I don’t much care for what I call “horse-race journalism,” non-stop speculation about who is ahead and who has a real chance and who is not thought to have a chance, etc., etc. Most of these stories are a total waste of time, one set of reporters looking over their shoulders at other reporters, each wanting to not be out on a limb by actually saying something different from all the others.
And so we hear endless stories about polls and tactics — all the while ignoring the question of who the person’s backers are, what they will likely want from him, what he is likely to wish to do should he get elected, etc., etc.
At the risk of adding my fill to such stories, let me merely say that my hunch since the 2004 primary season is that at some point John Edwards will become president, unless of course the powers that be shoot him down as they did the Kennedy brothers, and George Wallace, people who authentically challenged the way things really are done in this country.
I am not sure how many more assassinations this country can stand. Hopefully the people who have been arranging them will share those qualms, and lay off.
Edwards Embarks on Cross-Country Tour to Advance His Candidacy
By Nicholas Johnston
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) — Former Senator John Edwards embarked on a cross-country campaign to promote his new presidential bid after getting the jump on some fellow Democrats by announcing his populist candidacy in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.
Seeking to build support against a formidable slate of possible opponents, the North Carolina Democrat appeared at a town hall meeting in Iowa, home to the nation’s first presidential caucus, before heading to New Hampshire, site of the first primary election in 2008. In Iowa, Edwards is tied in early polls with Barack Obama and ahead of Hillary Clinton, two senators who are likely to join the race soon.
“Man, it’s great to be back in Iowa,” Edwards told several hundred people who packed the Iowa State Historical Museum in Des Moines last night. “I’ve been to Iowa a time or two,” he said to laughter from the crowd. It was Edwards’s 16th trip to the state in the past two years.
The holiday-season entry into the race and early campaign foray by Edwards are designed to lessen the advantage Clinton and Obama enjoy as early favorites.
The Democratic contest “is being presented so generally in the media as a race between Hillary and Obama,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Edwards is well-positioned for “somebody slipping on a banana peel.”
Rob Tully, an attorney who helped run Edwards’s 2004 presidential campaign in Iowa, said there is a lot of “hype” surrounding other candidates. Edwards, by practicing “retail politics” now in key states, will have the organization and connection with voters to win the early contests, he said.
Second-Place Finish
Edwards, 53, placed second in Iowa in 2004 and fourth in New Hampshire before dropping out to become the vice-presidential running mate of the victor in both states, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.
“It’s still Iowa and New Hampshire in terms of momentum,” Tully said. “You can just ask President Dean how important the Iowa caucuses are.”
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, an early media favorite in 2004, placed third in Iowa, second in New Hampshire the following week and withdrew soon after.
“I’m doing my by best to allow people to see who I am and what it is I believe and how important I think it is to engage Americans and bring about the changes we need,” Edwards said in an interview.
Iraq War
At the Iowa rally, Edwards said he would work to “restore America’s moral leadership in the world” by beginning to pull U.S. forces from Iraq and again acknowledged he was wrong to vote to authorize the war as a senator in 2002. “It was a mistake and I take responsibility for that,” Edwards said.
He kicked off his campaign yesterday in the backyard of Oleria Tyler of New Orleans, whose home was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Edwards accused the Bush administration of neglecting poorer residents trying to recover from the storm.
“New Orleans, in so many ways, shows the two Americas that I have talked about in the past,” Edwards said, returning to his theme of a nation divided by wealth and poverty.
In a recent survey of 400 Iowa Democrats who are likely to attend the state’s presidential caucuses in January 2008, Edwards polled 22 percent, tied for first with Obama. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack came in second with 12 percent and Clinton was third with 10 percent.
In New Hampshire
The survey, conducted Dec. 18-20 by polling firm Research 2000, has a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
After his appearance in Iowa, Edwards flew to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where today he holds a town hall meeting at an elementary school.
A poll of 400 New Hampshire Democrats conducted by Research 2000 found Clinton and Obama virtually tied with 22 percent and 21 percent respectively. Edwards polled third with 16 percent.
“He has a certain degree of name recognition and a pretty fat Rolodex,” Hess said. “He’s still very much a player and, very obviously, he’s a very attractive person and a very good speaker.”
Edwards is making his 10th trip to New Hampshire since the 2004 election, and the current campaign swing also includes stops in Nevada and South Carolina, which hold early contests for the Democratic nomination.
Since the 2004 election, Edwards has visited 39 states and raised more then $8.5 million for Democratic candidates in this year’s congressional elections.
Tully said Edwards, a trial lawyer and seasoned politician, has the speaking skills to help him in Iowa where the winner is picked in public meetings. The system requires successful candidates to generate enthusiasm among caucus-goers to get them to speak on their behalf to other voters.
“It really is about touching these people to make them want to not only go there and stand and say, `I’m for John Edwards,’ but to actually voice their reasoning why,” Tully said. “The people who show up are going to be there because they want this guy to be president of the United States.”