Posted on 04/29/2007 1:49:53 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
During the lead-up to the 2004 Iowa Caucus, John Edwards was fond of saying that three tickets would be punched out of the state and he wanted to be one of those tickets.
Come caucus night, Howard Dean sagged, John Kerry held on, and Edwards surged, prompting him to thank Iowa for punching his ticket.
For Edwards, there has never been any doubt he would run again in 2008. So he kept his foot on caucus soil and spent four years devoting time, money and effort to Iowa.
Would have been a great strategy, had the primary landscape not changed.
The process has evolved from Iowa and New Hampshire as the “first-to” for primary voting to a heavily frontloaded, virtually national primary that crescendos on what is now known as Super-Duper Tuesday.
The problems staring down Edwards, as he now must nationalize his campaign, are numbers, image, message and money. Solve the image and message problems, and the numbers and money problems go away.
According to the averaged polling data compiled by RealClearPolitics, Edwards is still ahead in Iowa, but barely; his numbers have not moved, while Hillary Clinton’s have jumped to within 3 points of his once stellar lead.
The RealClearPolitics averages of the national polling data are worse. Those show that the only candidate Edwards is neck-and-neck with is the undeclared Al Gore.
Image and message collide for Edwards; they are at the heart of his failure to move in the polls. Who is he, and what is he trying to say? Is he the populist candidate who is going to end poverty?
Well, if he is, he’s got a whole lot of explaining to do.
Seriously, how can you talk about poverty when you’re building the largest house held in captivity?
Edwards talks about these “two Americas,” but how is he able to sell that to voters when he is getting $400 haircuts and going to a spa called Pink Sapphire? How does that square with where he is trying to build his political base?
It rings so phony that it has a televangelist quality to it.
While that metro-sexual image neuters his poverty position, how do his business dealings affect his pro-union, like-a-rock-pick-up-truck guy image? Again, a whole lot of explaining needs to come from Camp Edwards.
Just last week, the Washington Post revealed that Edwards was a consultant for a New York-based hedge-fund firm that enables its partners to defer or avoid paying U.S. taxes through off-shore accounts. The firm in question, Fortress, was also Edwards’s largest source of monetary support from a single company in the last quarter.
And does anyone in his camp do research? Surely someone could have checked his records last summer before he signed up to be the union-sponsored “Wake Up Wal-Mart” poster boy. Had they just checked his Senate financial records, they would have known he owned stock in Wal-Mart from at least1999 thru 2003.
All of this goes to an overall character issue that undermines his overall message and his overall persona. He is not paying attention to the growing image of himself.
Edwards built his fortune on representing the little guy in court; he obviously was successful at it. Can he translate that success into a populist message for low-income Americans, and will they buy the messenger?
Up to now, Edwards’ biggest media moments have been about personal tragedy or personal excess. Says one Democratic wag who actually likes him: “I have always thought that Edwards was the guy that was most likely to emerge. I still do … I just cannot figure out what his strategy is … right now he is running the least credible, least authentic campaign out there.”
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Salena Zito is a political analyst, reporter and editorial page columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
According to campaign expense documents, Edwards received $225 worth of beauty treatments at the Pink Sapphire Spa. (that doesn’t include his $400 haircuts)
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has relied on Pink Sapphire to look good for the television cameras in New Hampshire.
Makeup for television is heavier than usual to hold up under the lights, said co-owner Ariana Franggos. The routine is similar for both sexes except for men, “it doesn’t involve lipstick” she said.
Franggos said she’s done makeup for John Edwards a few times but won’t go into details.
FEC records show Edwards also availed himself of $250 in services from a trendy salon and spa in Dubuque, Iowa, and $225 in services from the Pink Sapphire in Manchester, N.H., which is described on its Web site as “a unique boutique for the mind, body and face” that caters mostly to women.
Torrenueva - who specializes in men’s haircuts - confirmed in an interview with The Associated Press that Edwards is a longtime client and friend.
“I do cut his hair and I have cut it for quite a while,” Torrenueva said. “We’ve been friends a long time.”
Campaign records also show the former North Carolina senator’s campaign paid $248 on March 1 to the Designworks Salon in Dubuque.
According to Designworks’ Web site, the salon and spa features a wide variety of beauty and health services, including massages, facials, body polishes, self tanners, and rosemary mint and Caribbean therapy body wraps.
Salena, you bein’ mean to the Breck Girl !
*snickers*
What about eyeshadow?
Which hair ? Edwards being the ultimate metrosexual, I have no doubt he has his hair at both ends neatly trimmed. I'll bet ya a sawbuck his southern thatch is shaped like a heart.
The campaign paid $800 for two haircuts from the Torrenueva salon. Designworks provided $248 worth of camera-ready makeup. And Pink Sapphire was called on two occasions for Edwards’s makeup needs at $150 and $75 a visit. Together they account for $1,273 worth of professional grooming, from trims to foundation.
Edwards built his fortune on total fraud in his crooked malpractice shyster days.
His junk science scam was that all North Carolina cerebral palsy was caused by obstetricians not doing enough c-sections. Edwards enriched himself by causing enormous injuries to women and babies, not to mention the health care delivery system.
He is an evil charlatan with a sociopath phony smile.
ROTFL - and I'll bet another sawbuck that when they're done with his massage they powder his butt with baby powder.
The Pink Sapphire?
We have got to keep this guy in politics, he is priceless. Where else can you come up with this stuff? This is better than Saturday Night Live.
He'll be SWIFTBOATED on this like a drum if he ever gets the nomination.
“...right now he is running the least credible, least authentic campaign out there.”
I would expect nothing less from a lying trial lawyer. One hope of our society is that indeed there is a judgment and he will answer one day—as we all will.
Nice work. Love the color choices.
Sig is right! Don’t rip on this girl! Build her up so that we can go head to head with her in 2008!
Edwards is lacking that elusive quality: authenticity.
His entire theme is class war-fare, pitting one class against another.
He never speaks on any subject that does not further socialism. He comes across as a phony.
I see you are hitting the Breck Girl with some hard punches again. You go girl!
bttt
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