards key issue of poverty right after he dropped out,, neither of them has carried that mantle at all since. If one of them had, think Edwards would have already endorsed.

The race has also deteriorated into a bloody mess. Surrogates are fighting on talk shows, TV ads have gone negative, and both candidates have serious issues that have been exposed. By not endorsing he has kept himself clean of the whole mess and I think it has proved to be smart politics.

If he were to endorse Hillary, the chances are she would still lose North Carolina and that would weaken him. Remember in 2004 Bush/Cheney won 56% of the NC vote against Kerry and Edwards. Supporting a losing candidate would not look good for him.

He also would have to answer a lot of questions about how 'the man of the people' he claims to be would have to explain why is endorsing the 'candidate of special interests' that he labeled Hillary during the campaign.

I think it would be odd for him to endorse Obama for a couple reasons. 1st, Obama is weak right now with no momentum. Also think Edwards meant what he during the campaign about Obama. That he thinks Obama is 'too nice' or 'not tough enough'. Edwards is a fighter who knows first hand the attacks of the Republicans and saw John Kerry shy away from the fight in 2004 and think he sees a bit of Kerry in Obama.

Plus he would fall under the gun of the Clinton attack machine and that would again be a blow to his reputation.

I think Edwards left the campaign with grace and dignity and judging by the past 2+ months that 'grace and dignity' left the campaign with him. If he doesn't endorse many will say it is weak move by him.

Those people would be wrong.

Think that Edwards, like many Dems including myself, are fed up and disappointed with both of our candidates. He will vote for one of them but why should he campaign with or work the next 6 days for either of them in this primary? What have either done recently to inspire anyone?

If Edwards endorses either of the candidates, fine. But think he should send a message to them, earn our votes.

A Big Endorsement for Hillary

After what has been three months of a flood of endorsement's for Barack Obama Hillary Clinton nabbed an endorsement that should have an impact for her in the May 6th North Carolina Primary. The picture above is that of North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, and yesterday he announced he is endorsing Hillary.

In the past few weeks I have talked of the importance of having Gubernatorial endorsements in primaries so feel the Easley endorsement is news worthy whether people around the country know who he is or not. As opposed to the endorsement's of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, Ohio's Ted Strickland, and Pennsylvania's Ed Rendell this endorsement comes late in the game. These three Governors were working their states for Hillary for months while Easley endorsed just 8 days out.

Some may say that a last minute endorsement for a candidate down 12 points in the polls will not have much of an impact. Even with Easley's support, Clinton will probably not win the Tar Heel state. However, a recent example of late Gubernatorial support was that of Charlie Crist in Florida. It made a difference for John McCain as he pulled out a decisive victory where Romney was up in the polls.

This endorsement should also help solidify the base of voters that Hillary has had already and if she travels a few days with Easley it should help her with late undecideds. The one poll number that has been prevalent since the New Hampshire Primary is that Clinton has 'closed' fast in the last 72 hours of each election. People that make their decisions late have been breaking towards her.

In North Carolina the last image Democratic voters will see is her with their popular Governor who has been unbeatable by Republicans in a Republican leaning state. The same holds true in Indiana, where the last images Hoosier state voters will see is Hillary with two time Governor and current Senator Evan Bayh.

Combine those invaluable free media opportunities with a field and "Get Out the Vote" operation which has been very effective and Tuesday could be a successful day for Hillary.

The problem for Hillary is this. She has to win North Carolina or Indiana. She can't claim momentum by going 0 for 2. She is still down and at this point of a campaign 'moral' victories are not.

Yet if she can win Indiana and get North Carolina under six or seven points,,, she will have a real case to make that she should be the nominee.

Campaign Limps On

The saga of the Democratic Presidential Primary appears it will continue on after Hillary Clinton posted a decisive victory last evening in Pennsylvania. Clinton's 10 point victory is what she needed to stay semi-relevant in the campaign. It proves one point that everyone in politics knows and I have written many times before,,, never count out the Clinton's.

