breaking news

In an unprecedented and shocking reversal, JFW has now officially switched its endorsement from General Wesley Clark to Senator John "Little" Edwards.

"Stand By Your Man was for Tammy Wynette and Hilary Clinton's Tammy Wynette imitations," a defiant JFW editor shouted at reporters. "When the going gets tough, JFW gets going to another candidate."

"We always liked Edwards the most," a more subdued anonymous source at JFW said Thursday, "but we didn't think he could get the nomination. We felt bad going on about how Lieberman should drop out and clear the field when Edwards was polling around the same numbers." JFW had earlier expressed fondness for Edwards as being the candidate who would most openly pitch class warfare as part of his campaign, a theme close to the heart of many JFW staff members. JFW has also conducted extensive analyses suggesting that Edwards is the candidate who has the best (even if still < 50%) chance of defeating Bush without requiring some substantial decrease in Bush's popularity. The clincher, however, is that JFW has always believed that Edwards would be far and away the candidate most capable of exposing Bush in a debate.

Update, Saturday: JFW feels compelled to add that we are not distressed by Kerry being the nominee, as we were about Dean being the nominee. JFW feels also that the doleful reaction of Republicans to Dean's fall from front-runner status vindicates our earlier assertions that Dean was regarded as a much easier target to defeat than Kerry, Clark, or Edwards. To show that we do actually like Dean and understand the enthusiasm for him, we link to this remix of some of the more inspiring/compelling lines of his speeches. However, especially if he's so low on funds that he's skipping the next round of primary states to concentrate on Michigan, you can stick one of those reverse-tined-safety-hot-dog-forks in him, for he is done.