Here we go again. In no way did I solicit this affirmation; I just picked up my ringing phone today and the city editor of the paper in Michigan City, Indiana, told me that he had just written a column telling a tale similar to my own. And I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, and I have never met nor worked with Mr. Rick Richards before today.
Here’s the link to his column, and here’s an excerpt:
Edwards Avoids Average Folks Here
Rick Richards
City Editor, The News-Dispatch
I’m not sure what to think of John Edwards, but I know what my grandfather would have thought: To hell with him.
My grandfather was a died-in-the-wool Democrat. When the Great Depression hit, he left West Virginia because he couldn’t get a job in the coal mines, and headed for the small east central Indiana town of Dunkirk, where he found work at the Indiana Glass factory. He didn’t have much of a formal education, but what he knew about glass making machinery would fill textbooks….
My grandfather believed — as I do — that politics is personal. No, not in a get even personal (as too many in politics believe today), but personal in that candidates shouldn’t be afraid to get their hands dirty by shaking a few that are covered in grease….
My grandfather didn’t have a degree in political science but he knew a phony when he saw one and I’m sure that if he saw John Edwards, he’d vote for someone else.
Why?
Because John Edwards thumbed his nose at Michigan City. Sure he was here, but those of us who work for a living didn’t have a clue. Edwards only had enough time (and he showed up an hour late at that) to talk with about 150 local residents, but only if their pockets were deep enough to hold a big wad of cash or if they were politically connected. And if the rank and file couldn’t be there, then he surely could have spent a few minutes with someone from the newspaper to get his message out to the local voters here.
Alas, there were no grease-stained – or ink-stained – wretches to mingle with. This was strictly a wine and caviar crowd – most of them physicians – who don’t have to worry about paying their kids’ college tuition, their hospital bills or their mortgage payments….
What can Edwards defenders say to this? Well, suppose they could say that here’s a journalist who felt stiffed personally, so consider the source. In fact, I’m sure they will, because they said the same about me, even though my own story was that he kow-towed to me and my fellow board members, but jilted the folks downstairs. Now it appears that if you are a newspaperman who doesn’t hold in his hands a needed endorsement, you, too will be out in the cold.
But hey, candidates can’t be all things to all people, any more than you or I can. And there’s something about this latest tale that sounds an awful lot like the one I drew your attention to yesterday regarding Barack Obama, and I don’t blame Sen. Obama for that. See 12 people, and 100 will feel neglected. See 100, and 1,200 will gripe. That’s life.
Still — Sen. Edwards has a track record that goes beyond that fact of life. Time and time again, he has blithely brushed off those who are not sufficiently important to him. He does it to an extent that he stands out in this regard among the thousands of politicians I’ve observed closely in my career. And his populist stance imbues that fact with meaning.
What’s the word? Well, I won’t say it again. But Mr. Richards’ grandfather knew one when he saw one.
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John Edwards worked at Fortress Investments FOR A FEW MONTHS!!! For idiots in the media to act like John Edwards should be blamed for EVERYTHING THAT FORTRESS HAS EVER DONE is just plain stupid! John Edwards gave Fortress stipulations when he started working for them, that he didn’t want his money invested in any subprimes or things like that, and he says that he didn’t know that they had done that. On top of that, last week Fortress ended it’s suprime connections. Still, John Edwards did not “RUN” Fortress Investment group. He worked part-time for the firm for a few months. Any journalist who tries to blame John Edwards for everything that Fortress has ever done is a SMEAR MERCHANT.
You have a folksy, B.S., phony way of attacking John Edwards, and the shame of dragging in your diseased grandfather to make your lame point is, well, as my dead grandfather would say, “a piece of work.”
So it’s OK for Obama but it’s not for Edwards.
And, yes, I know there are other observations that pile on where Edwards is concerned, but it still seems partisan to me.
From my point of view, though, neither is qualified to be president, so what the hey.
Actually, what I said was that this latest anecdote alone would not mean that much to me, any more than the one anecdote about Obama does.
But if Obama had the track record Edwards that I’ve both witnessed and heard about, it might mean something — or at least SEEM to mean something, which might not be fair at all.