Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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August 7, 2007 7:46 AM
BLOOMBERG NEWS: Edwards Trade Focus Is Strengthening Unions
Per my post last week on whether and if labor is going to endorse in the 2008 presidential race, check out this Bloomberg News piece today. Note the last few paragraphs where the article discusses how Edwards' populism is actually helping strengthen the leverage of the overall labor movement and helping unions push their pro-worker workers.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Recent Sirotablog entries
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Discussion
Edwards! All right!! Hoooah!!
Obama, maybe. Maybe not.
Clinton? Does she really mean it? This is the Queen of the Republi-lites, we're talking about. This is the candidate who said that "lobbyists represented the American people." Hmmmmpf!
The question is whether Edward's position will help him with the rank and file and so far it hasn't. Democrats seem to prefer a corporatist and union buster like Hillary over anyone else.
Edwards is all talk and no play. The real pro-union candidates are Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich, especially the latter. Labor unions have to be completely idiotic to not endorse Dennis Kucinich who has been fighting tooth and nail to give our dying labor union force in America a LIFE ! Edwards reminds me of Bill Clinton who used to let the labor leaders complain but then UNDERMINE the movement by caving in on "free" trade, union busting, union defunding, etc ... Besides, Edwards was a DLC hack so why the fuck should he be given a second chance when he blew it the first time?
Gravel is a one issue candidate and besides he's pushing a 23% sales tax - its regressive as hell if you work for a living. The fool is channeling Norquist and Rove, fuck him.
Kucinich has the charisma of a college professor which is to say none. He doesn't understand that running for president is a beauty contest and you need great platform skills to even be considered.
This is why Hillary, Obama and Edwards are the top candidates and he's at the bottom in the polls and can't raise money.
Secondly a president needs charisma to build popular support for any agenda he wants to pursue.
You can't have a nerd because he can't get the public involved.
If Kucinich's ego could take it, he should run for governor of Ohio to improve his status and credibility and ability to relate voters at large.
If he does that he'll be a legit contender in say 8 years or so.
Good Gawd, David. Don't you remember the times when Edwards BACKSTABBED unions including AFL-CIO ? Here, let me refresh you're memory with this link below:
Edwards may be “the angry populist” now. But he has not always been on labor side. Edwards — who supported North Carolina’s anti-union “Right-to-Work” law when he ran for the Senate in 1998 — broke with the AFL-CIO to cast several key votes in favor of the Bill Clinton administration’s free-trade agenda when he served in the Senate.
Grant, you're no doubt correct that Edwards is nothing but lip service compared to Kucinich who is the real deal and I can tell you that Nebraska DESPERATELY needs a labor movement after years of SEVERELY DAMAGED ECONOMY in the state. In sharp contrast to Edwards here is Kucinich's take :
Kucinich, a longtime union member who has maintained a 100 percent AFL-CIO ranking during his years in Congress, broke with Clinton to side with labor on those critical votes. In fact, he’s often been more aggressive than union leaders when it comes to challenging trade pacts that are stacked against workers, communities and the environment in the U.S. and abroad.
If David Sirota is going to dismiss Kucinich as a minor candidate, then he's backstabbing his own beliefs of labor !
Kucinich as governor of Ohio wouldn't be a bad idea. By the way, isn't the current governor a "centrist" or something?
Speaking of sales tax, it looks like the media is hitting Gravel right and left on his support of a national sales tax. The only good side to all this is the national sales tax would have to be at least 30% to continue to fund the war. Unfortunately, it can easily be raised to 50% !
P.S.: Gravel now lives in Arlington, VA which is nowhere like the rest of the state given its closeness to Washington both geographically and politically.
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