Son of a beach
I didn't know that Senator John Edwards conducted an annual Independence Day walk along the North Carolina coast, but the Charlotte Observer reports that Edwards was greeted like a rock star during his annual walk yesterday: "Kerry with Vilsack while Edwards walks beach." In a gimlet-eyed look at Edwards, however, Donald Lambro observes:
Surely no one among this year's presidential contenders has received more favorable — one might say fawning — treatment from the news media. But despite his envious media exposure, Mr. Edwards won only one primary, in South Carolina, plus his home state's caucus. He came in second in more than a dozen other primaries after most of the other candidates dropped out, but also was a distant third or fourth in many others.What about Richard Gephardt? According to Lambro, he is one of several respectable contenders who don't "excite the party's liberal base very much." In Lambro's analysis, however, Kerry has no good choices available. Perhaps he should just pack it in.
Thus a second look at Mr. Edwards suggests he wasn't that great a campaigner, nor did he have a well-thought-out, weighty agenda with big ideas. His principal life's work has been that of a trial lawyer who made millions suing big corporations.
Just when things looked their grimmest, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution comes to the rescue with a column by the previously unheralded B.J. Rudell to propose the candidate who is "uniquely qualified" to serve, not as president, but rather "[a]s a symbol of Democrats' outrage": "Cleland packs the best punch to be VP pick." Perfect!
On the other hand, the Journal-Constitution also brings us the counterpoint to Rudell's lucubrations. Democratic Senator Zell Miller writes: "I love my party but hate what it has become." (Registration required for AJC columns, both courtesy of RealClearPolitics.)
UPDATE: Over at No Left Turns Peter Schramm has interesting reflections on the options confronting Kerry in "Kerry's latest ideas, and the VP choice."
