John Edwards on Caucus Day: A Courtroom Voice

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: John Edwards
A Courtroom Voice
By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: January 3, 2008

ATLANTIC, Iowa

John Edwards honed his speaking style over 20 years as a trial lawyer in small courtrooms in North Carolina, and on the final day of campaigning before the Iowa caucuses, he put those skills to work once again in the small, intimate places where he has most captivated audiences as a campaigner.

It was Mr. Edwards the trial lawyer — not the former senator from North Carolina — who arrived on the campaign trail on Wednesday. Beginning at midnight Tuesday, in an all-night-and-day campaign swing, Mr. Edwards spent much of his grueling final push in jam-packed living rooms, coffeeshops and tiny campaign field offices, appearing easy and assured in front of groups as small as 50, locking eyes with supporters clustered around kitchen tables and imploring them to caucus for him on Thursday.

They were the perfect backdrop for Mr. Edwards to display what he has learned since 2004, the last time he shot for a victory in Iowa and came in a surprising second. On the stump, he has become more confident, his anecdotes have become tighter and sharper and his tone more fiery and pugnacious. And to great effect on the campaign trail, Mr. Edwards’s long-ago courtroom voice has found a match in his reliance on stories from his hardscrabble upbringing and his newfound populist message....

If Mr. Edwards was feeling pressure in the final hours, from polls that show him in a three-way race or trailing Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, he did not show it as he raced from event to event, 16 in a row, in 36 hours.

“That’s what this election is about. It’s about us meeting our moral responsibility to our children and our grandchildren and future generations. ... If you look at what’s happening in America today, corporate greed is in many ways severely damaging the middle class, costing us jobs. ... Why do we have trade laws like Nafta and Cafta, which cost America millions of jobs? Well, the answer is, for the glorification of corporate profit. That’s why.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/us/politics/03edwards.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1199376326-wSPRGVTYvbq2J0I2oZaQBg

[Little Star]

1. Dear NY T's, Bout time!!!! n/t

[Flabbergasted]

2. Go Ed