Split decision.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Comment - Essay

For progressives, the Democratic primaries have been tricky to navigate. The most progressive candidates--John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich--are no longer in the race. The two titanic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are more alike than they appear, and they have their definite strengths and their weaknesses.

Kucinich, the true anti-war candidate and the only one in the primary field to argue for Canadian-style, single-payer health care, quit the race in January, after being shoved off the stage by the big media.

Right before the Democratic debate in Las Vegas, NBC went to court to prevent Kucinich from accepting its invitation to join the other candidates at the table. Fifteen minutes before the debate began, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that NBC did not have to include him. "It's down to three!" Brian Williams declared cheerfully.

Edwards, who hung in there until South Carolina, served the important purpose of bringing up, in his debates with Clinton and Obama, how money influences politics and defines the limits of almost every policy discussion. He reminded the other candidates, and voters, that all that money from health care companies and drug companies comes with strings attached. He alone made ending poverty the centerpiece of his campaign.

"We have economic growth in America," he said, "but almost the entirety of it is with the very wealthy and the big multinational corporations. This is the great challenge of America." Edwards favored a minimum wage of at least $9.50 an hour, as well as getting rid of the big banks that serve as highly compensated intermediaries for student loans. He was also the clearest about ending the Iraq War. He promised, within a year of taking office, to get all combat troops out of Iraq and leave no military bases, thus ending the occupation.

It was cringe-inducing to hear Edwards apologize for one wrong vote as Senator after another: authorizing the Iraq War, voting to pass the credit-card-company-designed bankruptcy bill, and, of course, favoring Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China. But his populist pitch cut through the haze of generalities the other candidates offered. And he connected with real people, telling anecdotes about those left behind by a profit-driven health care system and the grossly unjust distribution of wealth in our economy.

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When he bowed out, he extracted promises from the other candidates to make ending poverty a priority.

As Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battle it out, many...