However, the Clinton campaign remains in a no-win situation. She won't win more states, more votes, or more delegates by the time the final primary takes place on June 3rd. The kitchen sink has been thrown at Obama in the past 6 weeks and he is holding his own in national polls and cracked a million votes in Pennsylvania.

Clinton has to basically win out in the bigger states to make any case as to why she should be President. If she loses Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, or Oregon then there are going to be calls by many for her to drop out of the race. She won't drop out, but she has cornered herself into a no-win situation. Even if she pulls off a deal where the Super Delegates give her the nomination, it will be tainted and will create resentment towards her that will follow her through the campaign and if she won the nomination.

But she deserves credit for pulling off the victory in Pennsylvania. As written here 6 weeks ago I gave big credit to Ted Strickland the Governor of Ohio for getting her the big win there. The same holds true in Pennsylvania as popular Governor Ed Rendell used his clout to deliver for Hillary. Governors as CNN's Roland Martin said last night, "hold the purse strings" and unlike a Senator (ie Bob Casey) can really muscle votes and support.

Now for Obama. This guy can't close and it is continuing to raise doubts in the minds of many. He's a phenomenally attractive candidate, but as happened in New Hampshire, Super Tuesday, Ohio, and Texas the late breaking voters are leaning towards Hillary. I watched his speech from Evansville, IN last night and saw a very different kind of event than what went on in Iowa or Wisconsin. The event was an older crowd and the speech seemed to lack the fire of his earlier

Want to follow up on one point from the Pennsylvania Preview article from Monday and the interest in looking at the turnout numbers. The prevailing wisdom is that negative campaigns drive turnout down and my fear was that the fervor around this campaign may have taken a hit by Clinton staying in the race.

Well the numbers of last evening prove otherwise. Decided to compare the turnout of the 2002 Gubernatorial Primary between two favorite local sons, Rendell and Bob Casey. It was a hard contested race between the Philadelphia base of Rendell and the Pittsburgh/rural base of Casey whose father was a phenomenally popular Governor.

Rendell and Casey combined for 1,242,236 million votes between both of them. Hillary Clinton last night received 1,258,245 votes on her own and Obama pulled over a million on his own.

While many including myself think that this race dragging on is hurting the party, the voters want to have their say and the negative air surrounding this race yielded the biggest primary turnout in recent Pennsylvania history.

The bottom line, if the eventual nominee can get some time to heal the party, these turnout numbers are very good for Democrats.

In Honor of Earth Day

The name '17people' as stated in the profile of this blog has to deal with the "truth" to me. My goal is to try and shine some light on factually inaccurate statements and received an email this afternoon that both fits a lie and the theme of earth day.

The email which I will not post here word for word because of its inaccuracies is titled "A Tale of Two Houses". It essentially questions Al Gore's commitment to energy efficiency by comparing it to George W Bush's Crawford, TX ranch.

If you receive this email please respond to the sender with some of the following information.

This Republican propaganda is once again wrong.

It may have been true a year ago but no longer is.

- Gore's house is now powered by solar energy
- They have installed a geothermal system
- Upgraded windows and duct work to improve efficiency
- Installed entire house with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs
- Created a rainwater collection system for irrigation and water management
- He also pays for CO2 offsets

Not to mention Gore is fitting his parents farm with the capacity to
run on wind power.

Why didn't he do it sooner you may ask? It was against zoning laws in
the Nashville suburb he was in to install solar panels.

If there is anyone who practices what they preach and put their money where
their mouth is for a cause it is Al Gore. The profits from An Inconvenient Truth movie and book, the Nobel Prize money, and at least some
of his own money has gone into the "We" campaign.

While many will try to tear down Al Gore I believe he will prove to be a tough target because unlike many, he truly believes in what he is doing.

Earth Day

As 17people evolves into a better blog one thing that I want to accomplish is to highlight not just political commentary, but issues that are important to me.

