Kristof: Kerry's Blue-Collar Bet (Great column on Edwards Appeal)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/07/opinion/07KRIS.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

Senator John Edwards is America's best natural politician since Bill Clinton, and he'll help with the Democrats' most crucial task: reconnecting the party to Middle American voters.

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Exit polls in the primaries underscored that point. While Mr. Kerry won solidly among typical Democratic voters, Mr. Edwards had the edge among voters who described themselves as independents, as conservatives or as usually voting Republican. Young voters also disproportionately supported Mr. Edwards, perhaps because he looks as if he'll be carded if he walks into a bar.

Is there a risk in choosing Mr. Edwards? Sure, Mr. Kerry might drop dead. Then we'd have a very inexperienced president — again!

<snip>

Mr. Bush lost his first political battle, for Congress in 1978, when his opponent, Kent Hance, portrayed him as an overeducated elitist carpetbagger who didn't know Texas. Mr. Hance later told me that for Mr. Bush, the lesson was that "he wasn't going to be out-Christianed or out-good-old-boyed again."

Just wait: Mr. Edwards has the same populist charm as Mr. Hance, and I'd bet that Mr. Bush is about to be out-good-old-boyed again.

[David Dunham]

1. Excellent article