John Edwards is roughly in third place in a slew of state and national polls, but both the Wall Street Journal and the Economist say his ideas are animating the Democratic field.
The Journal's Christopher Cooper writes that Edwards has driven the terms of the party's debates on every thing from Iraq to health care "generally to the left." More importantly, these ideas are being copied by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama after Edwards puts them out. Just this week Obama announced his own poverty plan months after Edwards made it an issue. In July Edwards proposed raising taxes on hedge funds and private equity firms and two days later Obama and Clinton endorsed the hikes. In February he announced his universal health-care plan and Obama followed with his own three months later. Even on a South Korean Free-Trade Pact making its way through Congress, Edwards was ahead of Clinton in announcing opposition to the bill.
This is the "essence" of his nomination strategy: "come from the left, and win over the party activists who tend to dominate the early primaries and caucuses," while others like Clinton adhere to a more "cautious tack, in an attempt to preserve" centrist appeal in the general election. "But with little to lose, Mr. Edwards seems to feel freer to address issues that might alienate the party and business establishment," much like Howard Dean in 2003-04. Edwards has failed to catch fire though, partially because many Democrats are looking to make a "clear break" with the losing 2004 Democratic ticket Edwards was on.
The Economist notes that Edwards has made a break from 2004 as well: putting left-wing ideas front and center instead of his "youthful charm, made-for-politics biography...and a rousing stump speech about 'two Americas.'" The real trouble for Edwards has been the "three Hs": his involvement with a hedge fund, the $400 haircut and his 28,000 sq. ft. house, all of which sully the image of Edwards as a working-class hero.
Seeking to burnish that image in Nevada, Edwards listened to a small group of Culinary union workers on strike against a casino, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Molly Ball. Edwards mostly listened to the grievances of the workers and gave short responses that left some wanting to hear more. Not disappointing, Edwards said he was simply against what the casino had done and the room "erupted in applause." Edwards' "support for unions is that uncomplicated: He is for what they are for and against what they are against, no explanation necessary."
However, his campaign will have to explain why it paid more than $200,000 to a media consultant who was working with an anti-union group accusing unions of putting mandatory dues into their "radical political agendas."
Meanwhile, the New York Times' Katherine Seelye and Dalia Sussman report there are warning signs for Clinton in the most recent NYT/CBS poll: 40% unfavorable ratings (though she's better known that most candidates); one-third of respondents saying they know people who will be "less likely" to vote for her because she's a woman. Among women voters, 46% view her favorably, 33% unfavorably and the rest are undecided. The unfavorable ratings go up among middle-age and elderly women.
In New Hampshire yesterday Obama explained that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq is not reason enough to stay there. "Well, look, if that's the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now -- where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife -- which we haven't done," he said. Obama said the solution in Iraq is diplomatic, not military.
In Iowa, Bill Richardson told Radio Iowa that he expects to finish at least third in the caucuses.
On the GOP side, the Los Angeles Times' Michael Finnegan writes that Mitt Romney's and Fred Thompson's candidacies are on a "collision course" for the support of Christian conservatives as both pose as the most socially conservative candidate. Both have their own problems: revelations of Thompson's lobbying for an abortion-rights group and Romney's conversion to a pro-life position and his Mormon faith.
Romney is having an easier time among George W. Bush's top donors, the Rangers and Pioneers of 2004 and 2004, reports Bloomberg's David Rosen. They donated more than two-thirds of their sum total to Romney in the first half of the year. Romney attracted at least 104 of them, compared to 70 for Rudy Giuliani and 60 for John McCain.
Meanwhile, Giuliani criticized the Bush administration for not putting greater pressure on Pakistan and hunting terrorists there, reports the New York Times' Marc Santora. Giuliani traveled to Republican western Iowa for the first time this week and made his appearances throughout the state more personable with town-hall meetings and restaurant glad-handing, reports the Des Moines Register's Jonathan Roos.
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