Wednesday, July 07, 2004

John Edwards

"Two Americas," yadda, yadda, yadda.

The only question that we're all interested in is "Is the choice of John Edwards good for workplace safety and health." Having carefully polled the entire editorial staff of Confined Space, the general consensus is "yes."

Edwards was the first candidate to come out with a detailed response to the New York Times series on Death in the Workplace. You can read my summary of Edwards' positions here, although his entire webpage seems to be in the process of morphing into a new Kerry-Edwards webpage.

But electrons are cheap. I have also had the opportunity of seeing John Edwards in action in Senate oversight hearings. Rarely have I seen anyone better at grasping the issues, asking focused questions and (rare for the U.S. Congress) asking multiple follow-up questions until he either gets the answer or it becomes apparent that the Emperor has no clothes. You get the feeling that Edwards really "gets it," while too many others (in both parties) seem often to be "phoning it in."

And so, after carefully considerating these factors, and after re-reading the last thousand posts, I am finally ready to announce the official Confined Space endorsement for President and Vice President of the United States of America: Senator John F. Kerry and Senator John Edwards.

But as I've said before, their victory, is not the end of the struggle, but the beginning of a new fight: hold them to their promises. Even the good guys won't do what's right unless we hold their feet to the fire.