...in New Orleans:
Former Senator John Edwards will announce his second presidential bid next week in the storm-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
Edwards has made addressing poverty central to his campaign and sees this as a way to dramatize what he argues have been White House failures.
More perplexing, at least from a conventional point of view, is why Mr. Edwards would announce his candidacy in the last week of the year, a dead time for news, when it can be hard to win voters’ attention.
This far out, timing is a red herring. What matters is the symbolism of this announcement, and I think it's brilliant.
Beyond what New Orleans now embodies in terms of the Bush Administration's failure, it also embodies Republican neglect of cities, the poor, the working class and the middle class. And it is a watermark on Republican's abject disdain for sound environmental policy and their War On Science.
This guy knows how to cover the bases. This guy knows how to make a splash.
Watch out for John Edwards.