Years from now, historians will call it the first bold decision of the Kerry presidency: his choice of John Edwards as vice-presidential running mate.
Edwards brings to the Democratic ticket exactly what it needed – a fresh face, a burst of energy, a dynamic speaker and a son of the South. In many ways, Kerry and Edwards perfectly complement each other: a Northerner and a Southerner; one born to wealth, one born poor; a Catholic and a Protestant; one stiff and formal, the other loose and folksy. Balance. Something for everybody.
As attractive a candidate as Edwards is, however, his invitation to join the ticket says more about Kerry than it does about Edwards himself. For weeks, talking heads were insisting Kerry would never pick someone as charismatic as Edwards, for fear that the freshman senator might outshine him on the campaign trail. But Kerry fooled them all, showing a self-confidence and determination he’d never displayed before. I want to win, Kerry told the world, even if Edwards does make me look like a bore by comparison.
Kerry called Edwards at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 6, with the news. “It’s you, baby.” No sooner had Edwards hung up the phone than the Bush campaign launched a three-pronged attack: Edwards was Kerry’s second choice; Edwards is inexperienced; and Edwards is a trial lawyer. All of which shows how quickly Bush is willing to go negative, and how pitifully weak his arguments are.
Kerry only chose Edwards, claims the Bush campaign, because he couldn’t get John McCain. Here’s what’s wrong with that story: John McCain says it’s not true. McCain, now openly supporting President Bush, admits he chatted with Kerry about the possibilities of a bipartisan ticket, but that Kerry never offered the job – and he never turned it down. Bush’s first attack on John Edwards, that he’s merely sloppy seconds, is just one more White House lie.
Edwards is inexperienced? That one is laugh-out-loud funny, on two fronts. First, Ronald Reagan had zero foreign-policy experience. Neither did Bill Clinton or George W. Bush – and they all ran for president, not vice-president. Second, Bush is surrounded by people with vast experience, and look what they accomplished: destroyed our standing in the world; alienated our long-time allies; and misled us into an unnecessary, costly, bloody invasion and occupation of Iraq. If that’s what experience produces, maybe a little inexperience is a good thing.
Edwards was a trial lawyer. True. That’s how he made his living, and a darned good one. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Plaintiffs’ lawyers work for average Americans – injured on the job, in accidents or on the operating table – who can’t afford a $500-per-hour corporate lawyer.
If President Bush wants to attack trial lawyers, let him defend Dr. Compton Girdharry of Youngstown, Ohio. Bush himself introduced Girdharry to a crowd of supporters as a victim of “junk and frivolous” malpractice lawsuits. It was later revealed Girdharry had left a sponge with a cord and a ring attached to it inside the body of a woman he’d operated on. You can be sure he won’t be appearing at many more Bush fund-raisers.
John Edwards earned his reputation as a trial lawyer defending a man who suffered extreme brain and nerve damage from a prescribed overdose of Antabuse, the family of a child with serious brain damage resulting from an obstetrician’s mistake and the family of a 5-year-old girl whose insides were practically sucked out by an uncovered swimming pool drain. Before he attacks trial lawyers, President Bush must tell us: Which of those cases does he consider a miscarriage of justice?
There are two reasons the Bush camp is so quick to attack John Edwards: because he’s so good and they’re so scared.
Further evidence that they’re running scared: a report in the New Republic that the Bush administration has pressured the government of Pakistan to intensify its efforts to capture Osama bin Laden and other “high-value targets.”
According to TNR’s John Judis, Gen. Musharraf was told by George Tenet, Colin Powell and others that high-profile arrests must be made this summer, definitely before the November election, and preferably on July 26, 27 or 28 – the first three days of the Democratic National Convention.
That shows how desperate George W. Bush is. The only person who can save him now is Osama bin Laden.
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