Edwards Digs In

Ezra Klein has a good post on the Edwards announcement. He's kicking it off as a literally grassroots (shovel in the ground) kind of civic populist effort.

Edwards stopped in at Daily Kos today, which was nice to see.

Geniuses in the American newsmedia have already begun with the "He Says He Cares About Poverty but He's a Multimillionaire" angle (as if it's better to vote for multimillionaires who ignore poverty). Certainly he could be vulnerable to this kind of thing if his campaign is widely seen as a rich guy doing charity for poor people.

I haven't analyzed his rhetoric in the same systematic way as I've done with Obama, so I can't say yet if he seems to be developing a message to transcend that pitfall. Though he did respond to a question about it with an interesting comment at DKos:

You have to talk about our moral responsibility to each other. Second, you can focus on the benefits for all Americans -- a stronger middle class, a stronger economy, etc.

But also -- we all need to be talking about that-- not just candidates -- and work together to create a culture of responsibility.

There's a there, there, I think. But we'll have to watch how he develops it. Klein notes Edwards's relative lack of emphasis on the "Two Americas" theme this time. Clearly - and fortunately - he's not abandoning his economic populism. But perhaps he's searching for a more expansive way of expressing it.

Labels: 2008, Daily Kos, Ezra Klein, John Edwards, Presidential election

  ¶ Posted by Paul Curtis 2:28 PM