Review of John Edwards's April 2, 2007 Speech in Portsmouth, NH
Copyright © Timothy Horrigan 2007
In April 2007, John and Elizabeth Edwards visited Durham, New Hampshire. This was one of her first appearances after she announced that she has inoperable cancer.
See also:
My Review of Edwards's December 29, 2006 appearance in Portsmouth, NH
Rockingham/Strafford Counties chapter of Democracy for New Hampshire
John Edwards in Durham, NH; April 2, 2007
by Timothy
Horrigan
Four years ago (or, more precisely three and a quarter years ago)
John Edwards had a town hall meeting at UNH's MUB: about 75
citizens gathered in a small lounge next to the Food Court in
December 2003, and he answered a wide variety of questions. On
April 2, 2007 he returned to the MUB and everything was very much the
same: the issues facing the nation were the same, the format of the
meeting was the same, even his position in the polls was the same.
(He got about 15% of the vote in the 2004 New Hampshire
Primary, and even though he is likely to end up much higher
once all the Undecideds make their decision, he is currently around
15% in most polls.) However, one thing was very different: the
size of the crowd. The Granite Room was filled to overflowing
and hundreds more watched the meeting on a closed-circuit TV hookup
in the food court.
The event was billed as a joint appearance
by John and Elizabeth Edwards on the subject of Health Care.
Mrs. Edwards spoke very briefly at the beginning, introducing the guy
she has been married to for almost 30 years. This was her first
appearance in New Hampshire since her tragic announcement that she
has inoperable cancer. The main purpose of having her speak was
to show that she is still very much alive, still strong, and still
very much a part of her husband's campaign, and still very much a
public figure in her own right. (Her diagnosis led to a lot of
disingenuous commentary from her husband's detractors --who would
have turned around and attacked him for dropping out had he gone the
other way.)
In any case, his message has been consistent for
the past four years- economic progressivism with the occasional
dollop of social conservatism (such as, at this meeting, advocating
that immigrants be required to learn English.) I think he is
holding himself back a little by taking two or three pieces of
conventional wisdom a little too seriously. The first such
piece of wisdom is that politicians are supposed to give specifics
all the time (even when they don't and maybe even can't know the
specifics.) He spent a lot of time alluding to plans
which were never gone into in much detail. The second piece of
wisdom is that the right wing is still in charge: this led him to
ignore some of his more progressive impulses, and it also led him to
view everything in terms of free-market reforms. (This includes
global warming and health care, two issues which cannot be solved
simply by changing the rules of the free market -- and in any case,
any attempt to change the rules is going to characterized as
"socialism" by the right wing noise machine.) The
third is that Democrats have to be cheerful and positive all the
time.
Speaking of the right wing noise machine, his first
question was evidently asked by a Republican bird-dogger who asked
him about his "20,000 square foot house" in North Carolina.
Edwards deflected the question by talking about some changes in
his personal lifestyle (e.g., buying a hybrid van, getting rid of his
incandescent lightbulbs, etc.) and by segueing into a general
discussion of global warming. He pointed out that the fight
against global warming would help the economy by creating "Green
collar jobs," and he even pointed out how developing nations
such as India are investing in Green technology. But he was
very careful to avoid even the faintest reference to the movement
which the questioner obviously belonged to: a movement which
blatantly lies about the facts behind global warming (and many other
issues) and which is not shy about launching absurd personal attacks
(sometimes based on totally fictitious data such as Al Gore's
infamous electric bill.)
(Edwards himself was the
victim of a particularly bizarre attack when Ann Coulter called him a
"faggot" -- at a major Conservative conference where she
was a keynote speaker who shared the dias with several presidential
candidates. I am not saying Edwards should go around making
juvenile attacks on his Republican counterparts. It's not
productive and its not his style. But I am saying that he
doesn't have to be so damn polite all the time. The right wing
of our nation's political apparatus has been taken over by vicious
and downright evil people. I wish Edwards and his fellow
candidates would be braver about pointing out just how vicious and
evil those people are.)
The
Forgotten Liars by Timothy Horrigan
In 2010, I am cosponsoring a somewhat controversial bill, repealing New Hampshire's 200-year-old adultery laws: |