I wasn't leaning towards supporting Clinoton in the primary but this new info seals it now.  

Edwards has opposed factory farming in North Carolina, which is pretty brave considering the state has one of the highest amounts of hog factory farms in the country. In Iowa last week, he told an audience that he would support a nation-wide moratorium on factory farms.

And Kucinich of course, being a longtime environmental and animal protection advocate as well as a social justice and labor advocate, has been long opposed to factory farming.  

oh my god....there's no one left to vote for now....

sorry, what i meant was that there is no one left to vote for that will GET the DEMOCRATIC nomination.
and if you won't vote republican ( i certainly won't) who's left? who will be the independent candidate? will we even have one on the ballot?

Yes, AMC, it is certainly true that when it comes to animal welfare, Dennis Kucinich gets it.  And it is also true that John Edwards is definitely listening to us in the animal welfare community, and, as you said, has spoken out against factory farms in his own state.  I did not know about his statement in Iowa, to which you refer.  I had been wondering, apprehensively, how the candidates might handle the issue; since I have been mostly supporting Edwards for a long time, it pleases me that he had the courage to take the stand that he did.

Nor should it surprise us, really.  Probably none of the candidates was especially focused and well-informed, at first, on environmental issues, including global warming, energy and agriculture.  Bit by bit, they have been learning; some of them, at least.  We might note that Barack Obama, for example, said some things a while back about coal which displeased a number of us, but more recently came up with an energy policy plan that won approval, and gave an answer to a question on "the most important problem" which pleased our own David Roberts.  But it strikes me that John Edwards has found it easier and more natural to relate those issues to his original fundamental focus on eliminating poverty and supporting the interests of the working class.

It should be remembered that John Edwards understood independently what Bill Clinton said, regarding the Bush administration's missed opportunity in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, that this was the occasion to rebuild New Orleans as a model green city, working better than ever for the benefit of its citizens and thriving with the work of those citizens, something that all the world would admire.

As for Hillary, meanwhile, whatever this appointment of Joy Philippi tells us about her and her priorities and her connexions, it should also by received by us in the animal welfare community as a clear message that we have not been doing our job at all well, and are failing to bring attention and support to our cause.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

Thank you for this article. Having been on the fence about voting for Hillary I am now decidedly against it.  The state of factory farming in this country, what it does to all of us via the loss of family farms, the harm to our environment/health and the appauling suffering that it inflicts on huge numbers of animals is unacceptable.  The fact that Hillary would associate herself with the major offenders to support her campaign speaks volumes to me about character and judgement.  

John Edwards demonstrates far more character and courage and that is what I want in my President.

Hillary had a very good day today, in Johnston, Iowa.  She sounded cheerful, friendly, smart, unflapped by her fall in the polls.

Edwards I thought was good, but perhaps not quite at his best -- maybe because I am used to listening to him.

Obama had a very gracious moment, during the rather embarrassing set of "character" questions, when he absolved Joseph Biden of being racist, or rather "ill at ease when talking about minorities."  The question that was posed to him in that set was, what is it all about, that he has all these foreign policy advisers from the Clinton administration.  That made Hillary cackle and crack a joke, and Obama cracked back that he hopes he can have Hillary advising him too.

And so, I was pleasantly surprised that according to the poll of CNN's focus group of undecided Democratic caucusers at the end, Edwards is their preferred candidate, with Obama coming second and Hillary third.

The moderator, the editor of the Des Moines Register, was better today than yesterday.  She seemed more at ease with the Democrats, and perhaps that gave the Democrats an advantage.  Another advantage that the Democrats had was that they had an idea about what kinds of questions she would ask, from watching yesterday's Republican debate.

And that is just fine.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.