Site Presented By
Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
As John Edwards kicks off his presidential campaign, some wonder if it's over before it began.
Sep 17, 2003 | Back when Howard Dean was the unknown ex-governor of a tiny New England state, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was winning prestigious early media primaries, getting anointed one of a handful of Democrats with the political star power to beat George Bush in 2004. Time magazine named Edwards "The Democrats' New Golden Boy" in 2001 and U.S. News & World Report put him on its cover last year as a man who could give Bush a scare. Throw in glowing portraits by curmudgeonly Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair and Nicholas Lemann in the New Yorker, and a year ago Edwards looked like someone who'd be in the top tier of Democrats as the race got underway for real this fall.
But instead, as Edwards officially kicked off his presidential campaign Tuesday with a speech outside the mill where his father used to work in Robbins, N.C., the question hovering over the race now is not "How far can he go?" but "Is his candidacy over before it officially began?" Even some supporters are asking how such a promising candidate wound up running such a mediocre campaign to date, and whether he can fix it. The news that Gen. Wesley Clark will declare his own candidacy on Wednesday was yet another blow on a day when Edwards hoped he'd have the news cycle to himself.
It's a strange turn of events for Edwards, because his political admirers haven't been limited to the media over the years. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., once declared that Edwards had the potential to be the best debater the chamber had seen in 25 years, and some Democratic strategists have called him the biggest talent since Clinton. Back when Edwards was supposed to run for reelection in North Carolina, Sen. Jon Corzine, of New Jersey, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who's charged with regaining the Democratic majority, called him among the three or four top politicians in the country. With the pending retirements of Sens. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina and Zell Miller of Georgia, Democrats who can win in Southern states are becoming a rare commodity in the chamber these days. And given that the party has not been able to get to the White House with a candidate from above the Mason-Dixon line since John F. Kennedy, Edwards was expected to be a front-runner.
And yet Edwards lags behind Dean, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Dick Gephardt in most polls, both nationwide as well as in the crucial early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Talking to Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" Monday night, Edwards tried to make light of his low poll standing, noting that his campaign kickoff wasn't really coming as late as it seemed, since "I don't know if you've seen the polls, but I think it will be news to some people that I will be running for president."
Many Democrats believe he made a crucial tactical mistake by devoting himself to raising money during the first half of the year and spending less time than some of the field's leaders on the stump in Iowa and New Hampshire. Now Edwards is spending money on advertising and he's vowed to hold at least 100 town hall meetings in New Hampshire before the January primary, but some say it's too little, too late.
"He's spending his money now and he's not moving," said one Democrat.
But campaign manager Ed Turlington, who used to practice law with Edwards, said the campaign is proceeding as expected. "I think we're right on plan," he said. "We're moving past the exploring phase and into the heat of the battle."
It's hard not to notice that some of Edwards' strengths are also weaknesses. People magazine put him on its list of most beautiful people in 2000 and Elle named him sexiest politician in 2001, but his foppish hair and youthful features make him "look 20 years younger than he is and he's running in a year when experience actually matters," said University of Virginia politics professor Larry Sabato.
Most daunting is his political youth. Edwards has yet to complete his first Senate term, and the best he can point to on his résum&eacaute; to demonstrate foreign policy acumen is a seat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. While critics note that Bush had just begun a second term as Texas governor when he ran for president, in post-9/11 America many political observers think even Bush might be passed over as too unseasoned to run the country during wartime if he were setting out this time around. "If Bush ran as the candidate he was in 2000 against an eight-year incumbent vice president, he would have a much more difficult time explaining away his lack of foreign policy experience compared to a vice president," said Sabato. "It matters now."
Edwards' inexperience has shown through as his gold sheen flecked off in his long run-up to Tuesday's announcement. He was blasted for his performance on "Meet the Press" in May last year -- National Journal columnist William Powers said he "came off as ill-prepared and vague, incapable of producing an original thought on any subject." And while his supporters have counted on his intelligence and his telegenic looks to capture voters' attention and make up for his experience deficit, Edwards hasn't shone in the debates to date. He's had some bad breaks: He had the unlucky distinction of following Rev. Al Sharpton in the order of the debate sponsored earlier this week by the Congressional Black Caucus at Morgan State University in Baltimore. After Sharpton set the audience roaring by revealing his favorite song is "James Brown's number on the Republican Party, 'Talking Loud, Saying Nothing,'" Edwards complained, "I've got to follow that?" He told the crowd his favorite song was Small Town" by John Cougar Mellencamp, earning points for not pandering, but little else.
Even his wife, Elizabeth, admitted he didn't shine that night. "It was pretty hard to cut through. He likes Al but you don't try to compete on his turf. You got to let it cool down for a second so you can say your piece."
But Edwards was also upstaged by Sharpton on what was arguably his own turf, when six of the candidates addressed NARAL Pro-Choice America earlier this year. That time Sharpton followed Edwards -- and lighted up the crowd of white women, while Edwards' speech was pronounced a dud by the New Republic.
