By John Aloysius Farrell
The Denver Post
July 7, 2004

WASHINGTON The vice presidential candidacy of Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, a silver-tongued freshman known for his vigorous advocacy of working families, is a sure sign that Sen. John F. Kerry intends to make the American economy a pillar of his campaign for the presidency this fall.

Edwards, who made a fortune suing wealthy interests as a trial lawyer before entering politics six years ago, has virtually no foreign policy or national security experience. But he is a fresh face who electrified Democratic audiences in the presidential primaries with a populist call for more jobs, higher wages and better health care for working- and middle-class Americans.

Tad Devine, a top Kerry advisor, said yesterday that the most important message the campaign hopes to send in choosing Edwards is that "John Kerry is deeply committed to winning the fight for the American middle class."

Edwards, 51, the son of a mill worker, championed the economic cause of middle class families and won high marks from the Democratic faithful in the presidential primary season finishing second to Kerry in Iowa and beating the Massachusetts senator in South Carolina.

In his campaign speeches, Edwards the first in his family to attend college - vowed to end the national drift toward "two Americas" in which a privileged few are disproportionately rewarded at the expense of working men and women.

The economy, and how voters feel about their own finances, has historically been a determining factor in U.S. presidential elections. The economy has emerged slowly from the 2001 recession, but job growth has been slow and wages lag behind inflation.

But with American troops dying in Iraq, and al-Qaida alive in the world, Edwards brings few national security and no military credentials to the ticket.

Kerry is betting that his own, decorated military service in the Vietnam War, and two decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will be enough to persuade voters that the republic will be safe in Democratic hands.

"He doesn't help with Kerry's number one job, which is getting over the commander-in-chief bar," a leading Democratic operative acknowledged.

Edwards' relaxed manner, youthful looks and boyish charisma is expected to complement Kerry, who can sometimes seem stiff and pompous. And as the word spread yesterday, Democrats looked forward to a vice-presidential debate this fall, which would pit Edwards against Vice President Dick Cheney.

The North Carolinian is "the perfect anti-Cheney. He's young, skinny, healthy, energetic and he's spent a lifetime fighting corrupt corporations instead of getting rich from one," said Jim Jordan, a former Kerry campaign manager.

Yet the primary duty of a vice president is to be ready to assume the duties of the presidency in a crisis. So Edwards may suffer in comparison with Cheney, who has served in Congress, as White House chief of staff, and as defense secretary in a long career.

The 60-year-old Kerry, who was driven from the campaign trail for several weeks last year for treatment of prostate cancer, may be underestimating the public's desire for experienced leadership in dangerous times, said Republican strategist Grover Norquist.

Kerry "is so completely self-confident and self-absorbed that his mortality is not part of his thinking," said Norquist, who heads a group called Americans for Tax Reform. "It hurts his feelings that he even has to have a vice president."

Edwards comes from a key state, but in the television age the importance of the overall "statement" made in choosing a vice presidential candidate has risen in comparison to an older tradition of providing geographic or ideological balance to a ticket.

Though he was born in South Carolina and raised in North Carolina, Edwards is not expected to help the Democrats carry conservative states in the Deep South.

"Ideologically, (the Democrats) have a ticket that is very liberal," said Colorado Gov. Bill Owens.

But Kerry strategists think Edwards could help in battleground states like Tennessee, Iowa, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Florida and perhaps bring North Carolina into play.

Edwards' fate as a candidate may come to rest in part on what Americans think of trial lawyers. If Edwards is viewed as a latter-day Clarence Darrow, Atticus Finch or a John Grisham hero fighting in court for the rights of the little guy - it may boost his populist appeal.

Republicans, however, view trial lawyers as rapacious opportunists and GOP operatives hope to hang soaring malpractice insurance costs, frivolous product liability suits and other economic and legal ills around Edwards' neck.

Norquist, who is given to Machiavellian thinking, noted that Cheney poses no threat to other ambitious Republicans because of his health issues.

"So every Republican (who is thinking of a 2008 candidacy) wants Bush to win," said Norquist.

But future Democratic presidential candidates, like New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, may see Edwards as a potential rival, Norquist said, and give half-hearted support to the ticket.

"If you are Bill and Hillary Clinton you want (Kerry and Edwards) to lose so bad you can taste it," he said.

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