On this Earth Day, 17people is strongly encouraging all readers of this blog to join the "we can solve the climate crisis" campaign which has been founded and in many ways funded by Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore.

17people has often written about Gore on this blog and my respect and reverence for Gore is pretty clear. The "we' campaign is a classic example of living by your own words. Gore has recognized and brought a pivotal world issue to the forefront and with our help we can force action to be taken by our Federal, State, and Local Governments.

While I know there are Global Warming 'Skeptics' out there, even a skeptic can make small changes to make a contribution to our environmental well being. Things like walking to lunch, buying compact florescent bulbs for your house, or turning down the heat and air conditioning when you aren't home.

All three of these actions have the added benefit of being personally rewarding. Skeptic or not being healthier and saving money is good, right?

Walking to lunch means you'll burn about 100 calories/mile. This means you'll feel better, boost your metabolism a bit, and should lead you to be healthier. All while drastically reducing the carbon output from your car. I have started this myself and despite the fact there aren't any sidewalks on the street around my business it gives me at least one opportunity a work day when I am not typing or sitting.

The other two things you do will save you money! Seriously you have to put money to buy the light bulbs but they will lower your energy bill. It doesn't hurt you at all. And turning off the A/C or heat while you are gone also means a lower bill at the end of the month. We all know there are times during the summer or winter that this isn't possible, but during those times you can raise or lower it a couple degrees to keep the temperature manageable.

All three of these things are simple and require little or no effort on your part other than just doing it.

Now I have to have full disclosure in the respect that I drive an SUV that gets less than 20 miles a gallon. This is certainly a bit of hypocrisy if I am going to lecture people on being more environmental. I do commit that when my lease runs out I will be buying or leasing a hybrid or much more fuel efficient car.

People, oil prices today are near $120/barrel and the President of Iran said this weekend it is still under priced. Soon gas will be nearly $4.50/gallon. We all need to make this an issue with our government and do what we can to protect our environment for future generations including the current one.

Please visit http://www.wecansolveit.org/ and see many other ways you can help or lower your pollution tendencies.

Pennsylvania Preview

For a wannabe political blog this blog has tried it's best to avoid writing about the deterioration of the Clinton-Obama showdown.

Yet, avoiding the mudslinging of the Democratic Primary come tomorrow night the only people that matter will decide the winner. That would be actual voters. The pundits and their need to exaggerate every statement or body language will now get to say how right or wrong they are.

Here is how I see Pennsylvania stacking up. Neither candidate is riding any wave of momentum as Obama was early on. This is a state that plays to the candidate Hillary Clinton has portrayed herself as, which is the candidate of the 'working class'. Pennsylvania like many states is best known for it's big city's and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will of course be factors, but think that the rural/small town voters will be especially vital in this race.

That would seem to play into Hillary Clinton's hands, but I just have this gut feeling that Obama will do better here than expected. While the press, along with McCain and Clinton have tried to make the 'bitter' remarks against him I am going to make the gamble that voters aren't as stupid as politicians treat them. I think that many of the 'small town' folks are going to say, 'hell yeah I'm bitter' that my jobs gone, or that my gas is $4/gallon and I want a change.

The downside for Obama is that the 'change' message has been lost a bit in the past 6 weeks in the mire of Jeremiah Wright, Samantha Powers, Geraldine Ferraro, Bill Clinton, inappropriate questions to Chelsea Clinton, fictional Bosnian Snipers, and last but not least, the 'bitter' comment which made the tragic mistake of making sense.

I am afraid to predict an Obama victory in Pennsylvania because I have been so wrong in all my predictions, but think he will make it a close.

The number I am most interested in is the voter turnout number. Democrats have made much about the drastic increase in many of the states compared to past turnouts. After 6+ weeks with very little positive news and both candidates taking body blows if Democratic turnout stays high, it will be a bad sign for Republicans come November.

Brother Dan Federici

Yesterday one of the original members of the E Street Band, organist and accordion player, Dan Federici passed away at the age of 58. Federici passed away at Sloan-Kettering hospital after losing a three year battle with melanoma.

