Edwards brings Dems strategic appeal

RALEIGH -- Beaming with wishful grins as bright as the sweltering North Carolina sun, Senators John Kerry and John Edwards looked down on about 15,000 supporters at a July 10 rally, giving the thumbs-up on stage at North Carolina State University in a state that gave Al Gore and Joe Lieberman a big thumbs-down in 2000. The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate removed his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and told his brand-new running mate to do the same. Then Kerry set the homecoming king to work.

"When we bring friends back to North Carolina to see our friends, to see our families, when we introduce them, we always say, 'He's with me,'" said Edwards, the first-term North Carolina senator and a graduate of N.C. State. "I came here to tell you that this man right here: I am with him."

Closing out a whirlwind tour of potential swing states four days after Kerry named him to the ticket, Edwards went on to introduce the Massachusetts senator to his legion of local supporters with his characteristic charm. Kerry, he said, shared four "state values:" faith, family, opportunity and a commitment to Edwards' populist theme of a socially unified America.

Michael Munger, chair of political science, said what he called perhaps "the most liberal ticket in 50 years" would not win the state or take the South, but he said Edwards' Southern-ness would force incumbent President George W. Bush to "spread out his defense."

"We are going to see George Bush paying good money to spend for campaign ads in North Carolina," he said. "A lot of times in North Carolina you wouldn't even know there was a presidential race--it's a wasteland with tumbleweeds blowing through it. There will be a race this year, and George Bush will win it, but the point is there'll be a fight, and it's because of John Edwards."

Kerry is already attempting to sneak around the perception that he is a Northeastern liberal in a state that Bush took by 13 percent four years ago and a Republican presidential nominee has now put in the red column six times in a row. He addressed the key economic and social issues first in line for the North Carolina battleground, addressing specifically the federal buyout of tobacco growers' quota system, education policy, health insurance, the military and alternative energy sources.

"It's not the forced values that divide, it's the shared values that unite," Kerry said, tying himself to Edwards' optimistic appeal and implying that the issues uniting Bush's base are partisan.

Bush created a small fire of his own just three days earlier at a press conference at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. When asked what advantages his running mate offered in comparison to Edwards, Bush replied: "Dick Cheney can be president. Next."

Kerry defended his choice at the N.C. State rally, saying Edwards has "more experience than the president we have today and better judgment." The statement furthered back-and-forth chatter from advisors, analysts and the two presidential candidates themselves about Edwards' role in buoying the South and shifting the heartland for Kerry.

John Aldrich, professor of political science, said Edwards might do more campaigning in North Carolina than Kerry in order to avoid an "old, Jesse Helms-style attack on Massachusetts liberal Democrats" from the right. He also may help Democratic candidate Erskine Bowles gain his seat in the Senate and incumbent Governor Mike Easley to keep his.

But even with the burgeoning economic prosperity and increasingly diverse racial makeup in North Carolina and the New South, that old conservatism may be too much to overcome. "I would be surprised if come this time October that the polls would be close here, unless it's a Kerry-Edwards runaway," Aldrich said.

While both camps quickly released a string of new television advertisements in North Carolina, Edwards was dispatched to the Midwest, where his rags-to-riches personal history plays into an opportunistic message that brought him recognition--and often great success--while campaigning in swing states like Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin during the presidential primaries earlier this year.

Munger calculated that if the Kerry-Edwards ticket breaks even in those undecided parts of the country and takes Florida and just one other Southern state, the Democrats could win the strategic fight for the White House.

Kerry is banking on those swing votes, but also on his vocal supporters wherever he can find them.

"We're the can-do people," he told the mostly Democratic crowd at the rally. "It's all on the table. It's all up for grabs."