Did you say RAT? 
Posted on 07/06/2004 7:31:49 AM PDT by Mike Bates
John Kerry’s selection of North Carolina Senator John Edwards surprised me. Maybe it’s time to take a refresher course in political punditry.
There were some candidates I was pretty certain Mr. Kerry would not choose. Senator Bob Graham of Florida, replete with his meticulously maintained notebooks about what he wore, ate and talked about every day, is just a little too strange.
Iowa’s Governor Tom Vilsack was clearly out because until about a month ago no one other than his Mom knew who he was.
I was sure Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be picked. John Kerry doesn’t want to spend the next four years being overshadowed by the heiress apparent. Or watching his back.
Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt would have brought a lot of experience with him as well as some enthusiastic support from labor unions. Mr. Kerry rightly reckoned that Big Labor will, as usual, back the Democratic ticket no matter who’s on it.
So Mr. Kerry selected one of his Democratic opponents, a man who had enough prescience to not criticize Kerry too harshly during the primaries. Edwards brings strengths, including geographic balance, but has some obvious weak points.
Edwards is telegenic, a highly prized attribute in this age of sound bites and photo ops. He was named People Magazine’s "sexiest politician" a few years ago.
It’s tempting to scoff at such things, but they can play a major role in who wins elections. American voters don’t generally read party platforms, position papers and policy statements. They do watch the news on TV and scan the front pages of newspapers. They make judgments based on what they see.
In choosing Edwards, John Kerry showed some unexpected daring. The Massachusetts senator is slightly less charismatic than Walter Mondale was twenty years ago. He often looks as though he’s in pain, perhaps with a severe migraine. Maybe it’s all those nuances he’s carrying on his shoulders.
Adding someone to the ticket who’ll clearly outshine him isn’t what I would have expected from the cautious Kerry.
John Edwards will also bring to the table money. Plenty of it. His personal assets are as much as $36 million. For a guy not married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, that’s a lot of money.
Senator Edwards has attracted millions of dollars in political contributions from trial lawyer interests. And he’s not shy about admitting it. Last year an Edwards’ spokeswoman noted: "We have no problem if 100 percent of our money came from trial lawyers."
Undoubtedly, the North Carolinian will trot out his "Two Americas" speech for the campaign. Honed throughout the primaries, the thrust of that stump talk is that we have two countries, one for the rich and another for everyone else.
He cites a figure from the Census Bureau that there are 35 million Americans living in poverty. What he doesn’t mention is that the poor in our country often live better than middle-class citizens in many other nations.
Edwards’ speech is pure Class Struggle 101. It’s misleading. But it’s red meat for the party faithful and will be used to good advantage for the next five months.
On other issues, from abortion to taxation, Edwards has proven himself dependably liberal. He votes with Teddy Kennedy about 90 percent of the time.
It’ll be interesting to see how John Kerry contends with his running mate’s woeful lack of experience. His only political credential is having been elected to the Senate. Once. His record there can charitably be described as undistinguished.
During the primaries, Kerry attacked Edwards on this very point. He asserted that now "is not the time for on-the-job training in the White House on national security issues."
Then there’s always the possibility that some skeletons will emerge from Edwards’ closet. He’s not been subjected to the scrutiny that he will be from now on. I have no knowledge of any scandal lurking in the background, but he is a Democrat so anything is possible.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised at the Edwards pick. Kerry’s first selection for running mate, John McCain, turned him down and that didn’t leave much from which to choose. Who could Kerry have turned to, Howlin’ Howard Dean?
Ho-Hum in kerry-dum, the liar takes a wife......
He does bring a pretty face to the campaign but there's nothing that differentiates him from John F*ckin'. Unlike in 1960, this is one southern Democrat who isn't a conservative. So Kerry doesn't bring ideological as well as geographical balance to the presidential ticket. That wing of the Democratic party is history. Consider some history. Fellow Massachusettan Michael Dukakis' pick of Texan Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 didn't help him carry Texas. There's no chance a Southern liberal like John Edwards can succeed where a conservative Texas Democrat like Bentsen failed.
This one, although very rich, isn't as saucy as Te- rez-a. I don't think.
The RAT takes a cheesy grin...
A pretty face can't be discounted, unfortunately. Sometimes I think Steve Forbes could have done quite a lot better in politics if he were a tad prettier.
It would be the height of irresponsibility to place him a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
Regards, Ivan
Did you say RAT?
It ain't easy bein' sleazy......
NO difference at all. Kerry is a dangerous snob. He will do as he has said leading this nation into a cesspool:
"I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations."
Even most of the moronic lib's hate TRIAL LAWYERS because they know who is responsible that they pay $5.00 a pack for cigarettes.
If I were an uninformed bleached blonde brain dead card carrying Democrat or just uninformed bleached blonde brain dead person who has complete faith in anything the media tells me, I would vote for John Edwards and his running mate, that really ugly guy. He is the easiest on the eyes. Now if that Jeb guy were running against JE, that'd be a different story.
The point is don't under estimate the sheeple's stupidity levels.
What's the use of going to law school if you can't benefit from the training? :)
Getting redundant here, aren't we?
Quite. :) But that training does not necessarily suit one for the Vice Presidency. On the contrary. I would rather a circus clown than a trial lawyer became Vice President - at least it would liven up most State funerals.
Regards, Ivan
Now that is dangerous.
Edwards will help more a lot down the ticket than other VP picks would do. Bowles will pick up some momentum...so will Carson. Several southern states that weren't too problematic now may fall out the Republican safe column and into tossups. Arkansas, LA, FL come to mind. Edwards appeals to the soccer mom types. Money will flow in from the trial lawyers...but will be countered by AMA, ADA, etc. This was a bit of a risky approach as he reminds me of Quayle...pretty, but not a lot of experience. We will see how this pans out.
Everything you didn't like about John Edwards before (trial lawyer going into elective politics, pretty-boy Southern charm boy, stealth "third-way" strategist, intellectual lightweight, sometime metrosexual, no military service, faux "good old boy" air, dabbles in psychic phenomena) are still there. He would be the "Former Occupant of the Oval Office, 1993-2001" redux, without the womanizer baggage.
Now I don't know if John Edwards does any of this womanizing thing, and I will not speculate. But the "Former Occupant of the Oval Ofice, 1993-2001" did an awful lot of wrongful things that had NOTHING to do with forcing females to do things that everybody knows were "just wrong", as it has been put. The worst thing the "Former Occupant of the Oval Ofice, 1993-2001" did was to shirk from giving full performance in the duties of President. Perhaps he simply did not know how. Given opportunities to rise above the situation and be a decisive statesman, he chose to duck and hide, and take the easy (and wrong) course of action, passing responsibility to anybody else that blame could be shucked off onto.
And we want another faint-hearted character like that a heartbeat from the Presidency? Considering the shaky state of John Kerry's health, Edwards could very well assume the mantle before the end of Kerry's first term.
Ivan, didn't we already have a clown for VP during the Clinton administration?
The Mare and the Hair
Vote John Squared
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