John Edwards on the Campaign Trail
— -- ABCNEWS' Gloria Riviera is on the trail with North Carolina Sen. John Edwards as he makes his bid for the White House. For the latest report, scroll down.
Five Days to Change America
INDIANOLA, IOWA, Jan. 14 - Pulling up to the IPTV studio in Indianola, Iowa for a 6:30 pm interview with David Yepsen, a happenstance metaphor -- open to your interpretation -- presented itself in the parking lot. The Edwards' press pack, riding in a seven-seater rental Ford minivan strewn with coffee cups, discarded Mapquest directions and the mornings' papers devoured long ago, pulled in past the Dean campaign's charter bus. From Dean's much-more-than-seven seater (try, what, 40?) bus featuring TV screens every fourth isle or so (and a restroom!), a warm glow cast a shadow on the sidewalk that in and of itself dwarfed the red minivan.
And now some proposed interpretations for your consideration: A lifeboat in the shadow of the Titanic at the dawn of Iowa's final caucus hour? Or Tom Hank's Cast Away dinghy glumly watching a steamer ship slow down only to eventually pass it by?
On the eve of Edwards' "Five Days to Change America" tour back on the Real Solutions Express, the Edwards campaign would indeed promote the former. Tension is running a notch or two above normal as press inquires after crowd size, schedule planning, driving distance and filing provisions come on a just about minute-to-minute basis. And how best to evaluate the decisions a campaign makes in this scenario about where the Senator goes and whom he sees and what he says?
Iowa State Political Director Aaron Pickerel says each day is a constant, ongoing negotiation to determine which county has the right combination of media exposure and county chair confirmation to merit one more visit from the Senator in an effort to seal the deal in delegate support. The campaign does have a plan for the final days, but details are TBD. There are signs things remain in flux until the final hours. "Come prepared to spend the night," was one piece of advice the media got on tomorrow's trip to eastern Iowa.
From here on out there will be no new policy introduced. Events will be "all message," said Spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri. The campaign is highlighting the claim that the Kerry campaign will outspend Edwards in the state 4-1. And they readily point to the challenge Gephardt's labor support presents. Their best defense is a "ground game" that focuses, they say, on local to local - or "Iowan to Iowan" tactics and relies on a vein of grassroots, final hour momentum to deliver, fingers-crossed, a strong third. As for the hype over the last two days, it is a bit diluted. Not enough for Palmieri, however, who does not want to even think about expectations rising to the concept of a number three or even a - don't-say-it - number two finish. Outside the campaign bubble, the very idea of second place may still be considered outer orbit, but inside there is a distinct feel of overworked, tired and pale but altogether productive fire fueling the finish here in Iowa.
Get Yourself Some Lunch
Pickerel described a "moment" in Spencer, Iowa at the country library when a woman in the audience raised her hand to tell Edwards she had been a Republican, but no more. After seeing him appear in debates on television she switched her party affiliation in order to support him. Then she took a five dollar bill out of her pocket, her last few dollars before pay day, and told the Senator she wanted him to use it to buy himself, and his staff, lunch. Edwards walked over to her and gave her a hug, noting she would be a tough act to follow.
Edwards campaign buzzes over buzz
DENISON, IOWA, Jan. 12 — For the Edwards campaign, it was a day of campaign firsts. The first day each and every event was packed, the first just-about-but-not-quite semi-swipe (reporters would do best to make due with it and not hold their breath for anything more), the first time in a long time the names Bill Clinton and John Edwards were uttered in the same breath of comparison and not preceded or followed by the phrases "at one time" and "has so far failed to catch fire" and last but not least today was the very first day the press flew on the candidate's private charter plane.
Are these the concrete signs of momentum, or is it simply January in Iowa? The following facts are proposed for independent conclusions: Expect to see Edwards two most recent ads, "Better Life" and "Two Americas" re-cut and on the air to include a tag on the Des Moines Register endorsement. Next look for North Carolina Gov. Easley to campaign with Edwards on Thursday in Iowa. Perhaps more exciting for all those who remember with fondness bountiful provisions of micro-waved spring rolls and caramel corn, the Real Solutions Express will return to Iowa on Thursday to carry the Senator and his family into the final weekend before the Iowa caucuses.
