Wow: John Edwards on Talking Points Memo.

I'm not sure what it says, but I think it says something about blogs when a former Vice Presidential candidate and Senator decides to make an statement--not on his blog, but on someone else's "regular" blog. Of course it's Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo, and John Edwards is hardly some old technology-averse fuddy duddy.

I'm really glad that Edwards and Kerry aren't sitting on their hands. I got a volunteer call from what used to be the Kerry campaign, and while I was a bit annoyed because I had only given them that number in the heat of a call-me-if-you-need-me election fervor, I had to admire Kerry for refusing to just give up his resources as a national leader. It took a while to take down the deadwood, but the Kerry website is still up and running, promoting the Senator's Kids Come First health insurance act. Politicians are usually expected to wait after losing an election before trying to get out there on the campaign trail and meet with people. Edwards isn't waiting. His blog, which is still a bit light, shows him travelling and participating in picket lines. (Check out his blogroll: I first heard about Edward's blog from Iddybud's persistent blogging, and Edwards seems to have noticed!) Slowly his blog entries are losing the voice of campaign speech and acquiring the voice of real journals. He's even started podcasting.

Howard Dean is trying to do new things with the chairmanship of the DNC. Kerry's got the same busy life he had before, and Edwards is helping his wife fight breast cancer. No one would say anything bad about them if they just chilled for a while. Indeed, by doing all this so quickly, they risk bad press over no press or even condescendingly good press. These guys were beaten, painfully, but they aren't giving up at all. That's incredibly impressive.

As for the substance of Edwards' guest appearance on Talking Points Memo, I've got three points. 1) The Bankruptcy Bill is bad news. Let your representation know. Edwards voted for a previous incarnation, and he's saying he was wrong and this incarnation is even worse. 2) Matt Yglesias brought this to my attention, and Yglesias is right: this is a great way to say you're wrong. 3) A lot of it is still in speech-mode. But this line struck me: "Thanks to Professor Warren, we now know that half of families going broke suffered illnesses or high medical costs." Hey, the system works sometimes! A professor gets paid to do research! Her students learn by helping her! They find out stuff that's useful to society! And then they tell someone who has a bigger bully pulpit than they do! And he uses this information to change his mind, and spreads this information out!

Now if only this process happened with the people in power more often.