I had the chance to see John Edwards "up close and personal" when he held a small rally at the University where I work today. Turnout was quite respectable, especially for a university as solidly conservative as ours. They introduced him by saying he'd been a walk-on for our football team his first year of college. I had not known that.
He looked as handsome and put-together as he always does, but you could tell (if you were close enough, as I was) that he was a bit tired. Nevertheless, he gave a rousing speech, replete with his familiar stories--Nataline, James Lowe etc. More importantly, though, was the way he connected with South Carolina. It gave me hope that perhaps it isn't over for John Edwards, no matter how much the media want to call the primaries for the front-runners already.
Edwards spent a considerable amount of time talking about his upbringing--how his father worked for 36 years in a mill, and how both his mother and grandmother also worked there--sharing child-care responsibilities because they had to, in order to work and make ends meet. He talked about how he knows that that is still a reality for many South Carolina families. He talked about how the price of everything from gasoline to health care keeps going up while our salaries remain stagnant. He talked about veterans without homes or health care. These are all realities for people down here, where most people are in the less privileged of the two Americas.
He ended the short rally by asking that when we talk to other people in South Carolina about him, we remember to tell them that he will never, never forget what life is like in places like Clemson and the small towns that surround it. I know that's a message that is repeated so often that it can seem trite, but because this is truly where he is from, it seemed to resonate. I believed him, but of course, I want to believe. I'm hoping that if his message speaks to the folks down here, perhaps it will be heard by the rest of America as well.