From The Globe and Mail: Kerry opts for Edwards

Kerry opts for Edwards
Associated Press

Washington — U.S. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry selected former rival John Edwards to be his running mate, telling supporters Tuesday that he can’t wait to see the freshman North Carolina senator going “toe-to-toe with Dick Cheney.”

“In the next 120 days and in the administration that follows, John Edwards and I will be fighting for the America we love,” Mr. Kerry said in an e-mail to supporters obtained by Associated Press. “We’ll be fighting to give the middle class a voice by providing good paying jobs and affordable health care. We’ll be fighting to make America energy independent. We’ll be fighting to build a strong military and lead strong alliances, so young Americans are never put in harm’s way because we insisted on going it alone.”

In selecting Mr. Edwards, Mr. Kerry rejected more seasoned politicians in hopes of injecting vigour and small-town appeal to the Democratic presidential ticket.

He offered Mr. Edwards the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket in a telephone call Tuesday morning, and the North Carolina senator accepted, said two senior Democrats familiar with the conversation.

Mr. Edwards was at his home in Georgetown when Kerry called, readying his two young children for summer camp. Mr. Kerry called from his Pittsburgh home.

He planned to announce his pick at a rally in Pittsburgh. Mr. Edwards will not be at the rally. Obsessed with secrecy, Mr. Kerry kept his decision to himself until the last possible minute, giving Edwards no time to get to Pittsburgh in time.

The newly minted ticket will meet up later Tuesday and begin a multistate tour, ending in Mr. Edwards’s home state.

They will be nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, which begins July 26.

Mr. Kerry’s decision ended a search that began with about 25 candidates and a mandate to find a political soul mate who could “be ready at any moment” to assume the presidency. Kerry advisers said their boss had also signalled his interest in Representative Dick Gephardt of Missouri, Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Senator Bob Graham of Florida, retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

Mr. Edwards was the last major candidate standing against Mr. Kerry in the Democratic presidential race. He emerged as a favourite second choice of Democratic voters, thanks to his youthful good looks, a self-assured manner and an upbeat, optimistic style. He saved his harshest criticism for U.S. President George W. Bush, whom he accused of creating “two Americas” — one for the privileged, another for everyone else.

Some Democrats were concerned that Mr. Edwards, whose only political credential was a single term in the Senate, lacked the experience in international affairs, particularly in wartime, to be a credible candidate to assume the presidency in the case of death, resignation or removal.

Indeed, Mr. Kerry privately complained to associates during the campaign that Mr. Edwards had not served long enough in the Senate — or politics for that matter — to deserve a shot at the presidency. Aides said he was won over by his private meetings with Mr. Edwards, his performance as a campaign surrogate since the primary fight ended and pressure from Democratic leaders who pushed Mr. Edwards as a vice-presidential pick.

Mr. Edwards seldom criticized Mr. Kerry or any of the other Democrats while running a generally positive campaign. The two had few major policy disagreements — both supported the decision to go to war in Iraq, for example, and both voted against the $87-billion package for Iraq and Afghanistan.

One division was over the North American Free Trade Agreement: Mr. Kerry voted for it, but Mr. Edwards campaigned against NAFTA, which the Senate approved before he was elected. Mr. Edwards made trade, jobs and the economy the centrepiece of his campaign, questioning Mr. Kerry’s vote on NAFTA but not pledging to seek its repeal.

They also differed in some ways on how to approach some issues. Both called for rolling back the Bush tax cuts, but Mr. Kerry proposed eliminating the tax cuts for those who make more than $200,000 a year while Mr. Edwards set the ceiling at $240,000. Mr. Kerry voted against the ban on so-called “partial birth” abortion passed by Congress, but Mr. Edwards did not vote. A more clear-cut difference was Mr. Kerry’s opposition to the death penalty and Mr. Edwards’s support of it.

Mr. Kerry finished first and Mr. Edwards second in the Iowa caucuses in January, surprising front-runner Howard Dean and driving Mr. Gephardt, a regional favourite, out of the race. Mr. Dean finished second to Mr. Kerry in the New Hampshire primary, but the race quickly became a contest between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards.

Yet Mr. Edwards could never muster enough momentum to overtake his Senate colleague. He won only a single state – his native South Carolina – during the competitive phase of the primary and ended his bid after the 10-state Super Tuesday elections on March 2.

Mr. Edwards, 51, was born in Seneca, S.C., and grew up in Robbins, N.C. His father was a mill worker, and he announced his presidential campaign from the factory, then closed, where his father had worked and where he had swept floors to earn money for college. He earned a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University in 1974 and a law degree from the University of North Carolina in 1977.

A Methodist, Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, have three children: Cate, Emma Claire and Jack. Another son, Wade, died in a traffic accident at age 16 in 1996.

Mr. Edwards worked in private practice in Nashville and Raleigh, N.C., for nearly two decades, earning a fortune from medical malpractice and product liability judgments. Although he portrayed himself as a champion of ordinary people hurt by large corporations, the American Tort Reform Association described him as “a wealthy personal injury lawyer masquerading as a man of the regular people.”