Liberal Talk Radio

I realized today that we’re just 7 weeks from the convention, which means the Democratic veep nominee must be around the corner (in fact, it’d probably be here by now if not for Reagan). In either case, the best debate (as per usual) is going on right now over at Opinion Duel.

Of note is a section in which John Miller of the National Review trashes John Edwards by calling him a hypocrite:

The deeper problem with Edwards is that he’s a hypocritical phony. No point in mincing words, right? Here’s a guy who put himself forward as a self-made man, and not implausibly. Then he gave that “Two Americas” speech declaring that the United States is a caste society divided between haves and have-nots…But hang on a second: Isn’t Edwards’ own biography a real-life rebuttal to the theme of his most famous speech? He’s a living, breathing example of American success, for crying out loud.

This is a lame argument, and Michael Crowley rebuts it, sort of, in his response. Crowley argues that Edwards happened to be gifted and handsome, and that helped him. But Crowley misses the bigger point of Edwards’ “Two Americas” speech. The point of the speech was that even though Edwards succeeded in transcending his roots, many Americans can’t because of external factors that disproportionally affect the poor.

For example, if John Edwards’ dad happened to need major surgery while Edwards was growing up, it’s pretty clear that he would have had to forgo undergrad and work at Wal-Mart to support the family. In the other “America,” if that same thing had happen to, say, George W. Bush’s dad, it’s unlikely that W would have been denied his grad school at Harvard.

The point of “Two Americas” is that there’s one America where people live one misstep away from bankrupcy, and one where that isn’t even a remote possibility.