Ignored: Why John Edwards Has No Chance

John Edwards is being ignored by corporate media and some pollsters and this is why he has no chance to gain the presidential nomination of the Democratic party. He hasn't raised $100 million for his campaign so to some he is not credible. In the words of Col. Sherman T. Potter, "Horse hockey!" When his message is heard, the people get behind him. It is a true grassroots effort to take on the Establishment, man. (Oops, sorry. The '60s rhetoric just slips out when we get agitated.) The problem is that Edwards, and Dennis Kucinich, speak truth to power, thereby calling down upon themselves the wrath of the gods of the status quo.

After calling out his rivals in a speech, Edwards met briefly with reporters and chastised the "mainstream media" for what he said was its portrayal of the Democratic race as a two-way contest between Clinton and Obama.

He said voters respond to his message when they hear it, and seemed to suggest his odds of winning the nomination depend on more favourable coverage.

"If you cover me and I'm heard, we'll be successful, it's just that simple," he said. "They just have to hear me, that's literally all it takes. That depends on you being fair and balanced in your coverage."

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So, now, Survey USA, which conducts an influential state-by-state poll, has decided that John Edwards is not sufficiently "viable" to be included in their head-to-head match-ups for the general election.

This is in keeping with a major theme of campaign 2008: our media and political establishments narrowing the field before most Americans get to cast a vote.

Nothing new there -- our electoral choices are always limited to a few candidates whom the Beltway establishment finds "palatable" -- who raise a lot of cash from large donors and who won't disturb the status quo. But this cycle, they appear to be doing so with unusual intensity. Why? Because they're terrified -- this is an election in which voters are pissed off, and many appear ready to reject the anointed front-runners in favor of candidates they believe will shake up Washington's business-as-usual ways.