Edward’s ‘08 – Website Jumps the Gun
by Pamela LeaveyThe buzz around John Edwards upcoming announcement that he is going to run for president in ‘08 took a veer off course today when his website went live ahead of time. The brief unveiling of the website, accidental or planned, gave the media a taste of Edwards has planned for his early platform. And another piece of news today profiled the hypocrisy behind his planned location for his announcement tomorrow.
The former North Carolina senator plans to formally announce his candidacy Thursday from New Orleans’ 9th Ward, which was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. But his campaign got a little ahead of itself Wednesday and announced his intentions online.
“Better a day earlier than a day late,” said Jennifer Palmieri, Edwards’ adviser.
His campaign accidentally launched his campaign Web site a day early, then promptly shut it back down.
The campaign Web site’s logo is “John Edwards 08″ and its slogan is “Tomorrow begins today.”
“This campaign is about changing America,” the Web site read, listing several priorities that fit neatly with Edwards’ message of economic equality: “Providing universal health care for all Americans,” “Rebuilding America’s middle class and eliminating poverty,” and “Creating tax fairness by rewarding work, not just wealth.”
Call me a little cynical if you will, the slip of web designer’s finger certainly played into the hype around Edwards’ second bid, which will be formally announced tomorrow in New Orleans’ 9th Ward. Today, Edwards was in the 9th Ward visiting the site of his planned announcement for a photo opportunity.
He did yard work at the home of Orelia Tyler, 54, whose house was gutted by Hurricane Katrina and is close to being rebuilt.
Taking turns with about 30 young people shoveling loads of dirt in Tyler’s backyard, Edwards declined to discuss the campaign, focusing instead on the slow recovery in New Orleans, where whole neighborhoods remain a wasteland.
“Anyone who’s not concerned with the rate of recovery is not paying attention,” said Edwards. He said finger-pointing is part of the problem, adding that the student volunteers he worked with provided an example of what can be accomplished through cooperation.
Edwards arrived promptly at 1:30 p.m., clad in jeans and a khaki work shirt. His aides kept more than two dozen reporters and photographers at bay as he and the students prepared Tyler’s yard for landscaping.
One has to wonder how much yard work Edwards does at home however, after reading about his “Shangri-La nestled amid soaring Carolina pines on a 100-acre estate outside of Chapel Hill,” in the news today. The estate “makes the famed Kennedy compound look like a seaside cottage.”
“It’s one thing to be a millionaire, but it’s totally tone-deaf to be using Katrina victims while you’re putting the finishing touches on your multimillion-dollar mansion,” said one Democratic operative.
Edwards’ posh estate is a work in progress, with a recently completed 10,700-square-foot main mansion as its centerpiece.
The $3.1 million ritzy pad sports 10 rooms, 61/2 baths, two garages, a huge country kitchen with hardwood floors, and sweeping verandas to soak in the view of the verdant pasture.
Two other residences – one for 22-year-old daughter Cate and one for visiting friends and family – are already under way, according to Orange County, N.C., property records. A two-story, 6,366-square-foot mini-mansion is about 70 percent complete.
The $570,000 house will have two bedrooms, four bathrooms and a fireplace. A smaller, $193,000 building with 2,817 feet of space is about 95 percent complete. Edwards is also building a $30,000 pool house.
The 1,180-square-foot fun-and-sun building is about 85 percent complete, according to Orange County, N.C., property records. And land records show the estate will be growing again soon.
A “recreational building” is slated to be built on the property in the future.
It all seems so ostentatious, for the guy with humble roots who plans to make “economic equality” the centerpiece of his campaign when he announces his run tomorrow from the 9th Ward from Orelia Tyler’s yard, as she still lives in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer parked there.
Edwards hoopla includes a “round of morning talk show interviews and a press conference in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.” Adam Nagourney reported today in the N.Y. Times, that “Edwards, who is arguably the most Web-savvy candidate in the ’08 race to date, is using Thursday’s event to try to gin up his supporters via the Internet.” I guess that explains the early preview of the new website after all. Nothing accidental about it. However, Nagourney, reported the wrong potential ‘08 candidate as the “most Web-savvy.” No doubt Adam missed reading this: “the recognized Democratic leader when it comes to the Internet is Sen. John Kerry, his party’s 2004 nominee.”
Best wishes to John Edwards, I wasn’t convinced in ‘04 and I’m not any more convinced today that he has what it takes to be president. He’s slick, he talks a good game, but the experience isn’t there that is sorely needed to clean up the mess when George W. and his U.S. wrecking crew leave office. The choice is clear for me… when I say Run, John, Run — I’m talking about the Real Deal.
UPDATE — IN THE BLOGOSPHERE:
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Except for Hillary running, I cannot see anything less anticlimatic that the announcement of a second Edwards’ s run.
He started his first speech for the 08 campaign at Faneuil Hall in Nov 2004 (concession speech) and has never stopped running since.
I agree with you on your assessment of the two John, and I am also deeply bothered by the fact that he will subject his two younger kids, who probably need a lot of stability given their age and the fact their mother was sick recently, to a second electoral campaign. If all goes as he wants, it will mean that their father will have been campaigning for an election or another for the last 11 years. This is enough for me to stop thinking at him, if anything for the sake of these kids. Bayh and Warner had the good sense to think at what it would mean to their kids before they jump. Obama is clearly thinking about it, whatever his final choice will be, so is Chris Dodd. It bothers me that John Edwards does not seem to even think about that.
Mass
I hear you about the kids. They’ve been through so much with the mother having cancer and now this again. Ambition can blind people to things like their own children some times. Only time will tell.
