John Edwards to Announce on Thursday

Well it's official. This Thursday John Edwards will announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. The backdrop? The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.

That's appropriate. What better place to announce than the site of failed Republican policies? It's either there or Baghdad and I'll bet they even considered Baghdad for about a picosecond. I think he'll do well here in Texas. We have a bunch of new residents here. Victims of both Katrina and Rita who have had to permanently relocate because of Bush's failures. So highlighting their former residence is a plus.

I wonder how many responses to his email message he got? I sent my response. It was entitled Run, John, Run.

But you have to wonder about his timing. It's a little risky, isn't it, to announce your candidacy while the entire country is doing everything except reading newspapers and watching TV news? I'm even taking a risk going to some effort to post this so it can be read by two actual readers, the four people who are googling the words "giving head" and the eighteen individuals looking for images of a black horse or Krishna.

I agree with the reporter's speculation that the benefit to this early announcement would be to get the drop on Obama and Clinton who aren't expected to announce anything until early January.

But why not do it differently? The way this race is shaping up, it promises to be very exceptional.

1. For the first time in decades there is no incumbent and no candidate stepping up from the Vice President's office. Wait, is that right? Decades? Absolutely. Not since 1952 when former General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower ran against Senator Adlai E. Stevenson.


2. For the first time ever America is considering electing a woman to the highest office in the land.


3. Not for the first time, but for the first time seriously, a man with DNA that comes from Africa is being seriously considered. America has come a long way from the Jesse Jackson days when he wasn't considered electable because he's black, to the Barak Obama days when he isn't considered electable because he's too inexperienced.


4. And finally, for the first time I can recall, the dark horses are begging off before announcing. Evan Bayh said bye-bye last week.

And it looks like the neocons are going to have to sit this one out unless they can come up with someone who has a lot of distance between them and Bush. That they have to choose between McCain and Giuliani (so far) is just making my day.