From the Jul 8 – Jul 14, 2004 issue

News

Picking a Winner

I Feel John Edwards' Joy

by Sandeep Kaushik

So the deed is done. On Tuesday morning, John Kerry did the right thing, and both the cautious and the exciting thing, in picking every Democrat's favorite boy-man, North Carolina senator John Edwards--he of the 1,000-watt Crest-kid smile--as his running mate. I was in the room on January 18 in Iowa when Kerry said, "When I came back from Vietnam in 1969, I don't know if John Edwards was out of diapers then." But now he has bowed to the demands of the party's activist base--and the swooning press--in anointing Edwards his ideological right-hand man. With that one strategic move, Kerry's chances of winning this election just got substantially better. Hey, no one ever said Kerry wasn't smart--or calculating.

The Republicans wasted no time in putting the hit on Edwards. The Republican National Committee issued a statement calling him "a disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal and friend to personal injury lawyers." This is laughably untrue, of course. Edwards, a one-term senator with no foreign-policy experience, is a disingenuous, unaccomplished centrist. And he's more than a friend to personal injury lawyers--he is a personal injury lawyer.

That said, I like John Edwards, and I didn't at this time last year. (I've always liked John Kerry, but that appears to be a minority viewpoint in America.) Edwards has grown on me, maybe like a cancer, or maybe like a pretty flower. He is very bright. He boasts an infectious grin. He has compelling hair. He is glibly articulate. His vowels are comfortingly soft. And he has grown into an awesome campaigner. Aside from Bill Clinton, he is the closest thing to Bill Clinton the Democratic Party has. And Bill Clinton is a proven winner.

If you see John Edwards enough--and you will--you will like Edwards too. If you are a middle-class suburban woman, you will fantasize about having sex with him. If you are one of the legions of emotionally needy Americans who, for some inexplicable reason, look to politicians for solace, he will reassure you without seeming to condescend to you. If you are a Midwestern working-class independent, you will identify with his son-of-a-mill-worker story. If you are a guy with a confederate flag on the back of your pickup truck, you won't feel an immediate and visceral hatred for him. If you are an upscale latte liberal, you will love the substance of his "Two Americas" critique of Bush Republicanism.

Among the boilerplate statements of support issued by prominent Dems in the wake of the announcement, one caught my eye. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., the co-chair of Kerry's Oregon campaign, called Edwards "young, articulate and forceful in, as we know, an almost pathologically upbeat way."

I'm not ordinarily a big fan of pathologically upbeat, but given Kerry's tendency to hyper-rationality, Edwards' pathological upbeat-ness is good. In fact, he is the near-perfect complement to Kerry. Kerry is vulnerable to the charge that he's too liberal. Edwards will help inoculate him against that. Kerry is vulnerable to the charge that he's too much the Boston Brahmin elitist. Ditto. Kerry is vulnerable to the charge that he's a rudderless flip-flopper. Well, I'll settle for two out of three (like Kerry, Edwards voted for the war and against the $87 billion, for the PATRIOT Act he now criticizes, for the No Child Left Behind bill he now hates). Edwards brings Southern charm to a so-far charmless Kerry campaign. Kerry is distinguished-looking, like Abraham Lincoln was distinguished-looking. Edwards is sexy, like Matthew McConaughey is sexy. He will help the Democrats win, and for Democrats, this election is all about winning.

If Kerry-Edwards does win, here's my prediction: On January 21, 2005, a war will break out among Democrats, as the party's liberal base erupts with demands that Kerry reward them for their support. But that is a battle for another day. Thanks to Bush's willingness to squander post-9/11 unity for short-term political gains, and thanks to his hubristic overreaching in Iraq, the Democratic Party's disparate factions have united in a way not seen since Vietnam. Bush has focused the liberal mind. The party will stay united--and become more energized--with Edwards on the ticket.

Admittedly, for liberals like me, a Kerry-Edwards ticket is more about a suspension of disbelief than an affirmative act of faith, but that doesn't matter. My message to the new boy in the race: Just win, baby-face.

sandeep@thestranger.com