Edwards dared to tell the truth -- and paid for it

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by David Rossie
Commentary, February 10, 2008

"Johnny, I hardly knew ye."

-- A 19th century Irish folk song about a young man who lost his life while serving with the British East India Company.

The 19th century is long gone, and so too is the British East India Company -- which in a way was the precursor to Blackwater, but without the generous employee benefits, not the least of which is immunity for criminal acts. But never mind.

The song itself might stand as a sad farewell to the presidential candidacy of John Edwards, because thanks to the mass media, we never really got to know Edwards and what he stood for before he, like other Democratic hopefuls, was swept under by the tsunami-like coverage of Clinton and Obama.

Sure, we heard and read for a while about his rise from poor mill-hand's son to successful lawyer, but always with the snide aside that he was a trial lawyer, which is like the asterisk after Roger Maris' home-run record. Somehow there is something demeaning about being a lawyer who goes after the clients of corporate lawyers. Or so we're told.

And of course there were the smirking references to the $400 haircut by pundits who wouldn't dream of mocking W for flitting about the Persian Gulf gathering up baubles, bangles and beads from porcine sheiks.

It's not that Edwards didn't have anything to say. He had plenty to say, but a lot of it was unpleasant, such as his assertion that we were ignoring the reality of two Americas: the have-nots and the have-plentys-who-want-a-whole-lot-more. An America with the finest health care available -- to those who can afford it, and too bad about the 40 million or so others who can't.
But then, they can always go to the ER if they fall ill, as W pointed out.

It was easier to listen to abstractions about how it's time for a change and the power of experience, no matter how vaguely defined.

So Edwards was dismissed as just another populist, singing the same old tune he'd sung four years ago when he was doing his best to breathe life into John Kerry's sluggish campaign.
Perhaps it's not fair to say Edwards' cries went unheard.

Obama heard them. When it became clear, thanks to pundits such as Paul Krugmanm that Obama was trying to peddle a health care plan that only an insurance company could love, he adroitly paid lip service to Edwards' plan -- after Edwards dropped out.

But as far as the media were concerned, Edwards might as well have been Mike Gravel or Ron Paul. His ordeal was summed up emphatically one recent night during NBC's brief report on the previous night's Democratic debate, as described by Mrs. Greenspan. Ninety-nine percent of the coverage, predictably, was devoted to Mrs. Clinton and Obama once again reprising "The Bickersons." The other 1 percent consisted of what Mrs. Greenspan described as Edwards injecting a note of humor into the proceedings, when he reminded the moderators that "there are three of us in this debate."

That was it. End of coverage. Mrs. Greenspan and Brian laughed. How many of those who were interested in what Edwards might have had to say, laughed along with them?

Contrast the media's cavalier treatment of Edwards with their fawning coverage of a resurgent John McCain in his battle with the animatronic Mitt Romney.

Much has been written and spouted about Romney's abandonment of all the principles he espoused as governor of Massachusetts, and justifiably so. But McCain has matched him, stance for stance, flip for flop; everything from abortion, gay rights, Bush's tax cuts for the rich, and most of all his shameful embrace of Falwell and Robertson, both of whom he had earlier excoriated.

How to account for McCain's experience on the road to Damascus, or Minneapolis? Easy if you're David Brooks or Gail Collins.

In a column headed "The McCain Transition," Brooks ascribes it to "his character, his integrity, his honesty."

Collins' take: "McCain is all about honor and keeping his word."

Where are those grinning clowns who used to show up at Kerry speeches dressed as flip-flops when we need them? And where is Edwards now that we need him all the more?