John Edwards has been saying the right things about the real issues throughout the silly season of media hype on personalities, and getting fully ignored or framed as a preener by way of haircut. I’m impressed with his position on corporate power and democracy - he’s the closest to Kucinich on this issue, which to me overrides most others, being at the root of it all.

I have listened for the stand in issues to emerge from Clinton and Obama - and have found them to be playing the same game of muddling the middle, and even playing to Republicans. Edwards is clearly speaking off-memo, and the DLC is probably getting a budget to marginalize him. If you haven’t read any of this statement yet, check it online Here

Here’s a good piece from the middle:

The choices we make will determine not just the quality of life our children will inherit, but the fate of the world we leave behind.

To succeed for our children where we have too often failed for ourselves, we must choose a new course. Those wedded to the policies of the 70s, 80s, or 90s are wedded to the past — ideas and policies that are tired, shop worn and obsolete. We will find no answers there.

But small thinking and outdated answers aren’t the only problems with a vision for the future that is rooted in nostalgia. The trouble with nostalgia is that you tend to remember what you liked and forget what you didn’t. It’s not just that the answers of the past aren’t up to the job today, it’s that the system that produced them was corrupt — and still is. It’s controlled by big corporations, the lobbyists they hire to protect their bottom line and the politicians who curry their favor and carry their water. And it’s perpetuated by a media that too often fawns over the establishment, but fails to seriously cover the challenges we face or the solutions being proposed. This is the game of American politics and in this game, the interests of regular Americans don’t stand a chance.

Real change starts with being honest — the system in Washington is rigged and our government is broken. It’s rigged by greedy corporate powers to protect corporate profits. It’s rigged by the very wealthy to ensure they become even wealthier. At the end of the day, it’s rigged by all those who benefit from the established order of things. For them, more of the same means more money and more power. They’ll do anything they can to keep things just the way they are — not for the country, but for themselves.

Politicians who care more about their careers than their constituents go along to get elected. They make easy promises to voters instead of challenging them to take responsibility for our country. And then they compromise even those promises to keep the lobbyists happy and the contributions coming.

Instead of serving the people and the nation, too many play the parlor game of Washington — trading favors and campaign money, influencing votes and compromising legislation. It’s a game that never ends, but every American knows — it’s time to end the game.

And it’s time for the Democratic Party — the party of the people — to end it.

The choice for our party could not be more clear. We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington insiders of the other.

Joshua Holland writes for Alternet on this as well, with his column Edwards Goes After The ‘Corporate Democrats’

The Progressive Daily Beacon also weighs in with this analysis of how “It is interesting to observe Republicans and the corporate-owned media as they attack the rare wealthy person who dares attempt to help America’s poor and impoverished.”

And just for good measure…

What Excessive Pay Package?

- Posted by Peter Jones for USTV Media