One Thought re: John Edwards

There's one thing about John Edwards' standard speech that bothers me a bit. He didn't use it tonight when claiming victory, but on the stump he keeps saying something like "I've not news for George W. Bush--the South ain't his back yard, it's my back yard!"

Not a bad line. But I'd hate to see Bush himself or one of the MANY mouthpieces Bush will use in his stealth campaign turn that around into something like "we like to think of the South as our front yard."

I wish someone with access to the campaign would tell the Senator to stick "front yard" or words to that effect into the line. Believe it or not, that means something down here.

Yeah, that seems pretty trivial, but: if Edwards overcomes long odds and leads the ticket (or, more likely, IMO, taking the second slot), something stupid like this could actually become part of the endless spin cycle practiced by dozens, if not hundreds of well-paid talkingheads who seem to actually do little beyond get interviewed for television--and pick up checks from places like the Heritage Foundation, PNAC, the RNC, etc.

Like I said, it's just a throwaway line, but, here in the South people aren't exactly big on politics to begin with. Potential voters are more likely to base their votes on "who can shout the loudest the longest." A Bush spinner will use ANYTHING, absolutely ANYTHING, as part of their "slime the candidate" strategy. And this could become fodder...especially since they won't be able to do much else besides pin the label "trial lawyer" on him (and that ain't gonna work--after watching his speech, I'll say this much: Edwards is the best speaker among the major candidates for president BY FAR. He won't have any problem with "trial lawyer," IMO).

Recall, spin doctors have managed to change the tenor of the campaigns with stuff as mundane as the tag line for a Wendy's ad, for chrissakes. I'd hate to see an otherwise pretty good candidate for either president or vice-president have to chuckle a bit, smile and say, "yeah, you're right, I don't mean back yard in a bad way." The media would eat this up, turn it into a week-long series, with person-on-the-street crap ("do YOU think Edwards was being insulting when he used the term 'back yard'?")...in other words, spin it the way only Republicans can.

And that could be all it takes. Again, I don't mean to sound so trivial--but that sadly seems to be how a lot of politics works these days...