Charlotte Observer, NC
11-01-07
EYE ON EDWARDS A CAROLINAS NATIVE CAMPAIGNS FOR PRESIDENT
Trailing rivals, Edwards puts on gloves
PETERBOROUGH, N.H.
While other Democrats slammed each other in the 2004 primaries, John
Edwards prided himself on staying above the fray.
"If you're looking for the candidate that will do the best job of attacking the other
Democrats, I'm not your guy," he told audiences in Iowa and elsewhere.
Now Edwards is the Democrat flaring the sharpest elbows -- and not just at the
Bush administration.
In a debate Tuesday night, he pounded rival Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York
over what he characterized as her "double talk" on such topics as the war and a
proposal to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
"The American people ... deserve a president of the United States that they know
will tell them the truth and won't say one thing one time and something different
at a different time," the former U.S. senator from North Carolina said.
As polls show Clinton expanding her lead across the country, including in earlycontest states, Edwards, 54, has emerged as her sharpest Democratic critic.
He's questioned her sincerity as well as her policy positions.
On Tuesday, the former trial lawyer jabbed harder than other Democrats,
including Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Campaigning in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Edwards defended his tougher
tack.
"Sen. Clinton is totally entitled to her own view, and she's entitled to vote exactly
the way she chooses," he told reporters. "But when I disagree with her, what am I
going to do, put a sock in my mouth and say, `Oh, I'm not going to say anything
about what she did'?"
A change from '04
It's a hard edge that was largely absent in Edwards' 2004 campaign.Then, he
watched rivals Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt blast each other in the run-up to
the Iowa caucuses and lose favor with voters in the process.
"The sense of (Edwards) before was, `He's a fresh face, he's the one not
attacking everybody else, he's a nice guy,' " said Steffen Schmidt, a political
scientist at Iowa State University. "Edwards is not Mr. Positive and Mr. Upbeat
anymore."
Clinton's campaign happily notes the contrast. Spokesman Mo Elleithee on
Wednesday called Edwards "a desperate candidate resorting to attack politics."
A recent national Zogby poll showed Clinton with support from 38 percent of
likely Democratic primary voters, compared with 24 percent for Obama and 12
percent for Edwards. Other surveys show similar spreads.
"Four years ago, John Edwards did very well as a candidate in large part
because he talked about a new kind of politics, an optimistic politics," Elleithee
said. "This time around, his campaign seems to be stalling ... and his reaction is
to go on the attack."
"That's what people say when you tell the truth," Edwards told reporters in
Peterborough on Wednesday. "They always look to talk about politics instead of
the facts of what is happening."
Edwards' campaign says his jabs at Clinton have been largely over policy
differences. He's been outspoken over her vote for a Bush administration
proposal to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization,
and her claim to be the candidate who best represents change
"Will she be the person who brings about the change in this country?" he said in
the debate. "You know, I believe in Santa Claus. I believe in the tooth fairy. But I
don't think that's going to happen."
A tougher tone
Arnie Arneson, who hosts a New Hampshire TV show called "Political Chowder,"
said some voters have trouble with what they see as the "angrier" tone of
Edwards' campaign.
"People are just questioning him this time," she said. "He was this sunny guy last
time. Now he's the angry guy. What will he be four years from now? The funny
guy?"
Edwards' pollster Harrison Hickman disputes suggestions that his candidate is
angry or even negative.
"The reality is, four years ago he also talked about how he differed with other
candidates in terms of policies," Hickman said.
Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa,
said Edwards' tough tone is fair.
"Times and circumstances change," he said. "There's a difference between a
tough campaign and being nasty or dirty.
"(Edwards) certainly has got to do something to shake up the race that a lot of
the big blowhards ... want to say is over already." Eye on Edwards A carolinas
native campaigns for president