Edwards' New Ad

In it, he declares, as he does so often at campaign appearances:

"When I'm president I'm going to say to members of Congress and members of my administration, including my cabinet: I'm glad that you have health care coverage and your family has health care coverage. But if you don't pass universal health care by July of 2009 – in six months – I'm going to use my power as president to take your health care away from you."

Except, when you ask his campaign precisely which of his powers as President would entitle him to do that, you discover it is the President's power of ... persuasion. If he goes beyond that, there might be some, uh, constitutional issues involved.

Nonplussed, spokesman Eric Schultz says: "This is a fight we're more than happy to have."