As a die hard fan of the entire E Street Band I am very saddened by the news. Think when any of us become a fan of a TV show, sports team, band, whatever, you feel a bond and connection with the people involved. Most of the time you never get a chance to meet or know them as people but you care about them.

Today I send my regards to his friends and family, and along with my fellow fans mourn his loss.

Many people often ask me for reasons why I like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. One of the major reasons is that they are not like any other band. Some bands have pianos, others have saxophones, some use an organ, violins, harmonicas or even accordions. E Street has all of the above coupled with drums, bass, and four guitars. The depth and variety of sounds is what separates E Street from any other band ever.

Federici led to this variety with his immense talent and gift playing the organ and accordion.

Bruce Springsteen said during Federici's recent leave of absence:

"Danny is one of the pillars of our sound and has played beside me as a great friend for more than 40 years."[

Will never forget being there when Federici causing Miller Park to go nuts by blasting out a solo "Beer Barrel Polka" on the accordion. Have also seen video (which I can't find) of his playing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Fenway Park in the 1st ever concert there. His organ can probably best be heard in the Springsteen hit song Hungry Heart. On the following links are a couple of other videos of Federici performances on less well known E Street Band songs Kitty's Back and Sandy.

I was fortunate to see two of Danny's final shows in Chicago before he took a leave of absence in November 2007 to get treatment. He may have been sick, but noone could tell by the way he played. On the second show I was at we sat to the right of the stage. The side with Danny, Nils Lofgren, and Clarence Clemons. It rocked, especially seeing the three of them flash a big smile when the Boss put his hands in the shape of a 'T' for the 1st playing of Thunder Road in nearly five years.

Danny Federici brought energy, talent, and charisma to every show he was at. He also pulled off something few have ever done. He made playing the organ and accordion look cool. My guess is that those are two instruments probably not associated with cool.

Danny will be missed by many including myself who will remember him for his incredible talent and being an integral part of my favorite band, the E Street Band.

When you have time please check out and consider contributing to "The Danny Federici Melanoma Fund."

Biggest Loser Finale Transformations, See for yourself

I could write and write and write about the transformations on The Biggest Loser and the lessons that I learned from it and .

Yet words can't really do it justice. Take a look at some of my favorite competitors and how they did of visit http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser_5/ and you can watch video, see pictures, get recipes, watch 2 minute replays of the season.

This show is awesome and if you want to lead a healthier life. Whether or not you are a few pounds overweight, in shape, or way overweight you will learn from this show.

Yesterday I uploaded pictures to show comparisons, but am editing the site today.

See this link and you will see all the contestants for yourself.

New season of The Biggest Loser begins in October for any new converts.

Boss-O-Bama

Well, I generally avoid two posts a day, especially lately because the material to write about is sooo bad.

If your like me then you will understand how I usually start my day when I get to the office.

Its a subconscious checklist of websites that I visit. 1st, I check my work email and make sure I didn't forget anything. 2nd, I check my personal email, 3rd, I check my fantasy baseball teams (which are ridiculously good this year), and 4th I go through about 5 websites to see whats going on. Everybody has a different set of websites, hopefully your list includes, say, http://17people.blogspot.com/.

One of the websites I check almost everyday is http://www.brucespringsteen.net/. As previously written here I am a huge Boss fan and am always looking for updates on the tours and tickets. I missed it this morning and as a result didn't see that like me the 'Small Town' comments by Barack Obama caused the man who has written about small towns in his music for over 30 years today endorsed, Barack Obama.

The letter or endorsement reads as follows.

Dear Friends and Fans:

Like most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen
and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and
shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next
President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35
years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex
problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the
potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and
nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the
exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters
are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and
fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book,
Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real
issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming
our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great
American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator
Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st
Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as
Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

Bruce Springsteen

As usual the Boss eloquently and succinctly makes a solid argument in favor of what he believes.

