Update: while the NY Times admits Edwards was the most effective fighter at last night’s debate, the article opens with a picture, an opening and a closing paragraph that reinforces the view of the Village elders in my post that follows.

It’s good to be reminded who gets airtime and why. The Village determines the narrative, who they’ll accept in their Rotary Club and Junior League neighborhood. A mainstream Dem from the 1970s - which is really what a Kucinich or Gravel is - is too progressive for the staid gentry of the DLC & GOP Village elders. Dodd, who would have been absolute middle in the 70s, is now marginalized as too liberal, too.

So where does that leave guys like Richardson and Biden, who at least have records comporting to Village-preferred models? Well, they’re out for a different reason. The Village has defined the diversity narrative for 2008: it’s the Great Estrogen Hope against the Pleasant Negro. The Establishment White Guy fits the neighborhood but not the narrative. And the Latino has to wait his turn.

In a year when the Village knows the impact of the Southern strategy is losing its marketing grasp, the GOP has to alter its bogeyman. Excuse my crude clarity but the Wetback will be the new Nigger for 2008. The Village is trying to impress us with their evolution from Little Rock and Selma with the message that every Black is welcome to their soirees, as long as they look and sound like Sidney Poitier.

As with all things political, the useful maxim holds: follow the money. The money pouring in to the Hillary and Barack show? Well, there’s your sign.

Does it matter that Dodd’s gonna fight for the Bill of Rights? Well, sure, but that still doesn’t make him a viable contender who’ll get the airtime he deserves. The Village already decided to let one token white guy in on the Democratic side. That’s Edwards, their necessary Southerner, just in case the South doesn’t warm to the pair they selected for the top billing on the matinee.

But Edwards makes them awfully nervous. He’s a bit too populist with his blue collar appeals. They really would have rather had Mark Warner as their Plan B longshot backup narrative.

So where does that leave us, the liberal base of the party? For 2008, we can whine and moan and bitch all we want, but there’s not a chance in hell that any but these top three will gain the traction necessary to pull off a primary upset in the first four states. Though Kucinich will dog it out underfunded like he usually does, all the rest will be out by March 1st.

If you want something different, there’s 4 years to reinstate the Fairness Clause, at least on TV. There’s 4 years for campaign finance reform and a better shot for cleaner elections. Which of the top three do you think will advance those things?

If any, it’ll be Edwards. The other two gain nothing from changing a system that’s currently stacked in their favor.

I announced last winter that I’d wait till this fall to make an endorsement. I’ve made minimal observations along the way, mostly finding positives that Kucinich and Gravel and Edwards and Richardson and Dodd have come up with along the way. I’m in complete sympathy with peers now backing Dodd because the fight for the Bill of Rights is crucial. I’m not trying to influence anyone to abandon him now while that fight’s yet to be won.

I held back, waiting for Obama to really show me something. I’ve said all along that the final 10 weeks of the year is when any contender has to pour it on. For the past two weeks, several have stepped forth to show their hand. Dodd has one. Edwards has advanced a corporate restraint and retirement initiative and a tone that’s inspiring to me. Hillary never advances anything but counterproposals when her opponents have left her behind on some initiative. And Obama? All he’s showed me are impressive quarterly reports. He showed me the money, but he’s surrendered his kwan.

So I’m 100% behind Edwards now. And I hope my analysis doesn’t sound too lukewarm. The reality is I’ve seen him make very few missteps. The crap about his money and haircuts can easily be overcome. FDR and JFK and RFK all had big money, and they did okay by me. American workers - miners and steelworkers and small farmers and service workers - will find a lot of value in his policy prescriptions and a guy who understands their struggles. With his professional achievements, standing up for the small guy over the monied corporate goliaths, they’ll find a fighter. And with kids to raise, the loss of one son, and a wife who requires the best of our medical knowledge to sustain, Americans will also find a fighter for families and their needs for affordable healthcare and education.

The sole place where I have a big concern is about the topic of Iran. With all the sabre rattling of Bush and Cheney, he’s continued a practice of caution on the biggest foreign policy issue going. It may be understandable because the Clinton/Obama show is doing the same and nukes do remain a fear button that works whenever Bush pushes it. So we have to ask ourselves, would any of these three actually order an air strike without using the IAEA or diplomatic channels thoroughly?

None would push it as quickly as Bush. But Hillary’s position actually enables Bush doing so. I’d trust Obama and Edwards to reserve the use of force only if the situation fully warranted it. So coupled with their other issues and initiatives and campaign strategies, Edwards still emerges well above the other two.

He’s not perfect but I’ve long said I’m not seeking a messiah nor even a choirboy. Edwards provides more progressive leadership for the middle class and poor of any major primary contender I’ve seen in a quarter century. I think he can surpass Obama and make it a two person race because his flashes of leadership throughout this campaign have far exceeded Obama’s.

I hope you’ll join in soon and give him the additional funds needed to strengthen his case. The Village elders aren’t going to grant him the TV time necessary till he gets more ads up and lands in one of the top two places in the earliest primaries. So it’s up to us to help him surpass the first hurdle.

That’s the only real option I see for the top of the ticket in 2008. If he doesn’t prevail, my energy will shift to Congressional races. Hillary is obviously above the very low bar of being better than Bush, Rudy, Mitt, Fred, John or Mike. If she’s the nominee, she’ll prevail over any of them without any campaign support from a peasant like me. Edwards, on the other hand, offers a two way street. Not only can I help him, but I;m confident that a President Edwards would institute programs that would benefit my family and friends and neighbors.

John and Elizabeth in 2008: they’ll restore America to Americans again, keeping us secure - and healthy - while restoring the ethics and opportunities we’ve sorely missed for the past seven years.

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Support Edwards here.

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