John Edwards

The New Republic slams John Edwards. (No direct link, for subsribers only)

More than a year after a famously unsteady appearance as Tim Russert's guest on "Meet the Press," John Edwards returned and showed a new confidence. Unfortunately, he also showed flashes of a new opportunism that has marked his campaign in recent months.

At one point, Russert confronted Edwards with a statement he made in September about the president's appropriations bill for postwar Iraq: "We have young men and women in a shooting gallery over [in Iraq] right now. It would be enormously irresponsible for any of us not to do what's necessary to support them," Edwards said at the time, adding, "I will vote for what needs to be there to support our troops that are on the ground." Edwards, of course, not only wound up voting against the $87 billion plan; he actually ran ads attacking it. His explanation? Edwards didn't want to vote for a "blank check"--never mind that the bill specified, in great detail, just how the money would be spent.

Ouch! Edwards, no doubt, flip-flopped in order to be more attractive to the angry left, who seem dedicated to Howard Dean. Funny thing is, with or without the angry left, both are likely to lose.