I am still sad that he is choosing to use NOLA–Lower Ninth Ward as a photo-op, but like I said in a previous blog post, the AA vote is the swing vote (like in 2004), so he is trying to get a head start before the other candidates get around to declaring.
There is a lot of talk about electing a candidate who will “dumb down America” like Bush has done for the last six years, and people like Edwards (I heard Clark too) relate to poor folk despite lack of foreign policy experience.
It was some article a while back that Edwards was saying Obama would make a good presidential candidate and trying to pimp him as VP to make up for his “lack of experience.” Intersting huh?
Anyway to make the long story short, I agree with you all about his children being involved and Elizabeth beating cancer, presidential races are grueling (he probably learned in 04), so hopefully he will think about the impact the race will have on his young children emotionally.
If John Kerry can get the flak he did about the houses he and Teresa own (three of the four coming from her marriage to John Heinz) I will be curious what the smear folks will make of this one. Unfortunately, it will not help him with a lot of Democrats either.
This story has hit the MSM, at least locally.
He just has never struck me as sincere. Televangical manner, but Bubba does it better. Don’t buy it from him either.
Edwards doesn’t know enough to be president, but qia;lifications haven’t meant a lot lately.
Forget Edwards.
I may be in the minority here, but I don’t think either being rich or having kids should disqualify a person from running for President. He won’t be my first choice in the primary (I, too, am waiting for the Kerry anouncement), but televangical manner or not, Edwards has done a lot to bring the issue of impoverished America back into the national spotlight.
All of the Democrats who are running so far have much to offer; just not as much as John Kerry, in my opinion.
Edwards Campaign Posts Sneak Preview Video
So much for the ruse that the Edwards campaign goofed and their website went live a day early. The blog on Edwards website is distributing the video fast and furiously by email and otherwise. For those who are curious what the new Edwards campaign is …
Blue
Nothing disqualifies him of course and agreed he’s done a lot to ” bring the issue of impoverished America back into the national spotlight,” but the rest of his early platform I’ve been hearing from JK for sometime now.
Edwards always seemed to me a one-dimensional candidate: in 2004, there was that speech that never varied, by even a single word, at stop after campaign stop, and it didn’t seem to go farther than that. His debate with Cheney was ineffective, and he didn’t seem to help much (or possibly, not even at all) in the South. I share Marjorie G’s sense that he’s not quite sincere (and in terms of criticizing others for their “wealth”, he’s also certainly hypocritical), and given the comments and M.O. of both him and even his wife since 2004, I also have lost any sense that they are “nice”. While his focus on the poverty issue is an important issue, Edwards’ ambition seems to swamp everything else.. As Teresa said, “Forget Edwards”.
I’m patiently waiting for the hoopla of “Run John KERRY, Run’ action ….. please!
I don’t recall Edwards cricizing wealth itself; just the unwillingess of many of those with it to pay their fair share in our country. I do recall Kerry, in a campaign speech I attended, mentioning the criticism of his own financial standing. He pointed out something to the effect that all of the rich Republicans were out there “knocking me because I’ve got some of the same.”
I absolutely agree about the one-note campaign speeches by Edwards. I could practically recite the speech with him by the fourth one I attended! I never figured out if that was just his own choice, or if the campaign wanted to keep him on message with something easy for the folks who best related to Bush-simple speeches to handle.
John Kerry, on the other hand, gave new speeches at nearly every campaign stop I attended. He included repetitions of major themes, but had something original to say on multiple issues (many times, off the cuff). When he came to Ohio recently to help campaign for our candidates, I attended three speeches in the same day, and get this: all of them were entirely different, and incredible. All of that with no teleprompters, notes, etc.; needless to say, I remain impressed.
Anyway, I think what I’m really responding to is what I perceive to be somewhat personal criticisms of Democratic contenders who don’t happen to be John Kerry. I also think Obama, Clinton, et. al. have much to offer; again, just not as much as Kerry. Of course, every candidate looks for effective photo-ops, and all of them will be perceived either positively or negatively for it.
Edwards’ choice of location makes sense, as he wants to provide a visual reminder of one of his major campaign themes – poverty. People can perceive this as exploiting the Katrina victims, or helping them. My personal feeling is that any time a national spotlight is there, it’s a good thing. It can help to prevent the “out of sight, out of mind” phenomenon, and it’s important that what happened there does not fade from Americas’s thoughts.
My perception (and I grant you that it may be wrong) is that I seem to be seeing a tendency to tear down (rather than simply critique) other candidates, as a means of trying to boost John Kerry. I say “tendency” because I don’t think that it’s at all intended, but just happens in the nature of all rivalries (think OSU-Michigan, for one!). The major problem with this is that if John Kerry is the only person we see useful presidential qualities in, we risk credibility when trying to promote him as the best choice for President.
I suppose my overall view is that John Kerry isn’t the best selection from a pool of lacking candidates, but by far the best choice from a stellar field!
blue,
Your second to last paragraph proves that we have to be careful not to discourage the lurkers or people that may be on the fence.
Blue,
Point well taken in your second to last paragraph. To me, Kerry is so obviously the “best choice from a stellar field” , so obviously the Right Stuff, so obviously a man exceptionally fit for the presidency, so obviously a man with the intellectual and emotional depth, breadth of l experience and expertise, and political and moral courage that we so desperately need in the White House, that I confess to impatience and frustration with my fellow Dems who are slow to Get It. Will try to cast future comments in a more diplomatic light.
Sorry for the late response (I’m in DC for inauguration activites). I appreciate all the comments. Mbk, your description of Kerry is spot-on, and explains exactly why so many folks are pulling for him to run again.