In a much more precise manner he made my point in my post earlier today that the critics of his words are using 'exaggeration'.

Now I love the Boss and find a lot of knowledge and inspiration in his words. I follow him on many issues and as I have stated before I voted for Barack Obama in the Illinois Primary. I am less inclined to give my full throated backing to Obama yet though.

I do find it interesting though the timing of the endorsement coming on the heels of the stupidity of the attacks on his 'bitter' comments about small towns. This holds true that either when he is attacked or gives a great speech major endorsements flock to him.

Look at the history.

1. After his Iowa victory speech Senator Claire McCaskill's daughter tells her mom, 'you have to support this guy' and McCaskill does. Becoming the 1st female Senator to endorse against the 1st viable woman candidate.


2. After Bill Clinton's Jesse Jackson comparisons and belittling of Obama in South Carolina, Ted Kennedy and a good chunk of the Kennedy clan throw their weight and endorsements behind Obama.


3. After Obama's eloquent and poignant speech on race, Bill Richardson, a long time Clinton loyalist decides to endorse Obama.


4. After exploiting and exaggerating remarks made at the San Fran fundraiser, Bruce Springsteen, a voice for 30+ years of small towns, endorses Obama.

I am happy that the Boss will be back in the political arena this year and if it is Obama as the nominee I think he will be a big help as he was for John Kerry in 2004 with a much better candidate.

Keep in mind, that Springsteen played to a huge crowd in Wisconsin a few days before the last election where he played "No Surrender" and Kerry won the state by less that 8,000 votes. It may have helped.

"Bitter" Remarks Accurate

There has been a lot of talk recently discussing and digging through every comment made by Hillary, Obama, and McCain.

The reason for this, THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO TALK ABOUT.

This once interesting campaign has become boring and dull. Now its all about nitpicking every word so the press and the other candidates can generate controversy. I usually leave this nitpicking off 17people, but the latest statement of controversy hit me.

Barack Obama's recent statement that has caused all kinds of consternation was this:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small
towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's
replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush
administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these
communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or
religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant
sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their
frustrations.

Now as with any comment this probably could have been said with a little more tact. But as someone who has worked on campaigns in 'small town America' Barack Obama's comments are dead on.

Small town America has been forgotten by the government and shit on by American industry. Go into many of these towns and you will see what NAFTA has meant to 'small towns'. Textile, furniture, manufacturing factories are now mausoleums and unemployment rates are in the double digits.

I worked in a couple towns like this in my political days. For example, Martinsville, VA. This town was crushed when Tultex closed their factory literally overnight leaving roughly 3000 workers unemployed. The result, Martinsville had an unemployment rate around 11percent when I lived there. Or Burlington, IA where Burlington Northern left the town it named itself after to build its trains somewhere else.

As most readers of 17people know, I have been lukewarm on Obama this entire campaign. He has done little to move me on issues or in rhetoric. This statement, though not in a policy speech, actually spoke to me because of my experience in small towns and 17people is here to defend Obama.

Hillary and McCain have both pounced on the Obama comments, calling them elitist. They do this because these two 'yawn inducing' candidates have little to stand on. They are dull, lifeless candidates.

Obama was right on when he made this comment and I wish he would defend the comments and use it to raise the issue of poverty. These small towns are full of good people who generally need huge satellite dishes to get TV and have awful access to broadband internet access.

They are much more religious and much more attached to their guns. This isn't a character flaw, this is how they live and who they are.

Democrats love to talk about how they represent the 'working class', but they have done little to help these areas develop either educationally or by providing better opportunities.

Republicans treat these areas differently. They manipulate the similarities on issues like gay marriage, abortion, and guns to distract folks in these towns from the real issues of importance like better health care, education, and jobs.

Barack Obama's comments were accurate and not elitist but he has to take advantage of moments like this to blast his opponents for being 'out of touch' when they act as though these small towns are progressive centers of America.