Topic: Essays
I left the car running and the radio turned up as I ran the first two bags of groceries up to the door. I didn?t even drop the groceries at first, just pushed the power button on the stereo. No channel?the damn thing resets itself to 88.7 every time we turn it off. At this point my ten year old daughter was looking at me suspiciously. Dropping the groceries, I said to her, ?You gotta hear this! This is our next president.? Finding the station, John Edwards voice was finally spilling from the speakers, and my daughter said, ?Yeah!?
I haven?t really paid much attention to Edwards until now. Sure I saw his ?announcement? on the Daily Show with John Stewart, and had heard his name bandied about. Honestly speaking, I thought he was sexy as hell, and then dismissed him as a hokey lost cause. I didn?t see him as someone who could beat Bush, but as the Fourth Estate?s facade crumbles, that may be an easier task than I imagined. At any rate, I should have paid attention to that sex appeal.
What Republicans have failed to realize is that looks and charisma matter now in ways they never could before. The world is image dominated. Before mass media, presidential candidates carved out an image using their rhetorical skills and it didn?t really matter if someone was ugly. Physical mage has been working as a force in politics since the Kennedy-Nixon debate. In an altogether ironic twist, Democrats may find that offering up a righteously fuckable candidate is a solid tactic for getting women to vote?again.
Fuckable is a relative term, though. Edwards looks very young for his fifty years, and he is good looking by most people?s standards, but it wouldn?t mean much to this voter without all the other trappings of sexiness, which include a well-developed mind, a sense of justice, personal charisma, and a noticeable thoughtfulness with regard to others. It?s a total package.
All things being equal, I?ll take the one I?d rather sleep with. Of course, all things are not equal. Edwards is the only candidate I?ve seen that isn?t trying to tear Dean down. He sets himself off from the pack in more than his Clintonian style. He believes, as I do, that corporate America doesn?t need anymore tax breaks and they need more financial accountability. He believes that Education is important on all levels, and he realizes as I do that not all the problems are on the bureaucratic side of things. His security plan focuses on the inside of America as well as the outside, something that is beyond the intellectual grasp of our current administration.
Edwards could be the next Bill Clinton. He?s an extremely bright lawyer with an equally intelligent wife who is also an attorney. He came from working people and built his fortunes from nothing. He is coming from behind as the election season gets into full swing. Alternatively, he also has a past like Clinton, though the most serious charge from the administration so far is that he was an ?ambulance chaser?. He has turned that into a winner for his campaign, though, by telling the story of how he stood up to the big, bad insurance industry and they crumbled beneath the weight of his reputation.
Even conservatives are wary of voting for Bush this time around. Most of the conservatives I talk to say they don?t like Bush at all, he?s making big mistakes, but they don?t see anyone in the Democratic field worth voting for either. Maybe we?ll get lucky and apathy will keep many of them home this November. In the meantime, Edwards? campaign gains momentum. If he can maintain the mounting support, he very well could be the next President of the United States.
I encourage everyone to go see what else John Edwards is about.
Winter 2004
The Weekend Before Iowa
Posted by Anna Belle
at 1:10 PM EST
Updated: Friday, 23 January 2004 1:10 PM EST