Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has adecision to make. No, not about what his position of the day is onabortion or the situation in Iraq, but who will be the man to joinhim in his quest for the White House.
The vice presidential choice has been a long, arduous,committee-laden search that produces a result nobody cares about –until now.
For Kerry to make a big splash with his choice, he needs to gowith the man who rose from Al Sharpton-level obscurity to becomeKerry’s biggest rival for the nomination: North Carolina Sen. JohnEdwards. He offers an amiable personality, an uplifting message andconservative support.
With Edwards on the team, I — a Republican — might even votefor Kerry.
Edwards — or whomever is picked — will spend the next severalmonths smiling as he stands next to Kerry. A vice presidentialcandidate always has to have a good personality, but this goesdouble for the running mate of the often aloof and patricianKerry.
“The Democratic veep pick will be to Kerry’s campaign as DickCheney is to (President) Bush’s intellect,” said Weinberg seniorJohn McCallum, who has worked in Illinois politics. “It won’t savehim, but you sure don’t want to see the one try to operate withoutthe other.”
Edwards showed an ability to connect with voters in a shorttimespan with his stunning second-place finish in the Iowa caucusesand followed that with victories in South Carolina and recently inthe North Carolina caucuses, despite dropping out of the race morethan a month ago.
Edwards has a plan to stimulate the economy through tougheningtrade deals, effectively mixed with a populist message that Kerryhas since tried to claim as his own.
Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., retired Gen. Wesley Clark or even”NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw, all of whom have beenmentioned as potential running mates, lack Edwards’ totalpackage.
They are either tired (Gephardt), inexperienced (Clark) or readTeleprompters (Brokaw).
Edwards can use his youth to draw the newly interestedyoungsters, his economic platform to get the vote of those fearfulof mounting job losses and maybe even his accent to get a fewsouthern votes.
Added to Edwards’ fresh appeal is his in-roads with Republicans,garnering significant totals in exit polls from moderates andconservatives. This is key with seemingly every poll showing Bushslightly ahead of Kerry.
And Edwards would help with liberals, too.
“A lot of liberals feel Kerry does not represent their interestsand could conceivably vote for Nader,” said College Republicanstreasurer and Weinberg sophomore Michael J. Thompson. “Edwardscould bring them back in.”
Through the addition of Edwards, the Democrats also will besetting up a strong candidate not named Hillary for the 2008election should Kerry fall short. The telegenic Edwards couldbecome a powerful new leader for the Democrats.
The party sorely needs an engaging personality, one they haven’thad since Bill Clinton left office. Most Democrats don’t love Kerry– they reached a seemingly forced consensus that he was the bestcandidate. He’s just “electable.”
Nobody ever talks of his great plans for America, personality orappeal, and the logic of picking a Massachusetts Democrat in a racethe Democrats feel they have to win is questionable at best.
All of this can change with the addition of Edwards to theteam.�
Democrats made a mistake in the primary season by not makingEdwards their nominee. Now they have a chance to make amends.
They had better not screw up twice.
Political columnist Troy Appel is a Medill sophomore. He can bereached at [email protected].
