Edwards Closes On "Grown Up," Rural Strength

Ok, he's no longer the youngest guy in the bunch, but who'd have ever thought John Edwards would close his South Carolina campaign with the argument that he's the adult in the race?

(I am aware of the irony of the "adult" candidate broadcasting the harshest negative attacks from Monday's debate... as an attempt to show that it wasn't Edwards who said CLINTON IS A WAL-MART LACKEY and it wasn't Edwards who said OBAMA IS TIED TO REZKO. By the way: did John Edwards mention that he wasn't the one who called Clinton a WAL-MART lackey and Obama a SLUM-LORD CODDLER?)

SENATOR OBAMA: While I was working on those streets, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart.

SENATOR CLINTON: I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago.

EDWARDS: This kind of squabbling - how many children is this gonna get health care? How many people are gonna get an education from this? This is not about us personally. It is about what we are trying to do for this country.

I'm John Edwards and I approve this message.

Comments

Edwards doesn't know what he wants, and he's burned bridges with a number of people and it's starting to come back to bite him in the ass. Saw a brilliant vid that captures his essence in 2 min...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8PECQDBr2w

That's right - John isn't going to get the nom, and neither Barack (who may not hate John) nor Hillary (who surely does) is going give him another shot at the VP position.

Posted by Tim | January 25, 2008 3:42 PM

Obama does not have a chance at all of beating Hillary.

Posted by rosie | January 25, 2008 3:58 PM

His recent surge can't have anything to do with the fact that he's the only white guy running in the primary in South Carolina, can it?

Posted by Rid | January 25, 2008 4:07 PM

The "bridges" that Mr. Edwards has burned go back to the sold out DLC and the corporate hacks in the media who are too starstruck and lazy to remember that we're electing a President. Mr. Edwards has led on the issues through much of this campaign, and whenever he's given a chance to share his message, his appeal grows. How many more stories about his haircut are we going to tolerate?

Posted by Patrick | January 25, 2008 4:08 PM

Edwards, because saying your sorry is the grown up thing to do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pOZML6P0Vg

Posted by sorry! | January 25, 2008 4:44 PM

The bridges he seems to have burned are perfect examples of "bridges to nowhere," or perhaps bridges to the era of the vacuousness of the "bridges to the 21st century" of erstwhile Clinton political rhetoric. Whether you feel he's the perfect messenger or not (and I don't think he's bad) his policies are damn good and his themes are ones that have a real impact on working Americans.

Posted by bridgebuilder | January 25, 2008 4:46 PM

Looks like Edwards is not only the best candidate in the race but also the smartest. I love the ad.

I know the die-hard Obama and Hillary fans won't agree but I just think it's so obvious that Edwards is the best candidate for the general election.

He's been the leader in the race on ideas. He comes out with a position and the other two follow. They've even copied a lot of his stump speech and claimed it as their own. He's had the least amount of media coverage and when he did get some coverage it was usually negative. He's had less money to run his campaign because of the public financing. And yet, he's won the last three debates as judged by the voter focus groups and a lot of the pundits who grudgingly gave the win to him. All year long in the head to head matchups with the Republicans, Edwards polled better than either Obama or Hillary (maybe that's why the pollsters no longer poll him in the matchups). And despite the constant media stories writing Edwards' campaign obit his numbers are on the rise in SC and nationally. And we want to get rid of this candidate? Are we nuts? Can you imagine how well this guy would do with our Party behind him?

Clinton & Obama have had all the advantages that Edwards did not and all they've managed to do is start a race vs. gender war in the Democratic Party. This is who we want?

Anyone paying attention should see that the results in the Primaries and Caucuses don't tell the real story about who would be the best candidate. I hope my fellow Democrats really take a good hard look at what they are doing. We have an excellent chance in this election and yet we are poised once again to blow it.

Posted by pmorlan | January 25, 2008 5:30 PM

I support Obama, but I think it's a terrific ad. I hope people who were thinking of voting for Clinton rethink their vote.

btw - did anyone not notice Clinton didn't deny Obama's claim? While Obama's immediate reaction was to say "no" several times? That's because Obama stated a fact, and Clinton didn't.

Isn't seven years enough of having a president who distorts the facts to mislead the American people he's supposed to be leading?

Posted by Tom J | January 25, 2008 6:53 PM

I was elected yesterday, Obama said. I have never set foot in the U.S. Senate. Ive never worked in Washington. And the notion that somehow Im immediately going to start running for higher office just doesnt make sense. So look, I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years, and my entire focus is making sure that Im the best possible senator on behalf of the people of Illinois. He further elaborated: Look, Im a state senator who hasnt even been sworn in yet. My understanding is that I will be ranked 99th in seniority. Im going to be spending the first several months of my career in the U.S. Senate looking for the washroom and trying to figure out how the phones work.

So, in four years, Obama went from figuring out how to use the telephones and finding bathrooms, to becoming a foreign policy expert, while missing 1/3 of his votes during the 2005-2006 session, and failing to convene a single hearing as the CHAIR of Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on European affairs. Right?

Obama is little substance, all hype. The key to his success: a freshness, a lack of record to run on, the constant repetition of simple feel-good platitudes that lull listeners into a sense of trust and induce in them a yearning to believe. No wonder Barack Obama is so popular among denizens of Hollywood like Oprah: they certainly have an eye for those who can create an image, can generate a buzz that compels others to suspend their disbelief, and who can induce a trance-like stargazing

Posted by obamafraud | January 25, 2008 9:05 PM