The John-John Ticket

July 7, 2004

I hate to say I told you so but I did . . . sort of. I know I said that Hillary would run in '04 and I'm convinced she was planning to do just that until we captured Saddam Hussein. Whether that actually threw a monkey-wrench in her plans, we may never know. But I also predicted on the radio in May of 2003 that if Hillary didn't run it would be John Kerry as the nominee with John Edwards as his VP candidate. The John-John ticket. So, I'm batting .500. Not bad for baseball and politics but it could be disastrous for America.

 

John Edwards is a nice guy. I'm not going to paint him as some Beelzebubba from the South. He's not. He's intelligent. He's honest. He's energetic. And he's extremely liberal. Don't take my word for it. The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste has labeled him “hostile” toward the taxpayer with an overall score of 13. That's 13 on a scale of 1 to 100 with 1 being the most liberal. His boss, John Kerry, scores a 25. Uncle Teddy scores an 18. That's right. The CCAGW considers Edwards more liberal than Ted Kennedy or John Kerry!

 

They aren't the only ones. The American Conservative Union gives him a lifetime score of 12. That puts him on par with Hillary Clinton and Diane Feinstein. Fellow Southern Democrat Zell Miller, by contrast, scored a 75. “He votes in line with all the leftist special interest groups that control the Democratic Party,” points out ACU Executive Director Richard Lessner. “In 2003 Edwards voted against repeal of the death tax, against repeal of the marriage tax penalty, against research into advanced nuclear weapons, and against medical malpractice reform, while voting in favor of the Roe v. Wade abortion decision. That's hardly the record of a moderate!”

 

But that's just how he's being portrayed on news channels all across the dial. CBS News has called him a “ more moderate alternative.” The New York Times also labels John Edwards as a moderate. But, then again, they say that John Kerry is a moderate, too, so you have to consider the source. The Times is right in one regard, though. Kerry and Edwards are cut from the same political cloth. You can dip it in tobacco juice and deep fat fry it in pork grease but it's still liberal when you bite into it.

 

That's not to say that Republicans should simply ignore the new John-John ticket. If they do, they do so at their peril. Edwards adds some sparkle to a man who makes Al Gore look magnetic. Kerry and Edwards are already tuning up the “middle class hero” speeches. Multi-millionaires, the both of them, they'll try to convince the American public that they are just like them. Recent memory proves that you can fool a lot of the people all of the time. As they heat up the campaign trail – also known as Gullible's Travels – watch for more than a few otherwise intelligent people to be swayed their way.

 

Come November, it's all going to come down to two issues – Iraq and the economy. If both are looking better, then Bush gets the keys to Air Force One for four more years. If not, John-John moves in and starts dismantling the Bush tax cuts, kow-towing to the French and ceding power over the Kofi and the boys in baby blue down at the UN. If you think that has anything to do with the middle class you're smoking the same stuff Kerry was when he came back from ‘Nam.