The view from New Hampshire - John Edwards

[DancingBear]

So what do you do if you’re coming into Iowa with a bounce and people want to hear you speak? You do what any political op worth his or her salt would do – book a small room and then crow about having to set up “remote locations.”

John Edwards was set to speak at The Rynborn – a blues club in Keene. Now, everyone knew he was climbing in the polls, and everyone knew this place wouldn’t hold the crowd he would get – but the Masonic Hall just down the street would take the overflow, and the papers would report it the next day. That’s when I knew this guy had political savvy up the wazoo.

I sat scrunched in the upper balcony when Edwards arrived. My unscientific survey showed a great many undecideds here, including my friend who was somewhere below me. She, like many thousands of NH voters, was still trying to pick a candidate ONE DAY before the election. This would be a good crowd for Edwards to work his magic on.

He gave his usual stump speech, delivered wonderfully. It is obvious the man can hold sway over an audience – those jury summations have served him well. However, I left feeling like I had just been charged $20 for a $10 meal, and I wasn’t sure why. Perhaps my friend would give me a little insight.

I was unable to find her after the speech, so we made plans to meet up the following night for dinner. After a “good to see you again” hug, we settled in, and I asked her what she thought. Now, my friend is a 50-year old female, quite liberal, and not one to mince words. “He came off as a pretty boy”, she said, “and I just didn’t think he was quite ready to be President.” Unknown to me, she had come to the event with two friends, and she said that her sentiments were shared by them as well.

I’d like to say I was shocked, but I wasn’t. There was always this undercurrent running through my head that even though Edwards was quite specific in his plans for where he wanted to take America (including detailed policy initiatives) I could never get past his persona. Great, I thought, another superficial reason to discount a candidate. However, when it showed up in an undecided voter (rather than a campaign worker with a predisposed notion) I found it to be cause for concern for Edwards supporters.

Election day proved prophetic, for he finished fourth, with no Iowa bounce to speak of. Perhaps this was just New Hampshire’s way of being, well, New Hampshire. South Carolina will tell the tale for him – he has admitted as much. He will now take the southern boy to the south, and I for one will be interested to see if the “style over substance” concern that stalled him in NH will be felt. I really don’t know – all I can report on is what I saw that night in Keene. I can say, though, that I overheard a couple of folks talking with an Edwards volunteer on Election Day (hey, when you’ve been standing in the –2 degree cold in front of the polling place things happen). “You know”, they said, “Edwards will make a great president. In eight years.”

[Amager]

1. Thanks for sharing that perspective

[chimpymustgo]

2. Thanks, DB. We'll see, we'll see.

JRE is growing before our eyes. Hope he can stick around a bit longer.