Yesterday is Today, Tomorrow is Today
I think what first set me off was hearing Charlie Bass interviewed on the radio on the way to Portsmouth about his loss and his future plans. I wasn't expecting it, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. We all picked ourselves up so quickly after the election, and the presidential primary season started up so suddenly, that I realized at that moment that I hadn't done any internal processing of what had been accomplished, and what it had taken out of me. Given what's been done to our country, and the stakes involved, political campaigning is really a sublimated form of war, and the toll is heavy even in victory, and even for the activists, volunteers, and bloggers way down on the totem pole of a campaign.
This backwards glance compounded when I got to the Edwards kickoff and met some of the other bloggers who were active with the Ned Lamont and Deval Patrick movements. Wonderful people, all of them. I was particularly touched to be reminded of all the hard work done by so many for Lamont in what was ultimately a loss. I'll say here what I said to some of them there: though they lost in the general, the jolt to the system that Ned's primary victory caused gave a hope and spirit and enthusiasm to countless other races that is impossible to quantify, but was keenly felt. In essence, it gave so many, toiling thanklessly for change over these past six years, a reason to hope. It's impossible to know how much energy the Lamont story contributed to the success of other long-shot fights, but I can only say that the ultimate results of their work, though diffuse, did not go unrewarded last November. Coming through all that to find yourself on the doorstep of presidential season is vertigo-inducing.
The Man
John Edwards appears to have reinvented himself. Edwards 2.0? The same optimism but with less sunshine is one way to describe it. Unshackled from the caution of Kerry-Edwards is another. The Senator was decidedly darker in tone and more direct. He still looks much younger than his age would suggest. He gave every indication of having learned much from his first run.
The Campaign
Clearly, this event was not indicative of typical retail style NH primary politicking. I can overlook, and even celebrate, that difference since it was his 08 kickoff in our state, but I will not be pleased if Edwards and the other big guns (Clinton, Obama, perhaps Gore, and McCain and Giuliani on the other side) choose to emulate and even escalate (to use an interesting word) for the duration. I already have heard people complaining about the term "rock star" for Obama and Edwards, but that term is not without merit given the style and hype behind these events. Though Edwards be a far more attractive candidate for me than Evan Bayh for whole hosts of reasons, I left the Bayh reception, e.g., far more satisfied and enriched than at "Tomorrow is Today".
Whoever came up with the "take action now" strategy of Edwards 2008 should be paid handsomely. It's brilliant for a number of reasons, and whether I find it sincere or not is actually immaterial to its effectiveness. What does it do?
* It makes this campaign distinctively branded from the get-go.
* The personal accountability aspect of it is an open invitation to Republicans disaffected by Bush, and done in clever conservative framing.
* It is quite obviously designed to be the most attractive form of a campaign for the significant number of Dean supporters still active in politics to get involved in. Sure, it's a heck of a lot more pre-packaged than how the Dean campaign evolved, but the assimilation of the innovations of '04 into the campaign necessities of '08 was inevitable. And grabbing the NH Dean contingent is a prize not to be underestimated. If Gore doesn't jump in the race (a wild card that will upset the entire applecart), Edwards may very well get the lion's share of them.
* It helps to uncouple Edwards from his most symmetrical opponent, Barack Obama, the candidate capable of taking away his particular brand of supporter. If you haven't already, please see Mike's post about that, which in my opinion was the best catch by anyone in the event, MSM or blogger.
* It takes the story away from Edwards' very limited (and centrist) political experience and moves it into the here and now. It allows him, i.e., to match his newly more progressive stance with present action for the benefit of a nation with an admittedly short-term political memory.
* If a genuine movement actually does build around civic action through this campaign strategy (though I have my doubts), those involved will likely not stray from Edwards and will help to pull more in.
Will this strategy turn into a movement, or will it end up being seen as a gimmick to the seasoned Granite State primary voter? I think it's much too early to know the answer to that question.
A side note on blogging the event. The campaign is obviously reaching out to bloggers, and they certainly have both official and non-official Edwardians working the blogosphere. I found it fascinating that Team Edwards set up a time and space for a bloggers roundtable for us, if only because I got to some up close time and a handshake with a possible president (thanks, Aldon). But here's the paradox: it felt useless blogging this event. There's nothing I could offer of actual content other than my own observation that the army of media there couldn't do faster and more quickly. And as for pushing a candidate, there are plenty of partisan bloggers who could do that much more effectively than I. Were we there to lend blogger street cred to John Edwards, or were we there to help facilitate the "take action" meme among our communities? Or both?
The Message
A quibble with the "take action" theme: over and over Edwards pushed back on questions and issues with "well, what are you doing about this now?" Great conservative framing (vide above), but it doesn't work so neatly for all the problems we face. Global warming? Sure, I've made lots of personal green decisions in my lifestyle, but at the same day as the Portsmouth event I read about an ancient ice shelf falling into the arctic. Fighting that frightening development requires real leadership, and real leadership means getting real leaders elected. A similar example could be made about Iraq.
Edwards on the issues? Unabashedly progressive, and directly so. I want our troops out of Iraq. Let's call this McCain surge what it is - escalation. I support universal health care. Global warming is an issue that will affect everyone in this room, and we need to do something about it yesterday. There are other ways to be patriotic than war. I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.
But here's the thing: even back in 2004, I could never shake the feeling when watching Edwards that I was in the midst of a formidable showman. Though the 2008 Edwards message appeals to me tremendously, that feeling did not go away. The bottom line: I don't really care whether a candidate appears sincere or not; it's not about me, it's about advancing true democratic and constitutional values in this country. But I do want to know whether a President Edwards will be as progressive as the man who was working that school cafeteria crowd, and working it well. Or to put it another way, the reigning political winds greatly favor, in my opinion, a Democratic president in 2008, so the bar for me is a bit higher than Anybody But Bush this time around. |
