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Thursday, July 08, 2004 |
On Wednesday morning, John Kerry announced John Edwards of North Carolina as his running mate. I was hoping Edards would be the man, or Wesley Clark. The more I read about Edwards, the more I like him; the more I sense that the Kerry-Edwards ticket is the ticket for America. If you think Bush has that down-home sense about him, meet John Edwards, who seems to have a smile in his pocket for everyone he meets and talks like he is the neighbor you've known all your life.
Regarding what Edwards does for the ticket, it might be obvious--
1) He's a southern boy who has the potential to swing a few of those states Kerry's way.
2) He appeals to middle and poor America. His "Two Americas" theme has found an audience because its talking points are so relevant-- to blue-color workers, to the elderly, to university students, to middle-class America, to the struggling families. The proof of the supposed economic recovery in America is not making its way down into the bank accounts and pockets of those who need it.
3) His charisma is magnetic and personable. Kerry, to me, is more regal and reserved. Since Edwards has joined the ticket, even Kerry seems happier. (It will be interesting to see how long the honeymoon, if you want to call it that, lasts.)
4) Like Kerry, Edwards has vision of America as a great nation again. It is well known that we are not respected the way we were just four years ago. With news today from Afghanistan that Americans have been arrested and charged with kidnapping and abuse, our character as Americans will once again suffer a blow internationally. On the homefront, I feel Americans may slowly be waking up to the realization that those running our country aren't fit to be managing it and don't have the best interest of any program in America, especially education. Do you remeber the Director of Education calling teachers terrorists? It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize there is something wrong with that. Also see #2.
I've gathered a few comments regarding John Edwards from some of the articles I've been reading the last two days. The kaleidoscope of thoughts paint a great picture of possibly our new Vice President.
From the Guardian's Leader Editorial "Kerry Goes for Charisma," July 7, 2004:
In the end Mr Kerry chose a man he was more likely to feel threatened by. Mr Edwards is a millionaire personal injury lawyer who portrays himself as a champion of the American working man. He announced his presidential campaign from the factory whose floors he had swept to earn money for college. He has the charisma, the fresh face, the self-confident youthfulness that Mr Kerry, nine years his senior, so clearly lacks. He attracts epithets like "golden boy". People magazine calls him its "sexiest politician". Mr Kerry's speeches ramble on in their worthy way about education, healthcare, jobs and equal opportunity. Mr Edwards' speeches rouse. He is a brilliant campaigner, a real fund-raiser. He oozes energy and optimism. He makes his audience feel good about themselves and America again.
From Salon Magazine's article, The Smile vs The Scowl, by Tim Grieve, July 7, 2004:
It was late January in Columbia, S.C., and a friendly crowd was turning ugly on John Edwards. The event should have been a natural for Edwards, a town-hall meeting where the Democratic presidential candidates could talk one-on-one with average people -- poor people -- about the problem of poverty. But a few minutes into Edwards' time onstage, the moderator turned against him. "You talk about 'two Americas,'" he said, but isn't it true that you're a millionaire trial lawyer with a couple of multimillion-dollar homes?
The crowd smelled a phony in their midst. Their hoots and "gotcha" groans drowned out the first bit of Edwards' response, but the senator kept talking. He told the crowd about how he was born the son of a mill worker, how his father had to borrow money to bring him home from the hospital, how he had worked his way to a better life by representing little people against big corporations. He told them that the Bush administration was eliminating opportunity for poor kids like the one he once was.
The moderator tried to cut him off, but Edwards wasn't done. "You have to let me finish," Edwards said. "You asked me the question." Edwards turned back to the crowd. "I grew up the way you grew up," he told them. "I come from the same place ... I will never forget where I come from, and you can take that to the bank."
By the time Edwards was finished, he had turned the crowd around. The jeers became shouts and then thunderous applause, and Edwards left the hall in triumph.
From Salon Magazine's article, John Edwards' Southern Strategy, by Sidney Blumenthal, July 8, 2004:
The instant Kerry announced Edwards, the Republicans opened an attack on him as a trial lawyer, supposedly the mark against him. Yet in 1998, when Edwards first ran for the Senate in North Carolina, his Republican opponent, a tool of the Jesse Helms political machine named Lauch Faircloth, spent $2 million on advertising depicting Edwards and hate-figure Clinton with Pinocchio noses as "two tobacco-taxing liberal lawyers who are well known for stretching the truth." The ads backfired; Edwards won handily.
In one of his prominent cases, involving a girl left brain-damaged by hospital neglect, Edwards told the jury: "She speaks to you. But now she speaks to you not through a fetal heart monitor strip; she speaks to you through me." The tradition for which Edwards now takes his stand is as open to demagogues as to statesmen, but in the mouth of a statesman it can undo a demagogue.
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Also consider these great articles:
John Kerry's Brilliant "Fallback" Plan, by Arianna Huffington, Salon Magazine, July 7, 2004
A Good Pick, Not a Great One, by LiberalOasis, July 7, 2004
A Stunt that Might Work, by Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, July 7, 2004
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