WHO IS JOHN EDWARDS?
An Unaccomplished Liberal In Moderate Clothing And A Friend To His Fellow Personal Injury Trial Lawyers.
Edwards has become a captive of the trial lawyers and the left-wing special interests in Washington. He has lost touch with the average American. Clearly, he is not ready for 'prime time.'" (Marc Rotterman, "Way Out Of Touch," The [Raleigh] News And Observer, December 8, 2002)
THE FACTS ABOUT SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC)
EDWARDS IS UNACCOMPLISHED AND "NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME"
• Short Of His Work To Protect The Interests Of Personal Injury Trial Lawyers, Edwards' Four-Year Record Is Devoid Of Accomplishment And Leadership.
• After Edwards' Lackluster Performance In May On NBC's "Meet The Press," Many Democrats Felt That He "May Not Be Ready For Prime-Time." (CNN's "Inside Politics," May 8, 2002)
• A Recent Research 2000 Poll Revealed That Edwards Would Lose North Carolina By 17 Points In A Hypothetical Presidential Matchup With President Bush. (Research 2000, Press Release, July 16, 2002)
EDWARDS ISN'T JUST BEHOLDEN TO PERSONAL INJURY
TRIAL LAWYERS, HE IS ONE HIMSELF
• More Than 4 Of Every 5 Dollars Raised By Edwards For His Hard Money PAC, New American Optimists, Have Come From Personal Injury Trial Lawyers.
• Nearly Every Penny Donated To Edwards' Soft Money PAC Since Early 2001 Has Come From Personal Injury Trial Lawyers. (Jim VandeHei, "Trial Lawyers Fund Edwards," The Washington Post, September 3, 2002)
• Edwards Consistently Caters To Personal Injury Trial Lawyer Interests By Fighting Tort Reform And Facilitating The Initiation Of Lucrative Lawsuits Against American Companies. (Editorial, "Tort Terrorism," Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2002)
EDWARDS PROFESSES TO BE A SOUTHERN MODERATE, BUT
VOTES LIKE A NORTHEASTERN LIBERAL
• Edwards Voted Against President Bush's Bipartisan Tax Relief Package.
• Edwards Voted Against A Ban On Partial-Birth Abortions.
• From 1999-2002, Edwards Voted With Senator Ted Kennedy 90% Of The Time And Senator Hillary Clinton 89% Of The Time. (CQ Vote Comparison, CQ Online Website, www.oncongresscq.com, 106th and 107th Congresses)
• In An Interview With Robert Novak For The American Spectator, Edwards Even Claimed That He Could Not Recall A Single Conservative Position He Has Taken While In Congress. (John McCaslin, "Dependably Liberal," The Washington Times, October 15, 2002)
EDWARDS IN DEPTH
SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS: UNACCOMPLISHED
AND NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME
Edwards Lacks The Accomplishments And Demonstrated
Leadership Needed To Be President
In June Of 2001, The Washington Post Highlighted Edwards' Lack Of Accomplishment In The Senate. "[Edwards'] role in the legislative battle of HMO regulation gives him something he badly needed, which was an opportunity to grab hold of a big issue and develop a record in the Senate, a crucial building block for someone who showed great promise but not many accomplishments during his first two years." (Dan Balz, "The Rights Time, The Rights Place," The Washington Post, June 30, 2001)
Roll Call's Stuart Rothenberg Claimed That Edwards Needs To Display Leadership Ability And Not Just Talk About It. "After watching Edwards, I learned that the United States needs to 'show leadership' in the war against Afghanistan. I know it, because Edwards repeated that mantra as if it had been programmed into his brain. Voters clearly want 'leadership' from their leaders, but repeating a phrase like a trained parakeet does not make someone a leader. . . . Edwards is right, of course, that voters want to elect someone as president who displays leadership qualities. But that means Edwards needs to display leadership ability, both in the Senate and by proposing ideas and grappling with tough choices, not by regurgitating some phrase that Bob Shrum probably told him to use." (Stuart Rothenberg, "Golden Boy Edwards Needs to Do More Than Promise To Lead," Roll Call, May 9, 2002)
Political Strategist Ed Rogers Discredited Edwards' Leadership Abilities. "[A]n accomplished figure who has been well regarded within his party, and has been acknowledged by his peers to be a leader. John Edwards is none of that." (CNN's "Crossfire," January 2, 2003)
One Of Edwards' Constituents Criticized The Senator For Having No Accomplishments. "We have one liberal, Sen. John Edwards, who extols his own accomplishments, even though he has none except for being a multi-millionaire ambulance chaser. Edwards says he's a small-town man from North Carolina who relates to the little people. Hogwash." (Tom Freeman, Letter To The Editor, "Public Schools Weakened By Democratic-Supported Unions," The Asheville Citizen-Times, November 18, 2002)
In Late 2002, Cox News Service Noted The Lack Of Major Legislative Accomplishments During Edwards' Four-Year Senate Tenure. "The freshest of the fresh faces is Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, a 44-year-old former trial lawyer who has been dubbed 'the next Bill Clinton' by The New Yorker and 'a perfect politician' by Vanity Fair. But Edwards is up for reelection to the Senate in 2004, and may have to decide between a Senate or White House run. Republicans back home aren't likely to want to let him do both. Edwards is sponsor of a Patients Bill of Rights bill in the Senate, but has no major legislative accomplishments thus far." (Scott Shepard, "Democrats Face Major Obstacles In Trying To Regroup After 2002 Election Disaster," Cox News Service, November 8, 2002)
