Give this video a quick look:
And consider that, for what it’s worth, I believe him.
He is a politician. Running for president of the United States of America. I trust him.
Imagine!
I trust John Edwards because I’m certain I can. He proved it to me personally at a rally in Keene, NH in 2004 — two nights before that state’s much-hyped — and, as turned out, decisive — Primary.
Most Americans remember Edwards as the 2nd man down to John Kerry. To my immense disappointment he did not put his shazam on in the general election campaign. I believe he was instructed by Kerry’s handlers to ‘turn down the charm,’ as it were, lest he upstage the Roll-Back Special candidate — as I grew fond of calling Kerry — and tip the electorate off to the fact that John Kerry was spawned from a puddle of New Hampshire Wal Mart spooge.
But his ‘04 primary campaign was a genuine spectacle; a tribute to the impossible look of the long shot. Optimism in poetic motion.
The American Dream on the move.
I bet money he wins the nomination. He will win. And so will I. What’s more my cash payout will be sweet because his odds will be long; the thing about John Edwards — like Just Zip It — is you never see him coming.
By all indications he is himself agilely poised, always, to capitalize on the unexpected.
Like when he walked into the packed hall in Keene. Very presidential looking. Many arms — hundreds maybe — stretched toward him in hopes of shaking the hand of a man who would be President. These he grasped warmly, one after another, as he made his way to the stage.
It was his second appearance that hour. Perhaps his tenth that day. At these he’d doubtless reached out & formally shook a thousand hands. Since breakfast. Reach. Grasp. Smile. Release. Reach. Grasp. Smile.
The motion would become so repetitive one imagines a candidate could shake a thousand hands in his sleep. Or — after 16 months of 20 hour days — perhaps asleep on his feet.
Not my boy Johnny E.
I held my hand out with the others in the formal handshake position. But when he reached to mine I flipped my palm skyward, at the last moment, into the Rock & Roll high-5 position.
John Mellencamp’s Small Town played over the PA.
And Edwards didn’t miss a beat. His palm met mine in a fatty mid-air slap. Then he clutched his fist & stomped his foot.
And said “WHOO!!”
He kicked off his ‘08 presidential campaign on a 9th Ward front lawn this morning. Publicity stunt? Shit. This is presidential politics. Everything that a candidate does for the next two years is a publicity stunt.
And whatever wasn’t best be made into one. Pronto.
Yes. The Edwards campaign is in New Orleans to gain publicity — for a plight about which the candidate cares deeply. Smart move. Calculated shrewdly. A lesson to the political aspirant!
Sheer unassailable brilliance.
Edwards is the only contender — prospective or formal — who is currently not in public office.
The others create the policies. But John Edwards, for now, solely controls the President Race agenda.
Hillary Clinton will not launch her presidential bid from the Gulf Coast. Because as a US Senator she is accountable for the malignant abandonment of all hope for New Orleans. Don’t give a hoot who did what at the time of Katrina. The resplendently potent question now is:
What has Hillary Clinton done for New Orleans lately??
Some advice Barak Obama never asked for: You’ll do well to peddle your G-Q butt downriver. To personally thank your fellow Democratic contender for placing New Orleans reconstruction at the top of the campaign season agenda. Then bust a sweat on some kind of work crew. Before Sen. McCain beats you to it.
Side Bet: Cleanup Duty in New Orleans will, in ‘08, prove — like military duty in WW2 — an inescapable prerequisite to the achievement of Presidency.
Well Hot Damn!
I would bet no money that there’ll actually be an election in ‘08. But at least we got us a race!!
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