RALEIGH – It looks like the North Carolina Republican Party is proving to be more nimble and effective in responding to the John Edwards coronation than national GOP leaders are. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising, since Tar Heel Republicans have learned over the years how best to spar – and not to spar – with Edwards.
Just minutes after John Kerry’s speech in Pittsburgh Tuesday to announce his running mate, the Republican National Committee was ready to go with a new web address – www.KerrypicksEdwards.com – and a series of talking points. Edwards is “a disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal and friend to personal injury trial lawyers,” the site screamed in large, bold type. He is “unaccomplished and inexperienced,” it added, providing relevant (and admittedly entertaining) quotes to that effect from Kerry and other Democratic and media sources.
Meanwhile, the state party in Raleigh was sending out a quick-response press release of its own. Bearing the title “Kerry’s Second Choice: Pessimism with a Southern Drawl,” the piece emphasized Edwards’ record of left-wing votes in the Senate and sought to eradicate the distinction between the two Democratic standard-bearers. “The only thing separating John Edwards from John Kerry is their accents,” Republican chairman Ferrell Blout said. “When it comes to their voting records, both are out of touch with North Carolina voters on important issues such as taxes, partial-birth abortion, Medicare reform, and national security.
“John Edwards delivers his pessimism with a southern drawl and a smile, but his message of a divided America rings hollow in the ears of an optimistic America that is united in meeting the tests of our times with strength and hope,” Blount continued in the release.
The national GOP’s line of attack is wrongheaded and counterproductive. For one thing, attacking Edwards as a “personal-injury trial lawyer” is a good applause line at a Republican convention or a business-leader soiree, but it will not win votes among swing voters who admire lawyers more than they do the CEOs and HMO bureaucrats being sued. Tort reform is desperately needed, but it is certainly not at the top of the agenda for these voters. Show me a blockbuster movie or popular TV show featuring heroic insurance magnates and I’ll retract my statement.
The bit about Edwards’ inexperience is also an assault that looks better on paper than, I fear, it will turn out to be in execution. For example, to quote Kerry denigrating Edwards in the past for not having served in Vietnam or gained enough experience on foreign and defense affairs is to elevate Kerry as having such experience. Americans are voting primarily for president, not vice president. It is foolish to build up the stature of the top of the ticket in order to (somewhat) weaken the bottom of the ticket. Besides, there is little evidence that Americans prefer experience in Washington to other kinds of experience in their vice presidents.
The state GOP’s take is more astute. Republicans need to erase the image of John Edwards as a moderate, which is based largely on atmospherics and his vote for congressional authorization for the war in Iraq. Furthermore, they need to confront his “two Americas” routine squarely on the merits, arguing that his apparently sunny rhetoric posits a truly pessimistic “us-versus-them” view of America that is neither correct nor hopeful.
Remember who the (dwindling) ranks of undecided voters are. One group is a disproportionately male, rural and small-town vote that is somewhat pessimistic about the economy but is also rooting wholeheartedly for an American victory in Iraq and whose cultural views are mostly conservative. Another group is composed of mostly female, suburban voters who are also nervous about the economy but who are resting their financial futures – and their dreams of homeownership, a comfortable retirement, and college educations for their children – on growth in their 401-k’s, IRAs, and other investments. The first group won’t dig Edwards’ Massachusetts-like voting record on a number of issues. The latter group won’t like his, and Kerry’s, proposals to increase taxes and government regulations, thus crimping corporate profits and the economic recovery.
Stick to the issues, ladies and gentlemen of the Grand Old Party. You’ll feel better and you’ll do better.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.