John Edwards: Street Fighter

Every once in while, in my roaming and readings I come across interesting articles and blogs that should be highlighted. I think at least. Today, I read two referencing Edwards fighting theme.

Hope 'n Hell

Anyway, on to the articles...

The first one comes from TNR, made me laugh.

John Edwards Will Kick Your  Ass

Knoxville, Iowa

It's been two weeks since I last attended an Edwards event, and I immediately noticed something new: For some reason he was wearing a smart-looking suit and tie last night rather than his usual blazer and blue jeans combo. Maybe just another sign we're getting down to business here...

snip

Later on, Edwards told a pretty powerful story about a woman who was recently denied coverage for a liver transplant. The doctors and nurses at her hospital complained to the insurance company, and then ordinary "Americans" said enough and started picketing the insurer themselves. Finally, the company backed down and agreed to cover the transplant. But it was too late; the woman died a few hours later. "People say to me, 'As president of the United States, I want you to sit at a table and negotiate with these people?'" Edwards groaned. "Never. I will never do it." Again, it seemed like a shot at Obama.

An aide assures me that Edwards is still pressing the case against Hillary as hard as ever--that she's basically the target of all the corporate lobbyist talk, and the emphasis on the need to change Washington. Fair enough. But the allusions to Obama's idea are unquestionably new. (For what it's worth, the feelings seem to be mutual. Obama spent a lot of time deriding Edwards's overly-angry approach in the speech I caught Friday.)

One final wrinkle from last night: Edwards's rhetoric about being a fighter has suddenly become very literal. He's always talked about fighting corporate interests in Washington and in the court room as a trial lawyer. Last night there was this: "I grew up in some rough neighborhoods ... I remember when I was young, I got into a fight ... went home. My father said, 'Listen to me.' He said, 'I don't want to hear about you starting any fights.' I said, 'Yes, sir.' And he said, 'Listen to me very carefully. You don't start a fight, but you never, ever walk away from one.' ... And so I fought. I fought with everything I had. Didn't win all the time, but I won some. And I survived."

If you follow Edwards long enough, you notice that, in subtle ways, he has the bearing and even the swagger of a jock (which he actually was--and a pretty successful one at that). I think this is the closest to the surface I've ever seen it, though. It's like Edwards is saying to lobbyists: Don't mess with me, because I will kick your ass. Really.  

Even the one comment from that blog made me chuckle.

The Ignorant Populist said:
Get stuck in John!

He's a streetbrawler, fist fighting evil corporations for the little man.

Obama will invite the bad guys around for tea and ask them to stop being bad. Hillary will look for donations from the bad guys so she can set up a think tank that will delay any verdict on the bad guys, as long as they keep donating. Johnboy will punch them in the windpipe, knee them in the balls then take their wallets and hand out 100 dollar bills to the poor.

Get stuck in John!  

The next article comes from the Washington Post, the Trail.

Edwards Fights to the Finish

DES MOINES -- For the final days in the Iowa contest, John Edwards has shed his blue jeans and open-collar shirt and put on a suit and tie -- and a pair of brass knuckles.

Often the forgotten man in Iowa's three-way Democratic battle, Edwards is on the move. Independent analysts see his support firming up. Advisers to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama believe he might win the caucuses on Thursday -- although their views should be discounted because both Clinton and Obama would rather see Edwards win if they can't.

snip

Nobody in the race here understands the rhythms of campaigns any better than Edwards and nobody is more ruthlessly focused on closing the deal than the former trial lawyer and senator. This time he's trying to make it all the way, knowing that he cannot afford to lose here on Thursday night.
But it is his message that is most remarkable. No thought here of finishing on a sunny and positive note, as he did four years ago. His "America Rising" theme is not a variation of "Morning in America."

It is a call to arms that is raw and angry, populist and pugnacious. It is a message that is as exhausting and is it confrontational. It is a message makes Al Gore's "people versus the powerful" seem tame and timid in comparison.

One Edwards supporter, departing after a big rally in Des Moines on Saturday night, said he hasn't heard a message as passionate or strong since Bobby Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign.

Nice clothes aside, Edwards has turned street-fighter for the final stretch run. His message can be boiled down to a single word -- "Fight!" -- which he repeats over and over and over and over again: Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight.

Edwards has rolled out anecdotes he never used in the past to make it all the more personal. They conjure up images that hardly square with his slight frame and good looks. He was, as he now explains, a brawler as a kid, taking on bullies the way he later took on corporations and insurance companies as a trail lawyer.

"Like many of you, I had to fight to survive," he told an audience of nearly a thousand people on Saturday night. "I mean really. Literally."

He describes the southern mill town where he grew up as a tough little place and tells the story of getting into a fight one day with an older boy. "Got my butt kicked," he says. When he got home, his father offered a stern lesson in life.

"I don't ever want to hear, son, about you starting a fight," he says his father told him. "But you listen to me and listen to me clearly. I don't want to ever hear that you walked away from one. Because if you're not willing to stand up for yourself and if you're not willing to fight, no one will stand up for you."

The enemy he sees is corporate America and corporate greed. His message seeks not to unite America but to finish what he describes as "an epic struggle" against forces that are, literally, killing America -- destroying jobs, holding down wages, putting ordinary Americans out of work or denying them medical care.

snip

His language is over the top. He casts the challenges facing America in terms of morality and immorality. Speaking of tax policies that have encouraged companies to send jobs overseas, he says, "This is insanity -- I mean complete insanity."

The rich have an "iron-fisted grip" on democracy and won't let go through negotiations. "Anybody who suggests that we don't have an epic fight on our hands is living in Never-Never Land," he says.

For anyone who likes Edwards fighting stance and a chuckle.