On the events: venue and crowd size varied, and by now campaign staffers make folding chairs appear and disappear in the blink of an eye so press staff can give reporters "every seat was taken" read-outs. Edwards is sticking to his "I NEED YOU! JOIN ME IN THIS FIGHT, THIS CAUSE!" rhetoric, and was thrown by only one question throughout the whole day. It came from one 8-year-old Casey Young of Granger, IA. The young Young asked the young Edwards if he would consider a woman, young or old, on his VP ticket. Yes, Edwards told her. In fact (insert Edwards spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri's alert meter inching higher), Edwards said, there was more than one woman on a whole list of people he was actively considering. Probably a bit farther than he had to go on live television. Asked to expand later by ABC News, Palmieri said "knew this was going to come up" but had no further comment at that time.
Edwards juggles interviews, babies
MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 9 — Back in New Hampshire Thursday, where he will continue to campaign until Saturday afternoon, Sen. Edwards was among the first of the candidates to get on board one of ABC News' super-production buses. As it turns out, a mobile production facility allows the candidate to fit even more into his day than before!
At his morning event Edwards was flanked on either side by babies and toddlers squirming and gurgling in their mothers' arms. Seated in the living room of one Shailagh McGreevey, he talked about his proposals to help the middle class "get by and get ahead". More reporters than supporters were crammed into the house in an event designed entirely for the picture. Edwards, moms, dads and babies on one side -- elbow-to-elbow reporters on the other.
Suffice to say the tone is more subdued in New Hampshire than it was in Iowa. At the same time, at his evening event in Concord at Temple Beth Jacob Forum Edwards got his fair share of applause sharing the stage with Senator Lieberman and Congressman Kucinich. Edwards commentary overheard in the audience: "I like him, he's got good ideas." By the way, Edwards and Kucinich were quite chummy and leaned over to one other throughout the event to talk about...renewable energy?
At the end of the evening, Edwards held a quick press availability to respond to Dean's statements dating back to 1998 on Iowa caucus-goers being extremists. But by now his nice guy demeanor is well known, so hopes were not high for an explosive comment, despite Edwards' warm feeling for Iowans after his last swing. "I disagree with him. My own experience having met with caucus goers all over the state, these are very good people," Edwards said. "They have good sense and they are grounded and they play an important role in the democratic process."
Edwards shoots the bull and some pool
OTTUMWA, IOWA, Jan. 6 — "Watcha got?" asked John Edwards as he scanned the taps and swung a leg over the black vinyl barstool at the VFW Hall in Ottumwa, Iowa. "I'll take a Bud," he said as he took off his coat and settled between bar manager Lori Darren and Dennis Lord. "Budweiser!" Lord shouted to the rest of the bar, "A man after my own heart."
Precisely. Edwards wants each and every caucus goers' hearts to commit to his campaign on the spot and he has less than two weeks to get it done. "If I had time, I would reach out and grab every one of you in your chair right now," he told the hootin' and hollerin' crowd of over 125 in Ottumwa. Toward the end of the Q&A session, Edwards got a "gimme" question on healthcare. When the crowd heard his promise to provide veterans with the same coverage United States senators receive, he got fist-in-the-air pumps and high-fives in the audience. In fact, some people danced (albeit briefly) in the aisles when it was over.
The campaign calls the town "our kinda place" because it is filled with middle class Americans Edwards has based his platform on serving. As he walked into the Walter P. Schafer Pool Hall, past the wall-sized Bingo schedules where "Edwards 8:00p" was neatly entered in pencil for today, Lord took him aside. "I saw your commercial, my dad worked in a mill too," he told the Senator. Edwards' latest ad, "Milk," promises to "put the law back on the side of the American people" and is currently on the air in Ottumwa in addition to key markets like the Quad Cities, Des Moines and Mason and Sioux cities. "What kind of mill did your dad work in?" Lord asked. Edwards stopped to answer before letting a staffer move him along, "Cotton, a cotton mill." Over beers Lord draped his arm around the Senator and raised a glass to "El Presidente."
