It’s nice that he has a sense of leadership. (I mean, he’s willing to admit a mistake on letting the Chimp-in-Thief bamboozle everyone into war, he’s ahead on a potentially single payer national medical insurance plan, ahead on network neutrality, ahead on wage laws, ahead on just about everything. Umpteen proper examples by Steve Kirsch here and short version here.)

But this is much bigger than that.

There’s talk that his nine year-old daughter said she supported Hillary Clinton at a campaign stop.

Doesn’t anyone realize what this means?

Edwards supports freedom of speech at home. He believes even his kids have the right to say what they like. His kids aren’t shaped and molded before going into public. (Hell, you can’t even say that about the current President.) It doesn’t even matter whether it was a joke or not. Either way, it’s an astonishing departure from the whole plastic, fantastic mess of campaign politics.

Letting your kids speak their minds. That’s what I call courage. That’s what I call understanding the Constitution.

A President who understands the Constitution. /*dreams beautiful dream*/ Yeeowser!

Update, Jun 25: San Francisco Chronicle, “Elizabeth Edwards declares support for gay marriage. …taking a position that she acknowledged is at odds with her husband, presidential candidate John Edwards.”

Which means the first time wasn’t some accident. This guy means it. He doesn’t try to own the people around him. Incredible. Amazing. Why is anyone else even running?