John Edwards, Still Not a Liberal
For weeks, liberal blogs have complained the Times and other outlets are ignoring John Edwards' presidential campaign. That's certainly not the case this week at the Times, which has made up lost ground with fawning coverage.
Another positive article appeared in Friday's edition, as reporter Leslie Wayne wrote up an Edwards' speech in Des Moinesin whichthe Democratcontinued his "Two Americas" theme, calling for higher capital gains taxes on taxpayers with incomes over $250,000, as well as the repeal of Bush's tax cuts on incomes over $200,000.
Sounds like a liberal plan, right? Yet Wayne explained that Edwards' "call for a broad-based increase in taxes on investment income" is "in keeping with the populist tone of his campaign." The L-word wasn't used. And the only substantive criticism of Edwards' plan came from the left, from Robert McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice, which Waynereferred to as"a labor-backed group whose calculations are widely respected by tax experts" - another expert example of L-word avoidance.
