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?
Flush the Johns!
A second Ho-Hum. Too many Ho-Hums for me this year! Richard Clarke, Ho-Hum, Bill Clinton's Summer Book Tour, Ho-Hum, Hillary Clinton, Ho-Hum, Bob Woodward, Ho-Hum,etc. Now that John Kerry is moving to the "middle", I guess Michael Moore, Harvey Weinstein and F-911 will become Ho-Hum too! Methinks the entire "traitor" Democrat Party will become Ho-Hum this November! Boring! These idiots are going down! Much ado about nothing!!!!!
Hope you're right about that.
Funny...my liberal brother offered me $$ to go and see the Moore trash at the theatre. I relied that I would rather prefer to pull a hot cookie sheet from the oven with my bare hand vs. see that dribble. No response.
Kerrys running mate John Edwards IS ....
Jimmy Carter all over again. Watch how he approaches people to greet them and shake their hands. His demeanor and all is very Jimmy Carteresque. You know darn well Kerrys camp chose Edwards in order to get the southern vote.
I would have pocketed the cash and gone to see Spiderman II. That's just me.
Lucky we don't have anymore canals to give away.
That thought crossed my mind once or twice, but I was thinking Shrek 2...but that whole honesty thing my mom taught me...Kind of funny since he knows that I will not vote for Herman or the Ambulance chaser, but maybe he thinks I will be less committed to the cause.
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