Middle class

OK, my man John Edwards finished third in New Hampshire. Worse, no delegates - Clinton and Obama split those, at least so far.

We all know that Edwards talks about the middle class and that the other Democrats have picked up the mantra. But what does Edwards actually say in the stump speech he delivers every day? What are his priorities? What would he try to do?

I've looked around a bit, and I don't find that reported anywhere. There's a tidbit here and there, but if you want the meat instead of a thin broth warmed over by journalists, you'll have to visit Edwards's web site. Why?

Starting with Edwards's salient facts:

Our economy is growing only at the top: ...

Families are working longer hours, but finding it harder to get by: ...

Higher costs for the basics: ...

Powerful corporate interests have taken control of our government: ...

Losing hope for the American dream: ...

The media might judge Edwards's credibility by reviewing these. Uh, no, takes actual work.

The first three are unambiguously true. The fourth is largely true but exaggerated into black and white, while the world is grayer. It's completely within the realm of normal political hyperbole. The fifth is interpretation, also somewhat overstated but not deceitfully.

To support all five, the Edwards campaign actually provides sources. But the elite media aren't interested - too truthful, not truthy enough.

You'd think that the media, even uninterested in what the campaigns say, would at least post transcripts of the candidates' speeches for political nerds like me. But no, there's a byte shortage, and the news sites can't afford a couple of kilobytes of text while still posting their megabytes of photos on their gigabyte disk farms.

Update: With 82% reporting, Edwards now has 4 delegates.