WITH THE New Hampshire primary set for today, I would like to reach out to my liberal counterparts and offer my humble advice in helping you decide this wide-open presidential nomination race.
Somewhere between former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's, embarrassing barbaric yawp and Gen. Wesley Clark's demonstration in the debates that, yes, America, he is a worse politician than the Rev. Al Sharpton -- dubbed by the National Review's Byron York "the candidate for people who want a really bad candidate", Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has emerged as the best last hope for the Democrats to recapture the White House in 2004.
Much has been made in modern presidential elections of geographic balance on party tickets and the necessity of a Southern presence. Such is and should still be the case with the 2004 election.
Ignoring vice presidential scenarios, this leaves Clark and Edwards on the table. To compare: Clark started with a storm of momentum only to lose much of it when he opened his mouth, not to give details of a much-needed domestic agenda, but to flip-flop constantly on his core issue of the Iraq war. Edwards started with a boom, then a near-death drop in polls, but as he has discovered his voice, he has enjoyed a meteoric rise. It's apparent that the "big momentum'" is with Edwards, and the "big no" is with Clark. Edwards is a Democrat; Clark, a double-speaking opportunist.
But Edwards isn't just a winner because he's better than one weak candidate from his region. Edwards also wins out on the basis of his story, his charisma and his policy.
When Edwards first announced his intention to run for the presidency, he enjoyed a huge wave of press. With his rebound in Iowa, the media has once again made Edwards a golden boy. This is partly because his story is so sellable -- working class kid from a poor Southern family goes to college and makes good. Contrast that with the Boston Brahmin background of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., or Dean's equally elite roots, and it's clear that Edwards' story is the most compelling of the major candidates. And the news media knows how to cover this type of story. Remember a certain Arkansan who proclaimed he still believed in a place called Hope?
Edwards also has an emotive, homespun charismatic style that many compare to Clinton. That is, like Clinton, but more upright in character and values. Edwards' success in winning his North Carolina Senate seat was largely built on his social proximity to voters, and his presidential campaign shows similar success in this realm beyond the Tar Heel State. President Bush is popular because people like him; Democrats need a candidate with similar qualities.
While the 30-second land of the media fawn over Edwards' story and charismatic speaking ability, Edwards isn't short on policy proposals either, and he effectively straddles the often-conflicting factions of the Democratic Party. He voted for the Iraq war and publicly says that having Saddam Hussein out of office and in captivity is a very good thing, yet voted against the president's funding request. He advocates leaving homosexual marriage and civil union issues to the individual states, but is against a constitutional amendment to ban them.
More relevant to the University, Edwards' higher education policy sets him ahead of the pack. By making college free for the first year and having students work 10 hours a week in that year with financial aid available thereafter, Edwards' proposal simultaneously helps families fund college and gives students work experience and the sense that they are invested (literally, in fact) in their education.
Some cite Edwards' short term of service in the Senate as a liability in his campaign. But history tells us differently. The last senator to win election to the White House was an ambitious first-termer with charisma and a positive message that was an inspiration to the nation. His name was John Kennedy.
Of course, Kennedy was not facing an incumbent George W. Bush, and only narrowly won against Nixon. Whoever the Democratic nominee may be, he will likely be a lamb sacrificed at the $100 million-plus table of the Bush campaign. But no one knows what the next months hold, and this makes the race far from over.
Nevertheless, the name of the game in the Democratic primaries is electability, and it is Edwards who possesses this in the highest degree among this field.
(Jim Prosser's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at jprosser@cavalierdaily.com.)
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