Over the course of the below freezing, six-event day that started in Mason City and wrapped up at the VFW bar in Ottumwa, Edwards told every audience that he has learned something about Iowans. "Boy, they are direct, so I want to be direct with you." And then the line that makes Press Secretary Jennifer Palmieri cringe. "People say to me, how old are you?" Edwards confesses. "I'm 50! I am 50-years-old." The VFW crowd loved it, although Palmieri's fear that it's all but certain to be a part of press coverage is certainly, er, justifiable. But Edwards believes in addressing concerns in his "closing argument" and he knows this is one of them. He got a huge round of applause, earning him a greenlight from Palmieri to loosen his tie and have a beer at the end of his long day.
The one and only noticeable moment of silence came when Edwards mentioned Senator Kerry in a simple, non-attack context. Whereas the VFW audience huffed and sighed at Dean's name, there was a reserved quiet (was it a don't-go-there-veterans'-respect?) for Kerry.
John Revolinksi was at an afternoon event in Cedar Rapids event and is leaning toward Kerry in part because he seems "presidential." "Edwards would be the dream vice president candidate," John said. "If he doesn't actually make it as the nominee they are going to be begging him to be the vice president." His wife Christina came because she knew enough about Kerry and Dean but wanted to find out more about John Edwards. She says people in her town are asking, "Who is John Edwards?" She left read to sign on to caucus for him. "I feel like he is just coming out into his own and we are just beginning to see him."
Tomorrow the Senator heads to South Carolina on a charter that leaves the press corps behind, commercially stranded in Des Moines and forced to skip ahead to New Hampshire.
Edwards shows confidence
DES MOINES, IOWA, Jan. 4 — Edwards made a brief, post-debate appearance in the spin room before practically running down a dark hallway, marching over four inches of new snow and hopping into a white rental van to head down the Iowa highway.
Back in the Senator's empty dressing room, some inner-circle Edwards' campaign staffers expressed their sense of deja-vu. For a brief moment at the top of the debate the son of a mill worker and the son of a milkman got into it over NAFTA, and the John Edwards on stage was the John Edwards they signed their lives away life to get elected. A voice of a certain confidence and even, conceivably, presidential. A voice in many ways not heard since Edwards took on Dean over the Confederate flag center stage at the Rock the Vote debate in Boston back in early November.
As the clock ticks toward Jan. 19 the campaign hopes the oh-so valuable "Undecideds" -- caucus voters who say they are considering Edwards and one or two others -- were listening Sunday night. For Edwards in Iowa, Undecideds will decide what kind of momentum he has going into the New Hampshire primary. From there, Edwards will stage his first possible win in his birth state of South Carolina on Feb. 3 as either an up-and-comer or a come from nowhere kind of candidate.
Edwards started 2004 in New Hampshire with a heavily promoted speech delivered Saturday in Nashua on the steps of City Hall, the exact spot where JFK made his first state campaign stop almost 25 years ago. On that gray, drizzly day Edwards attracted a crowd of about 125 (counting staffers, volunteers, supporters and reporters), whereas his Iowa crowds just after the Christmas holiday were reportedly the largest yet at 200 plus, the majority of which were supporters.
In the new speech, which has replaced the script he has been following since September, Edwards tells voters he is over the "pretty talk" and "fluff" and wants to directly address concerns over his age, "I am 50 years old, I want you to know." He also positively promotes his life as a Washington outsider. This last point he hopes will set him apart from the other candidates. And it all hinges on the crux of his "closing argument." Edwards tells voters he is not naive enough to think he can change America alone. "I am here to ask you to help yourself," he tells crowds. "If we have a president who believes in you, together we can change this country."
