Wage's Gauge

Chris Wage on the absence of real difference or opposition given today's events:

Welp, Kucinich is out. Edwards is out. I can officially stop paying attention until after the conventions. Can anyone tell me why we even bother to have primaries in the rest of the states? The meme for this election is “change”, eh? Shyah.

And the Edwards' message of change was coopted by the other Dems to begin with.


UPDATE: The Prestonian (not to be confused with the "Jacksonian," which is now a CVS or a Walgreens) opines:

I saw all three as good candidates, but it boils down to two triangulators and one dropout who didn’t have a prayer of getting 1/3 of his shtick enacted into law, even with a 60/40 Senate.

I’m hoping the triangulators don’t disappoint and buy into the conventional wisdom that “bipartisanship” = “giving Republicans all that they want, every frickin’ time.”

That "shtick" part I agree less with, and I agree more with sentiment expressed on Tapped by Dana Goldstein:

His departure is a sad moment, not least because Edwards' policies on health care, inequality, education, and so much more have framed this race, setting the progressive standard for his better-funded, media darling competitors. Hillary Clinton began her run imagining Edwards as her chief rival, and therein lay so much of his power: He alone had the ability, early in the primary, to define what it meant to challenge Clinton from the left.

I'm afraid we will not be seeing the two remaining candidates challenged from the left.