Awhile back there were a series of diaries about why we should support this or that candidate. Back then Edwards was polling in the low single digits in Iowa. Now he is on the rise everywhere.
Anyway, two consecutive post by one author in that thread particularly caught my attention. Since they were likely passed over by most, I have copied and pasted them here. They provide a good perspective on who John Edwards is.
I hope the author does not mind (and I'm unsure if it's proper or not to name him), but I think his words are very instructive, insigntful, and include a bit of foresight.
I will probably vote for John Edwards. I'm a Republican, but there is no party registration in Georgia, so I can vote in either party's primary. I voted for Bush, but I'm tired of him selling out the national interest every chance he gets. I think we'd all be better off economically and militarily if McCain had won the GOP nomination last time.
But McCain's not an option this time around, so the question is who has the best chance of taking Bush down?
It looks like Dean has the nomination locked down, but I think Edwards is the guy who can come across as a real person you'd like to have a beer with (and let's not kid ourselves, there are a plenty of undecided voters for whom that's what decides their vote).
As I've mentioned before, I'm a corporate lawyer who is usually on the other side from trial lawyers and as rule I don't like them. However, Edwards is a legend among lawyers down here. The guy was the Robert De Niro of trial lawyers-- I read a judge quoted as saying he was the best lawyer he'd ever seen in 20 years on the bench.
Edwards had a gift of breaking down complex medical and legal issues to a level that every juror felt they understood the issue and felt that Edwards was on the side of the angels. This is the guy you want giving the big speech on the last night of the Democratic Convention.
From public corruption to corporate accountability to taxation, I think he has an excellent platform and I think he's the guy who can best take the fight to Bush.
Finally, though I would vote for Dean in the general election, he shares a problem with Newt Gingrich. Neither of them has ever had an unexpressed thought. There are times you need to keep your "interesting theories" to yourself and stay on message. Edwards is disciplined enough, I've never heard him go off message.
The poster immediately followed with another comment:
After posting that Edwards was the "Robert De Niro of trial lawyers" I remembered something that Steve Sailer of UPI had written about De Niro that reminds me of Edwards...
"The pleasure of watching De Niro is largely that of seeing a truly superior
individual try out different occupations that no doubt he would have been a
success at if he hadn't gone into acting. The premise of practically any De
Niro movie is: What if fate had made Bobby De Niro a detective? Or a boxer?
Gangster? Psycho killer?
"Dr. Samuel Johnson defended this idea that a first-rate man could have been
winner in any one of many different fields by saying, "Sir, the man who has
vigor may walk to the North as well as to the South, to the East as well as
to the West." De Niro's vigor, intelligence, work ethic, charisma, and force
of will allows him to persuade us that he would have made one hell of a
detective, boxer, gangster, or psycho killer."
If the author wants to claim credit, please do by leaving your own comment below.