Edwards shores up N.H. support, says he sounds like a Democratic president

[sniffa]

John Edwards tried to shore up his New Hampshire support Wednesday with promises of fighting the establishment, changing Washington – and even speaking with a Southern accent.

The former North Carolina senator, on a 300-mile, one-day campaign tour through New Hampshire, stuck to populist themes for what he hopes will be an Edwards presidency.

“You'd better choose someone as your candidate who's ready for this battle. Nice words will not change anything,” Edwards said in this northern New England town.

He also cited his small-town, Southern roots as an asset.

“The last two Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter,” he said in his Carolina twang, “both talk like me.”

snip

Edwards has spent years building an organization in Iowa, where the caucuses will provide the campaign's first results a week from Thursday. Here in New Hampshire, polls show Clinton and Obama in a tight race for the Jan. 8 primary. Edwards remains a distant third but hopes a strong showing in Iowa will let him slingshot into New Hampshire with momentum.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20071226-1235-edwards-newhampshire.html

[ccpup]

1. well, if other things aren't sticking

I guess pointing out your accent makes about as much sense as anything else. :evilgrin:

[IndyOp]

2. His point about being a Southerner is valid -

The swing states have rural voters who will have a very important impact in the next election. Rural voters from swing states have tended to vote for Southerners. Hillary Clinton did not grow up in the South and will not be perceived as a Southerner by voters even if she did live in Arkansas as an adult.

[sniffa]

3. oh c'mon, look at what he's going against

former first lady is hard to overcome. he's only lucky Laura Bush isn't running, then he'd have twice the uphill climb.

[Donnachaidh]

5. are you freaking kidding us?

A former first lady is considered an actual threat? Oh puhleeze..... :puke:

[Hieronymus]

9. As a born Southerner, I can tell you Edwards' Southern Accent is real ...

Hillary's is NOT. Her big teased up hairdo in Baton Rouge didn't fool any Southerners either.
Go get 'em, John. :woohoo:

[frazzled]

4. So, the South shall rise again?

Is that the coded message of both this emphasis on the Southern drawl and his final theme of "America Rising"? I'm not being entirely cynical here: essentially, he's saying, I'm the white guy, the "good ol' boy," remember. I can do better than a northern-based Yale-educated woman or a Harvard-educated Midwesterner because, well, you know, wink wink.

Well, he doesn't sound like Kennedy or Roosevelt, that's for sure. And I, personally, am sick of Southern hegemony in American politics. And I think that era is over in this country. We're ready for a Midwesterner or New Yorker or ... well, anyone other than a southern boy.

[Hieronymus]

10. My, how bitter.

[abq e streeter]

6. I'm an Edwards supporter all the way, but his focusing on his accent is

really annoying. What he's saying is important, not which accent its delivered in. I wish he'd drop this as an alleged issue .

[Cha]

7. At least what Edwards

is saying is true and not some smear campaign that is a personal attack on another opponent.

And I misread it at first..I thought he said he sounded like a Democratic candidate, which, indeed he does.

[tex-wyo-dem]

8. Well, considering that...

Eight of the last nine presidents either came from (or pretended to come from) a southern or western state and/or embraced the western "cowboy" culture to appeal to rural voters, I would say the point Edwards is making is not irrelevant.

As a pesidential candidate, aligning yourself with the rural demographic is very important in helping win electoral votes in the mulitude of smaller states. If you can do that as well as sell yourself to the middle/working-class urban voter, you have yourself a highly electable candidate.

That is one reason I feel JE is the Dem's best bet in taking the WH next year, not by just a razor thin majority, but by a substantial margin...maybe even, what the pundits call, a landslide.

On edit: it's debatable whether Missouri would be considered a southern state, but it is, for the most part certainly rural. In that case knock that number up to nine of the last ten presidents.

In short, JE is promoting a very valid strength.