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Comments: Edwards in Georgia

Chris,

Good post. NYT endorses Kerry, not like anybody expected a different outcome. Have you gone to see Edwards speak?

Ben

Posted by Ben at February 26, 2004 02:13 AM

I saw Edwards speak while informally "tracking" an event of his in TN a couple of days before that primary.

Thoughts:
(1) the contents of the stump speech, which I'd never paid attention to in more than bits and bursts from C-Span, are as spectacular as reputed.

(2) he seemed incredibly bored by the speech, speaking unbelievably quickly -- message discipline for so long must rot at his soul, since he is SO effective extemporaneously, even if undereducated on so many issues. (see, e.g., recent LAT on Edwards and the WTO/export subsidies) He took no questions, but had an impressive to the media "shake every hand" approach.

(3) His smile looks better on TV, or at least when spontaneous; frighteningly wide and nongenuine seeming in person.

(4) his arms stretched out, thumbs up over shoulder level response to crowd applause struck me as weird -- but struck no one else there as weird.

(5) Unlike any Clark event I knew about (slight hyperbole)... this event in Jackson, TN was perfectly on time, which depressed the hell out of me.... :)

My overall thoughts are -- terrific Veep, but the media's infatuation is more based on extemporaneous stuff they have seen, and his wondeeful Communications team, than his stump speech, despite what you may have heard in comparisons to Clinton.

Posted by Jeff at February 26, 2004 08:34 AM

It's funny you mention that...my state senator friend kept telling a reporter she was talking to on the phone that he was a "wonderful extemporaneous speaker."

This primary season has not been kind to Edwards, what with Dean sucking all the oxygen from Iowa->Wisconsin and "electability" voters in New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Tennessee picking Clark instead of Edwards.

Posted by Chris at February 26, 2004 08:42 AM

Edwards burned through the speech double time at the GA capitol on tuesday. He started his event late and had to get to Houston, but I just wanted to say "cut stuff out", instead he just spoke really fast.

I like the stump a lot but i still think it's over rated as a speech, that is it's not pure guava. he had one a few months back that was much more hardcore and specific, all about economics. That speech was great. The current one has a few too many lines like "I say NO to children going to bed hungry".

The NYT endorsement of Kerry was so half assed. They could have kept that.

Posted by stress at February 26, 2004 03:27 PM

Jeff --

Good commentary. When he was here in L.A. I noticed that he DOES look much more personable on TV than in person, and I think part of that is that he has learned to work the camera like he would a juror. When you're watching him on TV, you're an especially privileged audience member that he is wooing extensively, whereas in person you're just a face in the crowd.

Perhaps in California he had more time, but it didn't seem like he was bored. He spoke slowly and cut some stuff out, but it seemed like he was really into his little jokes, etc. Maybe because the crowd was so responsive. But I guess it's just like any job: good days and bad.

Regarding the weird thumbs-up-over-the-shoulder thing, yeah, I'd noticed that multiple times. It seems a bit silly but the crowds seem to like it and it's an interesting little quirk.

And the extemporaneous thing -- I watched his interview with the Times editors, and he didn't seem to charm THEM as much as Kerry did. My personal perception is that Kerry is very good with people in positions of power -- he feels comfortable being intellectual with them. Edwards, on the other hand, views people as more or less the same -- I don't think that "mill town" stuff is all bullshit -- and hence did not pander as effectively to the NYT.

Anyway, Georgia's looking good, and hopefully we'll be able to get one or two more. Go Edwards!

Posted by Ben at February 26, 2004 06:56 PM

The AJC has endorsed Kerry:

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0204a/27endorse.html

Posted by Finrod Felagund at February 27, 2004 02:16 PM

Bleh.

Posted by Ben at February 28, 2004 02:30 AM

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