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Posted on 01/15/2003 11:03:03 AM PST by grantswank
JOHN EDWARDS—WORTHY OF NOTE?
J. Grant Swank, Jr., POB 1984, Windham ME 04062
Pastor, New Hope Church, Windham ME
Yes. He is handsome, some say “cute.” Others say he has a “darlin’ southern drawl.” Does that mean much to American voters? It surely does, especially women voters. More so with TV mug shots daily. Count on it. True.
Yes. He is alert, intelligent, assertive, creative, persistent and young.
Yes. He is a professional — lawyer — married to, Elizabeth, a professional —lawyer. They are family people — three children in the household — Catharine, student at Princeton, 4-year-old Emma Clair, and 2-year-old Jack. Teen son Wade, their first child, was killed in a highway accident in 1996.
Yes. He has excellent delivery skills as a speaker.
Yes. He has dug his heels into the US Congress, proving himself to be loyal, tenacious, vocal, individualistic.
Yes. He is going after the Democratic liberal wing — in fact, the arch-liberal wing, believing that there is a powerful force there in combating the conservative, popular Bush.
US Senator from North Carolina Edwards was sworn into office on January 6, 1999. Since then he has become a spokesman for the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act — a bill that passed the Senate in 2001. He has also championed aggressive antiterrorism measures, updating the country’s banking system, campaign finance reform and laws to combat corporate corruption.
Raleigh’s THE NEWS AND OBSERVER says that Edwards is a “smart, disciplined, (and) hard-working” leader with a “down-home manner.” He is known for gaining points with Congressional colleagues when in committee sessions. Like Bush, he also can get his message across to “plain people” in a “man on the street” kind of way.
He serves on strategic committees: Commerce, Science and Transportation, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Intelligence, Judiciary, and Small Business.
Edwards was born in 1953, growing up in Robbins, North Carolina, a village near Piedmont. Wallace, his dad, was employed in textile mills for 36 years. Bobbie, his mom, worked at various jobs, including at the local post office.
Edwards was the first in his family to graduate from college, working at odd jobs while studying at North Carolina State University. He graduated with honors in textiles in 1974. He earned an honors degree in law in 1977 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Edwards has already thrown his hat into the presidential ring, using his position on the Judiciary Committee to clip away at Bush’s presidency. Though serving only four years in the Senate, Edwards dares to speak his mind. For instance, he declares that Bush’s economic prospectus “makes no sense.” Edwards seeks home heating aid, states that tax cuts for the rich is not a responsible move, and offers a terrorist shield which he claims is more secure than Bush’s. He is also working on a bill to make nuclear shipments safer.
Edwards, a former personal injury trial lawyer, has worked hard at blocking Bush’s nominees. “Edwards tried to make his mark going after Charles Pickering and Priscilla Owen,” John Nowacki, director of legal policy for the Free Congress Foundation, explained to CNSNews. “If he’s allowed to remain on the Judiciary Committee, we can expect him to continue to target President Bush’s appeal court nominees.”
Criticizing Pickering for being prejudiced against criminal defendants and civil plaintiffs, Edwards said: "The bottom line is that in order for a judge to be elevated and receive a lifetime promotion to the second highest court in the land, I think it is critical that that judge always be willing to be fair, to be impartial, to not take sides, and to apply clear, well-established principles of law. In my judgment, Judge Pickering does not meet that test."
Edwards voted not only against conservative judicial nominees Dennis Shedd, Pickering, Owen, but also against confirmation of Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Conservatives believe that such stance is to prove to the liberal Democrats that Edwards is their man. For example, all above nominees are pro-life; Edwards is not, therefore, is obviously courting the pro-choice vote.
In the months ahead, Edwards will seek every chance to be in front of the cameras, articulating the liberal positions on a variety of issues. By attacking Bush’s nominees for judges, Edwards has set himself as liberal contender.
Edwards has a lot of money, making it by representing those who sue corporations. In that, he set himself up as standard bearer for “the common man”. We will be certain to hear more about his mill worker father and postal employee mother.
He’s a civil rights fellow, ready to champion those-of-color at every turn. Recalling a gathering of four Carolina blacks who, once in the civil rights movement in Greenville met again to remember old times, Edwards states that “it was a celebration, blacks and white together, and it shows how far we have come. I feel a special obligation to show how mainstream people have completely changed. Political leaders have to lead on this stuff.”
There are some Democrats who believe that it is strategic that their party does not drift center, losing their unique base. Such Demos will then lunge for a creature like Edwards who is not afraid to go left of center — and stay there.
Nevertheless, with all that, Edwards has not yet become the darling of the Democratic Party. He is still in the single digits when it comes to the polls, even with all the initial fanfare attending his announcement to run for the US Presidency.
What’s needed?
No doubt he needs to come on stronger with specifics regarding a host of issues, not just single out several at the start. He has not yet accomplished that, at least not enough to make a dramatic impression.
In other words, generalities won’t last long; he has to get into firm and meaningful detail so as to grab the public’s innards, particularly the Democratic nerve. He needs to take more risks, but not too many and not too many of the maverick variety.
Time awaits Edwards’ ability to carve out such imperatives.
We here in NC, which went for Bush, seldom see him and he does NOT vote conservatively or moderately. His voting record is the same as Kennedy's, yet he continues to lie to the uninformed that he is a moderate.
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