Dems haven't ever been shy about campaigning in churches. The use of this kind of tactic has always been "on the political table" for dems. Even though he doesn't claim to be a particularly religious man, he......and all dem candidates.......use these events to bolster their standing among religious blacks. In fact it's so commonplace I'd be shocked if they didn't.
Does this make him a panderer to black "religious wackos?" Does it "motivate" them? Are they starting to resent it?
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Edwards courts big spenders, middle-class workers
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
DURHAM, N.C. — John Edwards spent his lunch hour Monday in the air conditioning of a hotel ballroom where more than 400 of his home state's supporters gave more than $1 million to hear him speak.
John Edwards jokes with sisters Billie, 7, Robin, 6, and Simona Jones, 8, at Durham mayor's house.
Sara Davis, Getty Images
Then it was on to the sweltering front porch of a suburban neighborhood where about 60 neighbors on folding chairs heard the Democratic vice presidential nominee speak on one of his political themes: "the squeeze that most working families are facing."
During his first week of solo campaigning since being named to the Democratic ticket, Edwards has been busy shuttling between the two Americas that he made the cornerstone of his presidential campaign.
One is the nation of middle-class workers whom the North Carolina senator vowed to champion during the presidential primaries. He's highlighted their concerns in visits to neighborhoods and a black church in Florida. But mostly, the Democratic vice presidential candidate has been carrying his message to what he calls the "other" America: people who have enough money to help bankroll political campaigns.
During the past week, Edwards has raised $4.25 million in coast-to-coast fundraisers. He'll be headlining at least four more before he heads to the Democratic convention to accept his party's nomination next week. Most of the money will go to the Democratic National Committee, which will use it to underwrite campaign efforts in states where the presidential race is expected to be close.
Edwards' itinerary has underscored the picture he drew of a nation divided by class. On Sunday, after swaying (ever-so-slightly) to the gospel music being played at St. Mark's AME Baptist Church in Orlando, a house of worship across the street from a bail bondsman's storefront, he sped across town for a fundraiser in Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
In Hollywood, Fla., he rubbed shoulders with donors at a beachfront hotel — then stopped to shake hands with the waiters and waitresses who kept his backers supplied with drinks and canapés.
Politically, Edwards is balancing two things: He's a multimillionaire lawyer with homes in Washington's tony Georgetown neighborhood and in a Raleigh, N.C., neighborhood called Country Club Hills, yet he's reaching out to working-class Americans who feel shoved aside by special interests.
Republicans are trying to portray Edwards, who amassed a fortune worth upward of $12 million from courtroom victories in class-action lawsuits, as a hypocrite who is trying to stir up class warfare and who is pandering to the interests of his fellow lawyers.
Edwards is sensitive about the accusations: Before he took questions from the people gathered around Durham Mayor Bill Bell's front porch, he responded to a speech that Vice President Cheney had delivered less than an hour before in Ohio.
Cheney said Edwards and Kerry aren't interested in limiting medical-malpractice costs, which are driving some doctors out of business. "He's dead wrong," Edwards said. "John Kerry and I have a very clear plan about how we keep cases that don't belong in the legal system out."
The Democrats' proposal calls for states to provide mediators to try to resolve malpractice disputes before they go to trial and would penalize plaintiffs and lawyers who bring frivolous claims. The plan would also limit punitive damages to cases in which doctors are found guilty of intentional misconduct, gross negligence or reckless endangerment of life.
Back in his home state for the second time since joining Kerry on the ticket, he received a warm welcome at his Durham fundraiser.
"This is North Carolina's chance! This is America's chance! This is humanity's chance," declared former North Carolina governor Jim Hunt as he introduced Edwards to a room packed with local business leaders and elected officials.
But he was also welcomed as a brother by the congregants of St. Marks, the black church he visited the day before.
Bishop McKinley Young introduced Edwards as "a senator who has a background similar to many of ours" and compared the vice presidential nominee's working-class background to his own. Both he and Edwards were the first in their families to go to college, Young said.
Edwards describes his rise from a mill town to millionaire as the epitome of the American dream. "I've had such extraordinary opportunities," he says. "I want to make sure that everybody gets the same kind of opportunities I had."
Asked at Monday's front porch event about the outsourcing of jobs to overseas factories and companies — a major concern in this area of high-tech businesses— Edwards portrayed President Bush as being out of touch with middle-class voters.
Some Bush administration officials have argued that the movement of jobs overseas benefits the U.S. economy by reducing costs of consumer goods. But Edwards denounced that reasoning.
"I don't know what planet these people are living on," he said. "But losing millions of jobs is not good for this country."
In his campaign appearances, Edwards talks less about himself than he does about his new running mate. He touts Kerry's service in the Vietnam War (skipping over the prominent role he played in the anti-war movement after his return), his long career in public service and the comeback he made in the Democratic primary campaign after appearing to have been bested by former Vermont governor Howard Dean.
"It wasn't too long ago that nobody thought anyone named John would be on the Democratic ticket," says Edwards, a line that always gets an appreciative laugh.
Edwards has been deployed to major metropolitan areas where he can maximize his fundraising.
But the candidate who has adopted John Mellencamp's song Small Town as his campaign theme song may make his biggest contribution in smaller, semi-rural communities like those that dot his home state.
Gene Conti, a party activist who attended Edwards' fundraiser in Durham, thinks the North Carolinian's presence on the ticket may give the Democrats a chance of taking the state. "It's an uphill battle," Conti said. "But we're competitive, that's for sure."
Pat McCrory, the Republican mayor of Charlotte, disputed that. In a statement issued by the Bush-Cheney campaign, he accused Edwards of neglecting the state as senator. "We have barely seen him at all in the past few years," McCrory said.
A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken last week after Edwards was added to the ticket showed Bush leading Kerry in North Carolina 54%-39% among likely voters.
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