The Hunk With Spunk

In her latest Political Points commentary, CBS News Senior Political Editor Dotty Lynch takes a look at a possible contender for the 2004 Democratic Presidential race.

Deemed the "hunk with spunk" by Carleton College's Steven Schier, John Edwards, 48, is wowing Washington and the political chattering class. More importantly, perhaps, he’s hot in New York, particularly with the liberal money crowd. The most extensive profile of Edwards to date has come, not from the "Washington Post", but from New York Magazine, which devoted 10 pages to Edwards in its May 28 issue. Pros call the money chase the "first primary," and the buzz around Edwards has piqued the curiosity of Democratic high rollers who are looking for a "fresh face."

Timing is on Edwards’ side right now because an issue which was the centerpiece of his 1998 Senate campaign — a Patients' Bill of Rights — is on the floor of the Senate and Edwards is front and center of that debate. He won the admiration and trust of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and Arizona’s Senator John McCain, who have brought him into the ranks on this bill and Edwards is in the enviable position of introducing himself to the general public on an issue which is wildly popular (90% support at least some type of legislation regulating HMOs according to this week’s CBS/New York Times poll.)

Edwards burst onto the national scene last summer when he suddenly turned up on "short list" of people Al Gore was considering for VP. This was quite a coup for a freshman Senator with no prior political office. So new to the scene was he, that one of the others on the list asked "who exactly he was" when read names the campaign had leaked. Edwards' fast rise last year was due mainly to the fact that he had captured the imagination of his political consultants (namely Harrison Hickman and Bob Shrum) from the '98 campaign who just happened to be working for Gore in 2000. They saw Edwards as the perfect vehicle to give the Gore campaign the populist touch which didn’t come naturally to Prince Albert.

Gore chose Joe Lieberman instead but Edwards' star has continued to rise and he's gone from long shot VP in 2000 to one of the five or six serious possibilities for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. He has already visited Iowa and gotten good reviews from The Des Moines Register political guru David Yepsen, who compared him to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and is one of the possibles for the big October political dinner in New Hampshire. He and his wife, also a lawyer who just had her fourth baby at the age of 50, are on the "A" list in Washington and offered their home for a big fundrising dinner for the bi-partisan "Woman’s Campaign Fund" in May. Fellow Democratic senators say he is one of the most persuasive members in their caucus.

Bush press secretary Ari Fleisher scoffed when Edwards' name was raised last year for Veep. "Bring us the ambulance chaser," he said. Republicans were aghast that Democrats would even think of running a rich trial lawyer, (a term they say in the tone of voice once reserved for "pinko Commie") but Edwards and his fans brush off the negative connotations and fantasize instead about John Travolta in "A Civil Action" and Albert Finney in "Erin Brockovich."

In fact, Republicans are wary of a Southerner as the Democratic nominee. One Bush strategist suggested last February that that the 2004 campaign would be a replay of 2000 "unless John Edwards headed the ticket." That would put states like North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia and Louisiana in play and force Bush to compete in the South as well as in the heartland. Edwards is trying to position himself as more of a populist than a liberal but he racked up an 85 percent score from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action in the 2000 Congress and is now joined at the hip with Ted Kennedy on his first big piece of legislation.

This splash may fizzle but as the Democratic field for 2004 starts to take shape Edwards is again on the short list. And Edwards is open about his interest — as he is about most things. He is less slick in person than he sometimes appears on TV. In fact, he comes off as uncalculating and even a bit simple. He doesn’t seem to have much of a world view or have a lot to say about foreign policy. But he is on the Senate Intelligence committee and says he’s become intrigued by issues of global terrorism and counter terrorism.

So as Al Gore continues to contemplate the ozone layer, and Gephardt and Biden are picking up the pieces of their '88 campaigns, some veterans are starting to compare Edwards to JFK. But Edwards, himself, may have a different role model. He was only 7 years old when Kennedy overthrew the old guard in 1960.

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