Sour and sweet: Packaging of blow-dried duo pose challenge to Bush-Cheney
Bennington, VT Ñ Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry, speaking with his trademark neo-Olympian tone has chosen John Edwards for his vice- presidential running mate. So hereÕs the classic balanced ticket to the dour and some say sour, Senator from Massachusetts and the syrupy sweet Southern junior Senator from North Carolina. On cue, the major media went into its characteristic rapture and awe of the obvious and the polls have predictably bounced.
The feisty Boston Herald headlined ÒTheyÕre Left of TedÓ referring to the dynamic duoÕs record which tilts to the port side of perennial senator Ted Kennedy. But the ticket will be cleverly sold to Middle America as centrist, with Edwards balancing out John KerryÕs shortcomings. North/South, Old Money/New Money, Cerebral/Smooth,Liberal/Moderate.
Kerry/Edwards sounds like a brokerage firm and in a sense it is; the personal wealth of the Kerry family side combined with the ÒAhÕ shucks southern trial lawyerÓ Edwards side approaches one billion dollars. ThatÕs with a B. As the poster boy wonder of the trial lawyers, John Edwards pulled in settlements over $150 million, much of which went to him. During the primaries, campaign contributions gushed in from the legal profession.
Despite his genuinely modest upbringing as compared with the Boston Brahmin, John Edwards, remains a self made multi-millionaire whose effusive charm outshines the dour John Kerry. His long time theme of the ÒTwo Americas that divide rich and poorÓ has a cachet and his charisma a genuine pull. Last year this man of the rural South sold his lilÕ old Washington D.C townhouse to the Hungarian government for $3 million. When Democrats make mega- millions itÕs celebrated as enterprising, when Republicans make mega-millions itÕs chastised as greed.
KerryÕs pick of Edwards was not really a Southern strategy Ñ Edwards could not likely have been re-elected to his own senate seat and fared poorly in southern primaries. ItÕs about appealing to independent voters in key swing states such as Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Though voters rarely support a ticked based on the vice presidential candidate, in a tight race somebody with Edwards populism can make a difference.
ÒI think the American people want an experience hand at the helm of state. This is not the time for on-the job training in the White House national security issues,Ó was the sober verdict from none other than Senator John Kerry on his one time primary opponent, the first term senator from North Carolina! Kerry is right, and thereÕs no question that national security is not something geared to on the job training.
IÕm certain that every late-night comic will allude that Edwards would bring class action lawsuits against Osama Bin Laden, slap restraining orders to keep Islamic terrorists from entering America, force Saddam to undergo sensitivity training, make Al Qaida pay compensation damages for the bombing of the USS Cole, and forbid Islamic fundamentalist hate speech against America. Our enemies should find this quite amusing.
The real issue remains experience and Edwards lack of it on national security and trade issues. Our world is not an American court room, nor Disneyland, or a place where a slick smile on MTV will always work. National security experience does not come from expanding ones vistas to Euro Disney, Congressional junkets, and schmoozing with the Hollywood left.
The last time America had a slick lawyer from Arkansas as President there was also on the job training in national security. The result Ñ major military cuts because the Cold War was over, slash intelligence budgets because everybody loved America, sell high-tech electronics to communist China because they are our Òstrategic partner.Ó ThatÕs one of the many troubling legacies of the Clinton era.
Edwards presents the classic airbrushed style over substance candidate who is a man of skill and smarts, not balanced gravitas. Edwards will carry his appealing folksy charm to the voters; nearly the entire process is based on sound bites, clever packaging, and having little context. The formal canonization of the Kerry/ Edwards ticket will come at the Boston Democratic Convention and will present the Bush Administration with a formidable challenge.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense
issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.  |
