Kerry Looks to Pick Fight With Edwards (Let the Games Begin!!)

Washington Post ^ | 2/18/04

[areafiftyone]

DAYTON, Ohio - Democratic front-runner John Kerry had kind words Wednesday for longtime nemesis Howard Dean as he exited the race for the nomination but signaled a new phase of engagement with John Edwards.

Edwards came within six points of defeating Kerry in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, the closest race that Kerry has faced since the Iowa caucuses. Dean finished a distant third, suffering a crushing 17th loss that forced him to quit.

While speaking with reporters Wednesday, Kerry dismissed key points of Edwards' campaign and questioned whether a candidate's background should be an issue.

Edwards often tells voters that he understands the pain of job loss because of his working-class Southern background, which contrasts with Kerry's upbringing in boarding school and Boston society. But Kerry said a person's roots should not be part of the debate.

"If where you come from was a qualification for being president, we'd have never had Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy," he said.

Edwards criticized Kerry for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement while campaigning in Wisconsin, a state that has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs and where resentment of free trade runs high.

[gooleyman]

I think that Kerry has all but given Edwards the nomination with the letter he wrote challenging Bush to a debate about the Vietnam war:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1083187/posts

If this letter is covered at all by the media and people get to read it, It would show that Kerry is insane and unqualified to be President. If Edwards is smart enough to pick up on it, he could rip Kerry a new one with it. (If you know what I mean.)