Traditionally, the VP candidate delivers his/her home state and little else.
But with only a 35% approval rating in his own state, junior Senator Edwards can't even deliver NC.
Can he "debate" well? No. He has been caught completely uninformed on healthcare issues (his own specialty field!) and foreign policy. He didn't even know Yitzak Rabin (being uninformed on Israel is a bad political move in the pro-Israel, evangelical South).
Where Senator Edwards does well is in one-way media. When he can talk to the jury, but the jury can't talk back (or flee), he does well.
But he's going to have to walk a political tightrope in which he will be forced to claim that his mega-million lottery lawsuits somehow lower healthcare costs (JFK's stated goal).
No doubt this announcement is being made and heralded today in Pennsylvania because they know that they are going to have to go on the offensive for this issue in states like PA that are experiencing runaway healthcare insurance premiums due to ambulance-chasing attorneys, too.
He's also got a Senate attendance problem as well as a liberal voting record and no legislation bearing his name.
That's a lot of baggage to voluntarily add to a Presidential Campaign ticket.
Notice that even Senator Kerry is trying to back away from his pro-abortion votes. His most recent campaign appearances have had him stating that "life begins at conception" and that he is personally "against abortion," but now his campaign adds someone to his ticket who is pro-abortion...completely negating any backsteps away from the issue.
How does Senator Edwards play in the swing states? How does he play in the South?
The Democrats are behaving as if they only need to sway the liberal media and play to the most liberal of their constituents in California, Illinois, and New York...but the election isn't being decided in those states, all of which were already going to vote for anyone but a Republican this year.
President Bush needs to win only those states again in 2004 that he won in 2000. In fact, due to the census redistribution of electoral votes, President Bush can even lose some of those 2000 states and still re-win the Presidency.
So everything outside of what Bush won in 2000 is superfluous. It's unneeded. Put it out of your head. This whole 2004 election is only about those 38 states that Bush won back in 2000.