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| John Edwards Flashes His Pearly Whites in John Ashcroft's Backyard |
| 02.06.04 (9:23 am) [edit] |
First things first: Attention Howard Dean supporters! Please stop handing me "Common Sense for a New Century" at every campaign event. You bothered me at the Franken book signing. You harrassed me at the Wesley Clark rally. You shoved that thing in my face at the John Edwards campaign stop. I know you're mobilized. I know you're part of a "movement." I know Howard Dean has eroded your cynicism of politics. But don't be rude when I say I don't want to read Howard Dean's manifesto on the New World Order. I've read it five times. Please don't take it personally if I refuse to take your little pamphlet. And please stop telling people, "Hey, we've got a right to voice an opposing view here!" outside opponents' rallies. We know you do--that's not the issue. The issue is that most of us who go to these things have been getting the Howard Dean treatment from you people for about five months now, and it's now more annoying than convincing. I'm not saying you shouldn't stump for your candidate, just don't be angry when I say politely that I don't want the Dean manifesto. Thank you.
By now, you've heard all about how great John Edwards is on the stump. He's got this great speech, he's got an optimistic vision of America, he talks about things all Americans believe in, he's Clinton without the sleaze, his years as a trial lawyer have groomed him for politics, he scares the Bush team, he's going to be a superstar, etc. So when I heard that John Edwards was coming to Springfield the day after the New Hampshire primary, I knew I had to see this for myself. Besides, when the hell is another national Democrat going to come into John Ashcroft and Roy Blunt's backyard?
I got there an hour and a half early, and the place was already packed. Word is that they had to turn people away, with 300 people already packed into Southwest Missouri State's Strong Hall. The scene inside was pretty remarkable. People were packed onto the stairs overlooking the stage, even standing far down the hallways stemming from the lobby just to hear the senator. I have never seen anything like that for a Democrat in Southwest Missouri. There was also a wide range of people: college kids, elitist professors, guys with union jackets, a bunch of cowboy hats, teachers, and retirees. We waited twenty minutes past the scheduled time for the senator, who first appeared walking across a field, seen by people in the lobby through the large window on the east side of the building. The crowd starting chanting "Ed-Wards" when Lieutenant Governor Joe Maxwell took the stage. Maxwell, the most popular Democrat in the state, whipped the crowd into a frenzy, and through the doors marched Mr. John Edwards, JD.
Edwards seemed genuinely overwhelmed by the crowd. As the John Cougar Mellencamp played on, Edwards flashed the double thumbs up to the people three stories above him on the stairs, then stalked the tiny stage, flashing that big pearly grin at all us country folk as "Small Town" faded away and Edwards' roadies handed him the mic. First, he pandered to the Gephardt crowd; "My friend," he called the House Minority Leader. And then John Edwards told us "what you and I already know"--that there's two Americas in this country, one for the rich and powerful, and the one for everybody else.
I won't recount the content of the speech for you--if you've seen it once on CNN, MSNBC, or C-SPAN, you know what it's all about. What doesn't come across on television is how remarkably Edwards directs the crowd, incorporating them directly into the rhythm and message of the speech. Edwards will say something about poverty or health care or another plight of the Second America, and people will start whoopin' and hollerin'. Then, Edwards will put his hands out, palms down, with a big smile on his face and look right at the loudest noisemaker. Everyone else in the room gets quiet, he lets the guy or gal yell his "Yeah John!" or "You can do it, John!"--and then a hush falls over the room. John Edwards has silenced the crowd while swelling our enthusiasm for the message with his knowing smile. When a room of 300 people goes quiet, the next thing said is going to carry a lot of weight, so from this silence, Edwards will say something like, "I want to talk about something nobody else will talk about, but something you and I know is important..." When he delivers the line, that welling up of enthusiasm mixes with the purging of our liberal guilt. The effect is that we believe this is a guy who has an intimate understanding of our problems, because we've been put on pins and needles to hear what he has to say. The crowd absolutely bursts at this point, with Edwards taking the opportunity during the applause to walk the stage, flash his thumbs up, clasp his hands and shake them about his shoulders, swaggering his body around the room. Edwards has huge hands with long fingers that he then uses to direct the crowd all over again. We know exactly what the cues are without knowing we're being cued--we've become emotionally involved because we're a necessary part of the performance. This is how John Edwards projects himself and his message into the crowd.
So, yeah, it's a great speech that recalls the old liberal populism--and Edwards can sell it, where John Kerry just comes off like Al Gore. The problem with the Edwards campaign is this: His staff scrambled around at the beginning, like they didn't know how to set up the place. And the room was way too small. I got a call later from my friends Bob and Jonathan in St. Louis, where Edwards was supposed to speak two and a half hours after his Springfield speech. An hour before speech time, they were already turning people away. In Springfield, that's not an issue because, hell, we're excited just to have something to do, and it's probably ten minutes from home. But in St. Louis, you might have to drive forty-five minutes to see the senator, and then have to turn around and go home. Apparently, the Edwards campaign misbooked both appearances. That's liable to upset a lot of potential supporters, not to mention the bad press that'll generate--even Al Sharpton book the UMSL gymnasium. It seems that the day after New Hampshire, the Edwards campaign was still running a Nashua/Dubuque campaign in a big-time state. Springfield, as small as it is, would still be the second largest city in Iowa and New Hampshire combined. And then going to St. Louis and only planning for a few hundred people?
I think all this points to John Edwards' main problem. Yes, he's a great speaker, he's got a resonating message and he knows how to sell it. But this trial lawyer is having trouble transitioning from the jury rooms of Iowa and South Carolina to the big stages he'll need to win the nomination. His organization isn't raising the money it needs right now, and he's not getting the most bang for his buck. Edwards has great Red State appeal: In Missouri, he was within ten percent or beating Kerry in nearly every rural county in Missouri, though he got beat by thirty five points in urban counties. If Edwards can make make big state problems seem intimate to him, he's got a shot. But every time Edwards misbooks a campaign stop, goes on Meet the Press and forgets that he voted for the Patriot Act and called it "a good idea," every time he tries to pretend he doesn't understand Chris Matthews when he's accused of "being in bed with trial lawyers," he looks more and more like a hayseed candidate.
But I don't think John Edwards is just a regional candidate. His Two Americas speech should resonate with working and middle class voters everywhere to whom the benefits of the "jobless recovery" haven't trickled down to yet. I was seduced enough by his speech to re-embrace my natural populist leanings without the cynicism bred by Gore. Seeing Edwards live, I am convinced that his hardscrabble childhood does help him understand why George W. Bush's "health care savings accounts for working families" is non-solving idea concocted without any idea of what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck. I would like to see John Edwards succeed in knocking off John Kerry--but he's got to realize that just playing "Small Town" in small town halls isn't going to get it done.
----shimes
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posted by: Beverly (reply)
post date: 03.27.06 (4:01 am)
You Gotcha real nice blog
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