South Carolina: No Haven for Edwards

Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 By JAY NEWTON-SMALL/DARLINGTON

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards addresses students at Darlington High School on topics of education, Iraq and energy policy on Thursday, October 11, 2007, in Darlington, South Carolina.

"It's a long way from that little house in Seneca, South Carolina, to here tonight," former Senator John Edwards yelled over a crowd of supporters in Columbia, South Carolina in 2004 after winning that state's primary by more than 15 percentage points. "Tonight you said that the politics of lifting people up beats the politics of tearing people down."
It turned out to be the only primary that Edwards won, but it was on the strength of that impressive victory that he became the vice presidential nominee. His sweeping triumph was due not only to the fact that the former North Carolina Senator was a native of the South, but because he'd garnered surprisingly strong showings in the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.
Last Thursday found John Edwards back in South Carolina, campaigning in its low country, where sharecroppers still grow the cotton that was once processed in his father's mill. Three and a half years later his message is strikingly similar, that "this is a guy who comes from us, who understands our lives and who will do absolutely everything in his power to make our lives better," Edwards told TIME in an interview.
That 2004 victory, coupled with South Carolina's decision to move its primary to even earlier this election cycle, gave Edwards every reason to believe that the state could jump-start his candidacy in 2008. Instead, just as he is doing in national polls this time around, Edwards is running a distant third behind rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in South Carolina. Clinton, a New York Senator, is up seven percentage points from May to 41% of the vote, according to an American Research Group survey of 600 likely South Carolina voters late last month. Obama, a Senator from Illinois, is also up 12 percentage points from May to 30%. Edwards, meanwhile, is down a whopping 23 percentage points from 30% in May to just 7%. The news is worse when you look at African Americans, who make up nearly half of South Carolina's Democratic primary voters. A Winthrop/ETV poll of black South Carolinians last month found Obama in the lead with 35% of the vote, followed closely by Clinton with 31%. Edwards barely registered with just 3% of blacks saying they planned on voting for him.
Six months ago, when I asked South Carolina Democratic kingmaker Congressman Jim Clyburn who is the favorite to win his home state, he told me Edwards, as the incumbent, was the man to beat. Last week, when I asked him the same question, Clyburn, who is not endorsing any candidate, was a little less sure. "South Carolina could conceivably serve as a firewall for Edwards," Clyburn said. But South Carolina voters want viability: if candidates do well in the first three states they are more likely to do well in the Palmetto State, Clyburn said. In 2004 Edwards "got big headlines coming out of Iowa and that worked well for him in South Carolina. But ya'll got to do the same thing again. If he were to finish out of the top three in Iowa then I think he's finished."
Unfortunately for Edwards, his standing in Iowa and New Hampshire is no better than in his home turf, and his fund-raising woes show through. On the ground in South Carolina he has just one office, with plans to open a second one soon, said Teresa Wells, an Edwards spokeswoman. He has 20 staff members, though Wells declined to say if they are paid or unpaid. Clinton, who also only has one office, has three dozen staffers and has already rolled out radio advertising. Obama has the largest operation in the state with seven offices, more than 30 paid staffers and a slew of radio ads already on the airwaves. Edwards has tried to make up for that deficit by spending more actual time in South Carolina — he's made 15 trips since announcing his candidacy in December, compared with seven by Clinton and nine by Obama. And when he's here, he never fails to remind voters that he's a local. "I am not better than you," Edwards told several hundred students at Darlington High.

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Proud Supporter Of: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

John Edwards is a pretty boy/rich boy taking OUR money to run his idiotic campaign. I cannot stand that dude.

His MANSION:

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Its a rough up hill battle when even your own can tell you are full of crap. Too bad their sense of judgment has left them high and dry when it comes to Hillary.

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What political candidate IS NOT rich?

The bush family is worth a few billion.

I doubt mr edwards is even close.