Reply #3: Bravo for John Edwards. That is a question that needs to be asked

[saltpoint]

and then answered by the Republican Party.

To boil it down to hard specifics, many folks along the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans proper might want to know why a U.S. president abandoned them to a killer storm.

A follow-up question might have to do with whether those abandoned were wealthy -- they were not -- or white -- a majority were not. George W. Bush is both wealthy and white. I believe these are questions a political candidate should ask. I don't believe George W. Bush can answer them. I believe he'd duck like the coward he is if he were confronted by his spectacular failure during the Katrina abandonment.

I think the question is as essential to American politics as it is legitimate in a camaign. It is crucial to any dialogue we have on U.S. domestic policy. John Kennedy's words ring through here very loudly and very clearly:

“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

--John F. Kennedy, Inaugural, 1961


...and would add as well Bill Moyers' observation:

"America is a broken promise, and we are called to do what we can to fix it - to get America back on the track. St. Augustine shows us how: 'One loving soul sets another on fire.' But to move beyond sentimentality, what begins in love must lead on to justice. We are called to the fight of our lives."

--Bill Moyers, Aug 2004

The Edwards campaign taps into this vein in American political history and insists that it hold primacy before we can once again reclaim our position as a moral example in the world.

I applaud this effort in any form, and John Edwards' form is fiercely determined, and historically sound. His target is worthy and his aim is true.