Free Republic

I must give Senator John Edwards his due: the man is a phenomenal public speaker. He could have been a sideshow huckster, or a salesman of 80 proof Indian elixirs in dry counties. For instance, he once claimed to channel the spirit of a child. "I feel her, I feel her presence," he said in a malpractice lawsuit on behalf of Jennifer Campbell. "She's inside me and she's talking to you. And this is what she says to you. She says, I don't ask for your pity. What I ask for is your strength. And I don't ask for your...

Not only has Sen. John Edwards sagged as a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, but his national party operatives now worry about his chances for re-election to a second Senate term in North Carolina next year. Democratic insiders complain that Edwards, a 49-year-old political newcomer, has reached for too much, too soon instead of solidifying his North Carolina base following his election in 1998. Republican Rep. Richard Burr is rated as no worse than even in a 2004 Senate contest. A footnote: Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who is recovering from heart surgery performed Jan. 31, is becoming the top presidential...

WHO WAS THAT CHAP?Sen. John Edwards' relationship with the real Bill Clinton paid off in London on Wednesday, when British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with the now-senior senator and presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. Edwards had asked Clinton to call Blair on his behalf to help get him a meeting on a European junket Edwards hopes will help burnish a perception that he has foreign policy experience. But no sooner did Edwards walk out of the meeting, which lasted longer than Edwards expected, than he was on a conference call to reporters in Washington in North Carolina crowing about the...