John Edwards as Rock Star

Man, I'm sitting here watching him on CSpan right now, and he sounds/looks like a political version of Dontrelle Willis. Don't get me wrong: Dontrelle had a rocky post-season, and something tells me that Edwards, at some point, is going to find himself with two on and no outs, facing Ivan Rodriguez. But right now he's looking like he's won eight out of his first ten starts. He just referenced his accent, and, yeah, that means something to me.

The bump from Iowa is helping. The stump speech has some nice talking points, and, while I often forget to take into consideration the looks/star quality factor, something tells me don't count it out in his case. That was one of the big ways I underestimated Clinton back in 1992, even as my attitude at the time was more like "I don't find him quite as disagreeable as Tsongas."

Edwards positions resonate much more positively with me than Clinton--that's for sure. As far as his past as a "trial lawyer:" If I had a consultant's position, I'd urge him to come out swinging--"sure, I argued to convince a jury, in the public setting of a courthouse, open to all who wished to witness. George Bush, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and THEIR LOBBYISTS slink around at closed-door fundraisers, in back rooms, buying and selling influence--you decide what's worse." That could sell to the public, provided the media actually did their job.

Still, I think Edwards is slated for a No. 2 spot on the ticket. Could be a good thing, though. I think it was Rude Pundit that said it best: he could make Dick Cheney look like "the walking corpse that he is."

Just checked: it was Rude Pundit (scroll down for the specific post).

If the press doesn't fall into the "trial lawyer" witchhunt, Edwards could really hurt Bush this fall, as the top or second spot on the ticket.