• Even Edwards' Most Notable Legislative Efforts Have Done Little But Protect The Financial Interests Of Personal Injury Trial Lawyers. "A lot of this debate [over the Patients' Bill Of Rights] now centers around that, caps on liabilities, limiting liabilities. Part of the problem there is that John Edwardsand others don't want any capson liabilities." (Congressman Charlie Norwood, NBC's "Meet The Press," August 5, 2001)
Ralph Nader Criticized Edwards' Lack Of Legislative Accomplishment. "John Edwards was a very good trial lawyer and talks populism in a fresh though not very specific way. . . . But has he introduced or supported fundamental reform legislation on health care, labor rights, consumer protection, military-budget reform, corporate crime (one of his specialties as a tort lawyer bloated corporate welfare hundreds of billions of dollars), access to government by ordinary citizens? No, instead he has been very cautious letting his new style and fresh looks lead the way rather than what he could have done, proposed and articulated for a deeper democracy." (James Fallows and Ralph Nader, "Who's An Anti-Semite?" Slate Magazine, April 30, 2002)
In March Of 2001, The [Wilmington] Morning Star Criticized Edwards' Weak Record. "Our junior senator is smart, charming, a smooth talker, nice looking, and a progressive Southern Democrat. And did we mention smart? But his only experience in politics is two years in the U.S. Senate. He's built a solid record on TV talk shows, but not a solid record of legislative accomplishment - yet." (Editorial, "Let Sen. Edwards Learn His Trade," The [Wilmington] Morning Star, March 7, 2001)
Many Feel Edwards Is Simply Not Ready To Run For President
Political Columnist Robert Novak Noted That Many Democrats Were "Appalled" By Edwards' May Performance On NBC's "Meet The Press." "The same Democrats who had been enchanted by Edwards were appalled. But even with a firmer grip on issues, the first-term senator faces an uphill climb. John Zogby's poll of Democratic voters shows Edwards eighth out of eight hopefuls with 1 percent, well behind Gore in first place with 46 percent." (Robert Novak, "Who'll Stop Gore In '04?" Chicago Sun-Times, May 9, 2002)
Edwards Is "Getting A Little Above His Rais'n'" With His Presidential Run. "My first instinct is to ask, isn't Edwards getting a little above his rais'n'?" (Rob Christensen, "Edwards' Rapid Rise," The [Raleigh] News And Observer, May 12, 2002)
Political Commentator Charles Cook Questioned Whether Edwards "Is Ready For The Big Stage." "Edwards, a former trial lawyer who specialized in suing on behalf of injured children, can expect to raise enormous amounts of money from trial lawyers around the country and among party activists seeking a younger and fresher face compared to the balance of the field. The key question is whether he is ready for the big stage." (Charles E. Cook, "Ladies And Gentlemen, Start Your Engines," The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2002)
CNN's Robert Novak Said That Edwards' May Performance On NBC's "Meet The Press" Revealed That He "May Not Be Ready For Prime-Time." "John Edwards of North Carolina, Judy, has been the flavor of the week for several weeks as the coming guy for the Democratic presidential nomination. He's good looking, articulate. He's new. But he really may not be ready for prime-time, because our old friend Tim Russert really led him down a lot [of] cul-de-sacs on tough questioning. Senator Edwards is kind of used to the provincial questioning he gets on the campaign circuit, stumbled on a lot of things. For example, he said he thought that the Taliban were coming back in Afghanistan, but he was against U.S. troops. He was against tax cuts, but he didn't want to go with Teddy Kennedy -- a very confused performance. That's just not me saying that. I have talked to a lot of Democrats, very disappointed. They still think Edwards is a real comer, but he has got to really work on his answers when he gets into the political big-time." (CNN's "Inside Politics," May 8, 2002)
Roll Call's Stuart Rothenberg Argued That Edwards' May Performance On NBC's "Meet The Press" Illustrated That He Has "A Long Way To Go" To Win The 2004 Democrat Nomination. "Everybody seems to be talking about Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) these days. The hotshot magazines are all writing about him, and he isn't having any problems getting face time on television. But if the freshman North Carolina Senator really wants to emerge as his party's nominee in 2004, he needs to acknowledge the obvious: His appearance on NBC News' 'Meet the Press' last weekend showed that he has a long way to go to beat out House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (Mo.), Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) and former Vice President Al Gore for the Democratic nomination." (Stuart Rothenberg, "Golden Boy Edwards Needs To Do More Than Promise To Lead," Roll Call, May 9, 2002)
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