Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2008 > January > 19
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Frozen out of Nevada, Edwards slips through Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After a union hall rally in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was ready to rush out to speak to reporters if the news from Nevada was good.
It wasn’t. Edwards didn’t. Instead he pointed his plane to South Carolina. Reports are estimating his take of the Nevada vote at a dismal 5 percent — no delegates for him.
Nonetheless, the crowd at IBEW Local 613 was impressive. Good range of black, white, liberal and conservative.
About those white, conservative Democrats.
Attendees included former Gov. Roy Barnes and Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor.
Both men touted Edwards’ economic policies and his committment to the creation of jobs and universal health care.
But they also pointed to the benefits that an Edwards candidacy would give to Georgia Democrats on the Democratic ballot.
Taylor noted the challenges faced by U.S. Reps. John Barrow of Savannah and Jim Marshall of Macon, both white Democrats who have faced strong, well-funded challenges from Republicans every two years.
“Think of how hard it’s going to be for them without John Edwards at the top of the ticket,” said Taylor, who came dressed in a blazer, dress pants and — in a concession to the weather — hunting boots.
Barnes, who campaigned for Edwards in New Hampshire, appealed for regional solidarity. “I’m tired of being down here in the South and not having someone who talks like I do,” he drawled.
In explaining Edwards’ appeal to conservative Democrats in Georgia, Amy Morton, a family therapist and blogger from Macon, noted that Edwards has made more trips to rural Georgia during the campaign than any other presidential candidate, Republican or Democrat.
“Sometimes what you do says more about who you are than what you say,” she declared.
