RALEIGH — There has never been a “bandwagon effect” to the presidential campaign of North Carolina’s John Edwards. The operable metaphorical vehicle would, I think, be my sons’ little red wagon.
It’s a Radio Flyer, the modest version with no faux wooden siding. It’s your basic all-purpose carry-all. Right now, Alex and Andrew have turned it into an arsenal for outdoor adventures: three swords in various states of repair, a battle ax, a knight’s helm and shield, an Indian spear and tomahawk, a bow and arrow, a couple of light sabers, two cowboy hats, baseball gear, a frisbee, assorted crud, a Bat-grapping hook with Bat-cuffs, and two “power rings” — one adorned with a Disney Dalmatian, the other a happy face.
Hey, in the real world it takes two rings to rule them all.
Anyway, the thing about little red wagons is that, for all their unremarkability, they are surprisingly useful. They travel well. They carry an improbable amount of cargo, including little brothers. Given enough of an incline, they can turn into race cars suitable for giving parents a good scare. Basically, they are unassuming crowd-pleasers.
John Edwards’ campaign has been repeatedly outpaced by other, flashier conveyances — including two recent bandwagons, one for Howard Dean (filled with chanting peaceniks) and one for Wesley Clark (filled with Big Mac wrappers and empty doughnut boxes, hmmm.) But it’s still rumbling on. The improbable scenario for an Edwards surprise is still in play: a better-than-expected showing in Iowa and New Hampshire, a second-place effort in the next spate of Southern and border primaries (including a win in South Carolina), and a clinching win a week later as the anti-Deaniacs pick a champion.
Unfortunately, little red wagons have no suspension system and thus no way to handle ruts and bumps. That’s what lays ahead for Edwards right now. The weekend story that a pitchman for the Saudi government bid on the senator’s Washington home — and that Edwards did nothing to disclose this when he found out about it — isn’t exactly worthy of a “-Gate” appellation, but it is embarrassing. Also troubling was a new poll in South Carolina that showed Wesley Clark to have pulled ahead of Edwards in the latter’s must-win state, though no one has enough support there to be confident.
On Sunday, Edwards announced a $3 billion program to fund preschool programs. Wow, fresh idea! Then he proceeded to say that “everyone knows” a dollar spent on preschool saves $7 in future government costs and that a child’s brain is almost completely wired and set long before he enters school, proving that he has carefully perused Ladies’ Home Journal and watched “Oprah” reruns but has done no serious investigation of the real operation of preschool programs outside the laboratory or children’s brain chemistry.
Next Sunday, Edwards will go up against Tim Russert of NBC’s “Meet the Press” for the second time. While any chance to gain nationwide television exposure has got to be considered worth the risk for the slow-moving Edwards effort, these intense-interviewer situations are not the senator’s forte. He’s better working campaign-event crowds and debating political adversaries. He’ll have to show some patience, some humor, some charisma, and the kind of stature that befits a future leader of the free world.
Because pulling a little red wagon slowly down the street is just child’s play. It’s no way to win a race.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.