John Edwards Misleading Rhetoric Posted by Michael Cohen

Yesterday, I was having a debate with an Edwards supporter about what I considered his demagogic and somewhat dishonest populist campaign for the White House. Today's New York Times provides a good example of what drew me to these conclusions. In responding to oil prices hitting $100 a barrel yesterday, Edwards had this comment:

Today’s report that the price of oil has reached $100 a barrel is just another example of how corporate greed is squeezing the middle class.

Now, this sort of anti-corporate rhetoric has been front and center in Edwards campaign, but this quote is a perfect example of why this approach (attacking corporate America as the root of all the middle class's problems) is so dishonest.

The notion that corporate greed is responsible for rising oil prices is simply untrue. Indeed, the specific reason for Wednesday's price spike had nothing to do with corporate profits:

The immediate impetus for Wednesday’s rise in oil prices appeared to arise from an attack by rebels in the Nigerian oil center of Port Harcourt and rough weather in the Gulf of Mexico that had slowed Mexican oil exports.

As Edwards likely well knows, the confluence of factors that influence global oil prices is so much more complex then this flippant characterization. Supply and demand, political instability in oil producing nations, the worsening U.S. dollar - all of these factors played a role in the recent increases oil prices. If corporate greed is a factor, it is a pretty minor one.

But shorthand attacks on "corporate greed" have become Edwards bread and butter. Here he is on health care:

The truth is, the American health care system is broken because wealthy health insurance corporations and their lobbyists have rigged the system against the American people.

Really? So it has nothing to do with the failure of policymakers to pass more comprehensive health care legislation? Does Edwards believe that the recent children's health insurance plan failed because health insurance companies "rigged the system" even though they all supported the measure? I wonder if Edwards would lay any responsibility for problems in the health care system on those medical malpractice lawsuits, with which he is certainly quite familiar.

Now to be sure I am not absenting health insurance companies for their responsibility
in America's health care crisis. And, I am certainly not defending oil companies. But, the larger point is that when it comes to issues like higher oil prices or America's 47.5 million uninsured there is no single villain and no single responsible party. What's even sadder is that earlier in his campaign, Edwards was extolling the virtues of conservation and personal sacrifice, but apparently with the populist approach bearing fruit in Iowa he's going to play it to the hilt.

To reduce such serious public policy issues to us vs. them arguments is not only dishonest and divisive, it's disrespectful to the electorate. Edwards makes himself out to be the courageous voice standing up against corporate greed, when in reality he is engaging in the politics of cowardice by playing on the anger and fears of voters all the while reducing serious and complicated policy issues to attack politics.

This is a politician who tells voters that health insurance companies and drug companies won't even get a seat at the table in discussions on health care reform.  Does he really believe that excluding companies that provide health care coverage to well over 100 million Americans is going to bring a lasting policy solution. This is the politics of delusion!

John Edwards strikes me as a generally honorable guy, who clearly has glommed on to what he believes is an effective political strategy in a tough three person race. But it deserves to lose at the polls and I hope tonight it does.

Comments

[Tim]

Wow. Just wow. You really cement yourself as a silly VSP with stuff like this. So Edwards may be stretching a little to complain that high oil prices are due to greedy corporations; but high gas prices at the pump are often due more to collusion with refineries and very-quick-to-rise-very-slow-to-fall attitudes than with actual supply and demand factors. Demand is almost fixed, so they just limit the supply and raise the price. It worked on a mass scale for power companies in California in 2001, and it works every Summer when they raise gas prices just before driving season. That is not a stretch.

As to healthcare:
M.C. - "So it has nothing to do with the failure of policymakers to pass more comprehensive health care legislation?"
You think that policymakers are just inept at passing legislation? You think that the millions dollars of corporate lobbying money, campaign contributions, and who-knows-what-else money isn't a factor at all? You think the 2003 healthcare bill had billions in subsidies, a huge "donut" in coverage, and forbid the government from negotiating lower prices, was all just an accident of bad policymaking? You want to blame trial lawyers for the lack of medical insurance for millions of Americans? Just wow. I can't believe that you consider yourself a serious commenter on public policy.

And FYI - SCHIP failed because the Republicans saw the writing on the wall that if SCHIP passed, it would have added support for comprehensive healthcare reform, which has become a large part of this Presidential campaign. It's an issue this campaign in no small part because Edwards put it up as major priority back at the beginning of 2007, before everyone was talking about it.

[Mike M.]

Um... why did rebels attack the Hotel Presidential and several oil facilities in the Niger Delta in the first place? They're reacting to to greedy multinational oil companies that have mistreated the locals for a long time (including participating in the execution of civil rights leader Ken Saro-Wiwa). So no, the oil companies don't use their greed to drive up prices by flipping a switch. But through their greed motivated misbehaviors, they participate in creating these kinds of security debacles. As for the healthcare industry... phew... they spent millions fighting health care reform in 1993. But not because they're greedy. No, no way. Premiums keep climbing though. Wonder why? And no, the cost of medical care is not being driven by malpractice lawsuits. That just a typical and false Republican talking point.

[John]

I agree with Mike M.. You have to look at what the root causes of terrorism are and you'll invariably come to a simple conclusion: American hegemony led by large multi-national oil companies. As for the health care, the inaction of Congress has everything, not nothing to do with corporate influence.

[Mike M.]

Hey look, he came in second despite being outspent 6 to 1. Not bad, not bad at all. You might think it's fortunate that his campaign faces major challenges down the road but the 2nd place finish is proof that people like his message. There is room for populism in a modern campaign after all.

[Michael Cohen]

Mike, not a huge fan of populism in general, either from right or left, but I generally disagree about populism's effectiveness in a modern campaign. It doesn't work for Democrats - hasn't worked in about 60 years.

[Dan Kervick]

The three top vote-getters tonight - Obama, Huckabee and Edwards - are all running broadly populist campaigns.

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