Edwards ad touts him as people's champion
— -- Consistent with his populist message, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards blasts business-as-usual in Washington in a TV ad airing in New Hampshire. Edwards, who trails Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in New Hampshire polls, portrays himself as a champion of ordinary people. With few sharp policy differences among the Democratic candidates, Edwards is focusing on who can achieve change, rather than what the change would be. Watch this and other Edwards videos at http://youtube.com/johnedwards.
The script
Edwards:"This system is corrupt. And it's rigged. And it's rigged against you."
Narrator:"Finally, someone telling the truth."
Edwards:"And we can say as long as we get Democrats in, everything's gonna be OK. It's a lie. It is not the truth.
"Do you really believe if we replace a crowd of corporate Republicans with a crowd of corporate Democrats that anything meaningful's gonna change?
"This has to stop. It's that simple."
The images
The 30-second ad shows Edwards speaking with a handheld microphone, apparently at a campaign event. He's wearing a suit jacket and white shirt but no tie. The red-and-white striped background appears to be a very large American flag. As the narrator speaks, the words "John Edwards" appear in white on a black background. It cuts back to Edwards continuing to talk while walking back and forth, and then a shot of people wearing his campaign stickers listening to him. The spot ends with the sound of applause.
The analysis
For months, Edwards has been trying to portray Clinton as the candidate of the status quo. Although he doesn't mention her name, she's the target of this ad. "Corporate Democrats" is Edwards' code for Clinton accepting donations from federal lobbyists, which Edwards does not. (Nor does Obama.) Edwards' campaign has returned donations from federally registered lobbyists. However, he accepts donations from state-level lobbyists and from groups that hire lobbyists, such as plaintiffs' attorneys.
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