Cross posted from Daily Kos:

During the early part of the endless campaign to succeed the worst president in memory, it was clear, even to <a href="http://edsbarth.blogspot.com/2008/03/losing-it.html">this idiot</a>, that Senators Dodd and Biden were the most knowledgeable about what this country faces and what a president could about it.  Still, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2008/1/10/12724/4748/117#c117">I supported Senator Edwards</a> until, just as with his more qualified opponents, it became clear he could not win.  Senator Obama got my primary vote in March and, just as all Democrats and most Americans should, look forward to his presidency.

But there is no question that this campaign—so critical to our future, so vital even to the survival of this nation, as discussed, in some part, <a href="http://edsbarth.blogspot.com/2007/12/country-in-descent.html">here</a>—needs a level of passion, commitment and historical background that Senator Obama has not been able to display so far.  It is August, the conventions are just beginning, we are a month away from the World Series (the old rule about the campaign starting in earnest only after the end of the Series cannot apply fully anymore since that would give us about a week under the current schedule) and the national polls mean even less than the nothing they ever mean, but the trends of the past month have not been good and eerily reminiscent of 2000 and 2004.

But the issues of today are in such an odd way, very similar to those of 1932.  The rich see opportunities to get richer at the expense of the rest of us.  They are willing to threaten the social fabric of our country, the commitment we have to act as one nation, for the chance to make a few bucks.  The wisest of our business leaders tell them that we need national health insurance so that they can compete fairly with those in other countries, not saddled with the obligation to provide health insurance themselves, but the oligarchs say no: they can make more by “managed care” and by nickel and diming their employees in a way a government program would not permit.

We face a drain of jobs by the more technologically dedicated nations around the world, yet the response of the Other Party, is to literally put its head in the sand, pretend we can drill our way back to prosperity and refuse to fund scientific research that might offend religious groups whose beliefs conflict with the best interests of the rest of the country.  And now they have decided that the good old days include the Cold War and that pressing disputes with Russia over obscure portions of Europe (where the majority of is residents want independence or affiliation with Russia, rather than a continuation of their forced annexation to Georgia) promotes our national interests.

They have found their candidate in Senator McCain.  As a “maverick” he could not overcome the reactionary forces of the party of which he is a member.  Joining their crowd of the wealthy trying to preserve their wealth (of which he is also, unquestionably, a member) has made him their representative.

Senator Biden is the guy to make that case, in a way that Professor Obama might not.  He will make a great president, of that I am certain, but Senator Biden is a great man, knowledgeable about where we are and how we got there.  A debate between him and say, Governor Romney, would be worth selling tickets to and illustrate the same point President Roosevelt made in accepting re-nomination in perilous times, 72 years ago:

<blockquote>
For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor—other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.

Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of Government. The collapse of 1929 showed up the despotism for what it was. The election of 1932 was the people's mandate to end it. Under that mandate it is being ended.

The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the Government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the Government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.

Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

... Government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster.

But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them.

For more than three years we have fought for them. This Convention, in every word and deed, has pledged that that fight will go on.


.. It has been brought home to us that the only effective guide for the safety of this most worldly of worlds, the greatest guide of all, is moral principle.

We do not see faith, hope and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a Nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.

Faith— in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships.

Hope—renewed because we know so well the progress we have made.

Charity— in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity literally translated from the original means love, the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves.</blockquote>

Nobody has ever said it better, but it needs to be said again.  We now have someone running for national office who can and will, I am certain, do it and make our fellow citizens understand what is at stake.