CNN is now confirming that John Kerry has picked John Edwards to be his running mate in 2004. Of the three top candidates, Edwards was probably the best pick. Edwards has what Kerry sorely lacks: charisma and the ability to fire up an audience.
Of course, Edwards brings several liabilities as well. He’ll certainly outshine Kerry on the stump, although one could make a case that isn’t much of a problem. He’s also a trial lawyer, which is going to give him problems if Bush chooses to make tort reform an issue. While Edwards is a Southerner, I don’t expect it’s going to be enough to put any Southern states in Kerry’s column in November.
Edwards will play well with women and has enough liberal street cred to keep the moonbat wing of the party together. However, the choice of VP rarely makes much of an impact in a Presidential race. Edwards was probably the right choice for Kerry to have made, but I don’t see this having much of an impact on the race over the long term. In the short term, I would not at all be surprised if Kerry gets a slight boost in the polls from this announcement if from nothing other than being in the media spotlight for a few days while the Edwards pick takes up the primary spot on all the talk shows.
Captain Ed of Captain’s Quarters
Edwards is a lightweight with a handsome face, and while he scored well in Iowa in the caucuses, he will carry no weight in the Midwest, even less than a Gephardt or even Howard Dean. Dick Cheney will shred Edwards in a debate, where Gephardt would have provided a better match.
Politically, I think Edwards is an outstanding choice. Yeah, I know, everybody’s going to say it doesn’t matter, that no one votes for Veep, etc. & so forth. Still, I think the Veep choice has an atmospheric effect. Edwards could unstuffify Kerry a bit. I expect Edwards to be uncommonly visible, for a Veep candidate.
As a millionaire personal injury plaintiffs’ lawyer, Edwards perfectly personifies the true message of the Democratic Party: do well for yourself by doing good for others, with both “well” and “good” understood to be the forcible expropriation of resources from third parties who have earned them. I think he is the least serious of the possible selections. He may be good for Kerry, but he’s bad for the country.
Edwards was clearly the right choice. A Gephardt or Vilsack pick probably would have resulted in a negative poll bounce for Kerry since virtually all Democrats and most independents considering voting for Kerry wanted Edwards to round out the ticket. And of course, we’re already being bombarded with all the reasons why Edwards is such a terrible choice, although Republicans already had a list compiled to lambast Gephardt, Graham or Vilsack as unworthy in case they were the choice. That’s where I have to salute Al Gore. As bad of a campaign as he ran, he managed to pick the one Democrat in all of Washington as his running mate that no Republicans could brand the antichrist. Then again, Republicans usually don’t speak ill of other Republicans….and Lieberman basically fits both categories.
As for “Big Trunk of Powerline”, is he speaking the Republican Party platform by asserting that trial lawyers are inherently bad and nasty people who have no business in the public sector? Would you guys really eliminate the entire profession if given the opportunity? Would corporate wrongdoers be completely unaccountable to legal repercussions in your dream world where these “bad for America” trial lawyers ceased to exist?
Given that isn’t even remotely what he said, the answer would clearly be no. At least you’ll be able to scare away the birds with that strawman.
with both “well” and “good” understood to be the forcible expropriation of resources from third parties who have earned them.
Really? Which third party that Edwards fought did you feel “earned” their money the most? E. G. Sawyer’s doctor, who botched a perscription that left Sawyer brain-damaged and paralyzed? Jennifer Campbell’s medical staff, whose mistakes during her mother’s delivery resulted in her cerebral palsy? The designer of a swimming pool drain cover that disemboweled a 5-year-old girl?
I know that in the Republican world, business people are never to be held liable for their own misjudgements, misjudgements that rob people of health, life, and the ability to support themselves. Obviously if a drain cover disemboweled your 5-year-old girl it must have been because of something she did.
Dick Cheney will shred Edwards in a debate, where Gephardt would have provided a better match.
Did Captain Ed forget that Edwards is a trial lawyer? What does he think those guys do all day? Talk to walls?
Edwards is going to tear Cheney to pieces. Cheney’s idea of debate is telling folks to go fuck themselves.
It’ll be an interesting debate, to say the least. The first political debate to drop the f-bomb.