John Edwards and Mao Zedong

No, this doesn't mean John Edwards is a Maoist.

Amity Shlaes had a good commentary on John Edwards' move to Wall Street. It's to the effect that it's not such a bad thing for politicos, left or right, to see how capitalism works.

That's certainly a twist on Mao Zedong's sending people down to the countryside (known for short as 下放="sending down"). In fact, some have argued that a big reason for the support among upper echelons for Deng Xiaoping's reforms was that many of them had been shocked to see just how poor the peasants were.

But Wall Street is a bit more comfortable than 1960's rural China, right? (Just a guess). So Edwards is getting "sent up" 上方.