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What if John Edwards had won the Democratic nomination? What if he were president?
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Candidate
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| Contributor | kal |
| Last Edited | kal Aug 17, 2009 07:22am |
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| Category | Speculative |
| News Date | Monday, August 17, 2009 01:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The National Enquirer is reporting what everyone already knew—that John Edwards is in fact the father of Rielle Hunter's child—and a North Carolina TV station says he may admit paternity. This news has been met largely with shrugs. Edwards is not only a failed candidate, he is a failed politician, with next to no influence among Democrats.
Still, the news raises two tantalizing hypothetical questions: What if Edwards had won the Democratic nomination? What if he had won the presidency?
First question first. It's easy to forget how close John Edwards came to being the Democratic nominee. When Edwards entered the presidential race in December 2006, many people saw him as the Democrats' best hope. Unlike Obama, he had legislative experience. Unlike Hillary, he'd spent two years touring Iowa and beefing up his populist credentials. And no one blamed him for Kerry's loss in 2004. He was smart, good-looking, and Southern—just like every Democratic president since Johnson.
So what would the primary have looked like? Let's pretend, since we're making all this up anyway, that Obama had decided not to enter the race—he had heeded the "wait your turn" argument many Democrats were making. Edwards would likely have sucked up all the energy and talent that instead ended up joining Obama. David Axelrod had worked for Edwards in 2004, and David Plouffe had worked for Axelrod. (Axelrod had also worked with Hillary on epilepsy advocacy but never as a candidate.) Edwards' themes might even have been "Hope" and "Change." Meanwhile, the big endorsements for Obama—Ted Kennedy, Bill Richardson, not to mention major unions like the SEIU and Teamsters—would likely have gone to the relatively progressive Edwards. Edwards' fundraising might not have matched the Obama machine, but he certainly would have been able to harness the power of small donations over the Web to match or out-raise Hillary.
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