On First Day of Classes, Edwards Speaks to Older Crowd
PAWLEY ISLAND, S.C. -- On the first day of classes for the spring semester, John Edwards spoke to a crowd of 200 people at Coastal Carolina University. However, not a single student could be seen in the room. In fact I may have been the yougest person in there.
Edwards devoted most of his stump speech to the environment and global warming issues, which is a bit odd given that he rarely steps away from his normal points of entrenched interests and corporate greed. Sweet Potato Lady was there, so she must have been very pleased with today's topic.
The highlight of the Q and A was when he was asked about why he doesn't get as much media exposure as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
"I've been trying that for a year and it hasn't worked yet," said an exasperated Edwards. "It's a tough challenge, you know."
He then pointed to the media. "There they are," he said. "Talk to them."
Edwards cited his second place finish in Iowa as an example of being able to beat out two candidates with "massive national media exposure."
"It is very hard to get through the noise and be heard," he said in stressing why grassroots efforts are key to his success from this point on. "We have to surprise somewhere, you know?"
Maybe Nevada is the place for that. After all, a new poll in the Reno Gazette-Journal shows Edwards in a close to dead heat with Obama and Clinton before Saturday's caucuses there.
"I just don't know which of these polls to believe given our experiences in Iowa and New Hampshire," said Edwards at a press conference at the Midway Fire Department, where he took pictures with firefighters across the parking lot from the event site.
"What I know is that we're very well organized. We got people there who know what they're doing that we've moved there from Iowa. And I think most importantly my message of standing up for the middle class against entrenched monied interests and fighting for the middle class is one that'll work."
Meantime, Edwards daughter Cate was involved in a minor car accident Friday night in North Carolina. She was not hurt.