(no subject)

[jfb]

I don't know much about John Edwards, but in Slate last Friday, William Saletan accused him of "the most interesting thing anybody in this race has said so far": An argument that Bush is anti-capitalist, pro-taxes, soft on crime, and unpatriotic. I haven't read the actual speech, but the analysis is great.

Comments

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Right. I think when Salon used the word "pinko" it was using hyperbole.

The article claims that Edwards portrays Bush as anti-capitalist, and "as bad as" (Saletan's words) a socialist. Edwards's description of socialism is not "bad" but "radical and dangerous"--there, I suspect, is your point of contention with Edwards. Bush, he says, is also radical and dangerous--and on that I'd have to agree with him.

But Saletan doesn't claim that Edwards portrays Bush as a socialist. He's just an extremist of a different stripe. ("Pinko" shows up only in the subhead, which is used as an attention-getter for points that are made clear in the article. I think it's a bad subhead.)