WP, Eugene Robinson: "Edwards always dazzles when he enters the room."

[DeepModem Mom]

Message From Third Place
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, January 25, 2008


John Edwards campaigning at the University of South Carolina in Lancaster on Wednesday. Win Mcnamee/Getty Images)

....(W)hen Edwards made his choreographed entrance -- bounding in from the back of the hall and coming down through the audience, shaking hands all the way and flashing his movie-star smile for the cameras -- he looked neither dead nor sorrowful. Of the three candidates leading the race for the Democratic nomination, Edwards is the most consistent performer at campaign events. He never seems tired or preoccupied, never has the wrung-out look of someone who has been riding a bus all day. He always dazzles when he enters the room.

Still, Edwards is in third place. He was born in South Carolina, not far from this mill town, and if he finishes third in the primary here on Saturday, it's hard to imagine how he keeps pace with the better-financed front-runners, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

"I am the underdog," he told the crowd, in a part of his stump speech that's new since I last heard it in Iowa. "I don't have $100 million like the other candidates. . . . And I don't stand at the debates and have petty arguments." Since Obama and Clinton smacked each other around at Monday's debate, Edwards has been running as the mature adult in the race. "I was proud to be there representing the grown-up wing of the Democratic Party," he said at the rally, to warm applause. "I realize that this is not about us personally."...

***

Former congressman Ben Jones, who played Cooter on TV's "The Dukes of Hazzard," was the emcee for the event, and much of his warm-up monologue was about how the media keep forgetting that there are three major candidates in the race, not two. Truth be told, he has a point. Edwards has a coherent, consistent message and is running a top-shelf campaign. He has beaten his rivals to the punch on several issues, and he's the most skilled debater of the bunch. The problem is that Clinton and Obama aren't candidates so much as phenomenons. They take up so much space that it's impossible to see the other guy.

Such is politics. But every time I go to an Edwards rally, I come away feeling disheartened -- not for Edwards, but for the people whose disappointment and disaffection he captures in his cadenced rhetoric about taking back the country from "special interests" holding it for ransom. Dismissing him as a born-again "populist" ignores the fact that Edwards has touched a nerve, especially in small towns and rural areas where, for the unskilled or the unlucky, "the economy" basically means Wal-Mart....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402800.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[papau]

1. A nice article - thanks for posting :-)

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Nice article.

I like Eugene Robinson.

[frogmarch]

3. I do like that! Well-written article. n/t

[Andy823]

4. That was a great

Article on Edwards. I always say, the more the people hear him, the more they like him. He has the "message" that America wants to hear, and he is the person who will help the "people", not sell out to the corporations!

[jackson_dem]

6. As John said if the media lets him get heard he will do well. It is up to the media to do its job

[jackson_dem]

5. Good to see an editorial about Edwards, in the Wash Post no less!

[BrklynLiberal]

7. If only the media was giving Edwards his fair share of attention there would be many more articles

like this one...

[asdjrocky]

8. Good editorial-

The one thing I didn't really like: Edwards made his choreographed entrance. Like every single candidate doesn't choreograph their entrances.

But over all, it's a good piece. Thanks for posting.

[stravu9]

9. Indeed he does!

thank you!

[Control-Z]

10. hmm?

'For a while, it looked as if his strategy was to team up with Obama to knock Clinton off her stride. But during the last debate, he joined Clinton against Obama -- and then met privately with Clinton afterward.

I asked him what they had discussed. "We talked about how the media isn't giving me enough coverage," he said with a smile.'

[lisainmilo]

11. EDWARDS CARES!

About you and me!

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. He sure does!

:loveya: John.

[Beaverhausen]

12. K&R

[chimpymustgo]

14. Rock star! K&R nt

nt

[stravu9]

15. was this EVER in doubt?

Go John!