John Kerry has added a dose of southern populism that he hopes will help propel him to the White House in November.
The U.S. presidential candidate, a patrician senator from Massachusetts, phoned John Edwards early Tuesday morning to tell his former rival for the Democratic nomination that he wanted the two of them to run together. He later announced the choice formally at a rally in Pittsburgh.
“I have chosen a man ... who has shown guts, determination and political skill in his own race for the presidency, a man whose life has prepared him for leadership and whose character brings him to exercise it,” he told the cheering crowd.
The choice of Mr. Edwards – a former trial lawyer who has served one term as senator from North Carolina – ends a guessing game that has consumed the U.S. presidential election as it goes through a slow period.
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry, his wife, Teresa, at his side, attends an event in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. (Hector Mata/AFP)
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With his decision, Mr. Kerry has also crushed the hopes of the wide range of other people who had been angling for the position. He praised those people Tuesday and said that he had talked to several of them once his mind was made up.
“I can only choose one as a running mate and this morning I have done so,” he said.
Campaign secrecy prevented Mr. Kerry from telling Mr. Edwards in sufficient time for the two candidates to come together at the Pittsburgh rally for the announcement.
Mr. Kerry instead used the stop to offer similar themes to his standard stump speech, adding references to Mr. Edwards throughout.
| John Edwards | |
|---|---|
RELIGION: Methodist. EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree, North Carolina State University, 1974; law degree, University of North Carolina, 1977. POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Elected U.S. senator in 1998. OTHER EXPERIENCE: Trial lawyer in Nashville, Tenn., and Raleigh, N.C., for two decades. FAMILY: Wife, Elizabeth Anania Edwards. Children: Cate, Emma Claire, Jack. Son Wade died in a 1996 traffic accident. POLITICAL HERO: Former North Carolina Senator Terry Sanford "because he was ahead of his time on civil rights. He stood up for civil rights in the South when it wasn't an easy thing to do." QUOTE: "George Bush has a health-care plan — pray you don't get sick. They have led us from the edge of greatness when Bill Clinton left office to the edge of a cliff." |
“In the next 120 days," he said, "John Edwards and I will be fighting for the America we love.”
Mr. Kerry also followed his typical pattern of referring to his combat record in Vietnam, using the opportunity to differentiate himself from U.S. President George W. Bush, who did not serve overseas.
“When I was in Vietnam, I served on a small boat on the Mekong Delta with men who came from places as diverse as South Carolina and Iowa,” he said. “... No one asked us our politics. No one cared where we went to school or what our race or backgrounds were. We were literally all in the same boat—and we came together as one.”
“We were just a band of brothers who all fought under the same flag, and all prayed to the same God. Today, we're a little bit older, we're a little bit greyer. But we still know how to fight for our country. And what we're fighting for is an America where all of us are truly in the same boat.”
The two men are expected to team up later Tuesday or Wednesday for the first wave of joint campaigning. The race promises to be nasty, with the Republican Party going on the offensive within hours of Tuesday's announcement.
The GOP labelled Mr. Edwards “a disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal and friend to personal-injury trial lawyers” and cobbled together a Web page listing attacks that Mr. Kerry had launched on his now campaign partner during the race for the Democratic nomination.
An ad approved by Mr. Bush that mocks Mr. Edwards as the second choice for the Democratic ticket also went public Tuesday. The ad, which will air on television and is available on-line, shows clips of Republican Senator John McCain, whom pundits said would make an excellent partner for Mr. Kerry's campaign.
