Last week over at MYDD, novelist and Edwards blogger David Mizner wrote about "The Man Who refused to be Buried," a post about the amazing resiliency of the Edwards campaign in the face of the elite media's attacks on him.
It's amazing how well Edwards is doing. Recent polls of the first three states have Edwards ahead in Iowaand tied with Obama for second in New Hampshire* and Nevada. You can find less favorable polls, of course, but there's no question that he's in the thick of the race--an astounding accomplishment given the effort of the elite media to take him down and the celebrity of his two top rivals. One of the big un-discussed stories of the race is that Edwards is not slipping, a la McCain. On the contrary....
The media assault was unrelenting from the end of March to the end of June. The Haircut dominated. It found its way to every story about Edwards. Compared to Clinton and Obama, he got almost no coverage and when he did, it was negative. He came very close to losing control of his image and his narrative. In a now infamous, blasé post, Marc Ambinder, formerly of the Note and now of the Atlantic, confirmed what we had lost suspected, that the media were "trying to bury Edwards."
A candidacy with a less solid core would have gone under. His substance kept him above ground.
Now that same Marc Ambinder, has had to concede that "Edwards Rises Again. And Again."
Everytime someone declares John Edwards dead, he rises again. His Fighting for One America tour culminated in a 1,000-person rally last night in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (Those are Obama numbers! In New Hampshire! Where Edwards Isn't Supposed To Be Strong!)
Here's an emotional moment from the event:
No doubt there will be more media hits to come, but at this point I don't worry about them. There should also be no doubt that John Edwards is running the an enormously substantive and well thought out campaign, in health care, the environment, trade and foreign policy.
More than that though, as both of the Edwards's show in that clip, they take the fight for economic justice in this country personally. As John said at an event I was at in Manchester, when he thinks about the economy or health care it isn't just numbers to him, it's the effect on real people that drives him. As more voters see that John Edwards is actually on their side, when he formulates health policy, tax policy, trade policy, they're going to be on his side. Even if the press never does get that.