USA Today: Edwards struggles for attention, even in native state
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
LANCASTER, S.C. — John Edwards on Wednesday brought his us-against-them campaign, along with the star of a much-rerun TV series and a clutch of bluegrass celebrities, into a struggling former mill town tucked in the middle of a lonesome stretch of woodlands.
"You've been ignored too long," Edwards told a crowd of about 250 gathered at the University of South Carolina's local campus. Edwards knows how that feels.
In 2004, the then-North Carolina senator was the surprise star of the early Democratic primaries. Edwards' victory in this state's primary made him a serious contender for the nomination — and, eventually, his party's vice presidential nominee. This year, the spotlights that seem perpetually focused on his rivals, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, are casting such long shadows that Edwards is having difficulty emerging from them, even in this state, where he was born....
Ben Jones, who served two terms in Congress but is better known for his role as Cooter in The Dukes of Hazzard television show, told the crowd here that major media outlets are not covering Edwards because they don't like his anti-corporate message. Whatever the reason, Edwards is struggling in this state that was his launching pad four years ago.
"It's almost Edwards' last stand," said Bill Moore, a political science professor at the College of Charleston. "He's got to do well in his home state." Doing so in Saturday's primary will mean building a different coalition than the one that vaulted the Palmetto State's native son to victory last time. Exit polls showed that in the 2004 primary, 37% of black voters — who account for almost half of the Democratic electorate in South Carolina — voted for Edwards. This year, state polls and interviews with voters indicate that the black vote will be largely split between Obama, the only African-American in the Senate, and Clinton....
Edwards is delivering a populist message that plays well in hard-luck, blue-collar communities like this one, which has seen thousands of textile mill jobs go south of the border and overseas. "I like the way he's looking out for the little guy," said Gavin Witherspoon, a Lancaster County employee....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-23-edwards_N.htm
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
