 Senator John Edwards of North Carolina arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport yesterday evening with his family in tow: (from left) his wife, Elizabeth, son Jack, and daughters Emma Claire and Cate. (Globe Staff Photo / Dina Rudick) |
Edwards gets the nodKerry taps Southerner as running matePITTSBURGH -- John F. Kerry selected John Edwards as his running mate yesterday, brushing aside questions about the North Carolina senator's experience to gain a Southern partner for the general election matchup against the Bush-Cheney ticket. The choice teamed a politician known for his patrician reserve with a gifted speaker whose youthful demeanor has proven popular with the Democratic party base.
After a four-month search marked by extraordinary secrecy, Kerry called Edwards at his home in Washington about 7:30 a.m. and invited his onetime rival to join the ticket. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in a break with tradition, announced his choice via e-mail to more than 1.1 million subscribers to johnkerry.com. He then relayed the news in a speech to several thousand supporters gathered at Market Square in the hometown of his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, at what was billed as a routine campaign rally. So concerned was Kerry about announcing his choice on his own terms that he revealed his pick without Edwards by his side, avoiding the need for any logistics that could have tipped his hand. "I have chosen a man who understands and defends the values of America; a man who has shown courage and conviction as a champion for middle-class Americans and for those struggling to reach the middle class; a man who has shown guts and determination and political skill in his own race for the presidency of the United States; a man whose life has prepared him for leadership, and whose character brings him to exercise it," Kerry said. "I am pleased to announce that with your help, the next vice president of the United States of America will be Senator John Edwards from North Carolina." With the announcement, the crowd erupted into cheers, loudspeakers began blaring Van Halen's "Right Now," and a Kerry-Edwards banner rose on poles erected behind the stage. Simultaneously, aides started passing out signs with the new logo, while crews at the Pittsburgh airport began taking tarps off of Kerry's campaign charter plane, which had been labeled with Kerry-Edwards logos overnight. In his e-mail to supporters, Kerry said he was anxious "for the day this fall when he stands up for our vision and goes toe to toe with Dick Cheney." The Republican Party immediately struck back, mass-mailing papers citing differences in the two Democrats' records, as well as a comment by Kerry's stepson, Christopher Heinz, who recently said of Edwards, "I think we may need someone with stronger credentials on foreign policy." Nonetheless, Cheney placed a congratulatory call to Edwards about 10 a.m., just as President Bush called Kerry after he locked down the nomination in primaries on March 2. Edwards, a one-term senator, is a mill worker's son who grew up to become a multimillionaire as a trial lawyer. He was alone when Kerry called his Georgetown townhouse, located just around the corner from Kerry's home in Washington. "I was honored this morning to receive a call from Senator Kerry asking me to join his ticket," Edwards said in a statement issued by the Kerry campaign. "I was humbled by his offer and thrilled to accept it." He quickly telephoned his wife at their home in North Carolina before a preselected staff hired by Kerry arrived on his doorstep. His first question to the staff, a campaign spokeswoman said, was how big of a suitcase he should pack for his two toddlers. The children, Jack and Emma Claire, are destined to become fixtures on the campaign trail. The couple also have a grown daughter, Cate; their first child, Wade, was killed in 1996 in a car crash. Shortly after Kerry's call, Edwards received another from Bill Clinton, who lobbied Kerry on behalf of the senator, according to Kerry aides. The Secret Service sent a team to protect Edwards and escort him yesterday afternoon to Pittsburgh. The Kerrys and Edwardses had the first face-to-face meeting of their new political partnership last night, gathering at Heinz Kerry's farm in the Pittsburgh suburbs for dinner and an evening of conversation. Today, they set out together for four days of joint campaigning in Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, New Mexico, and North Carolina -- all battleground states -- as well as to attend a gala fund-raiser tomorrow night in New York. On Sunday, after attending church together in North Carolina, the families will begin campaigning separately. The ticket will be officially minted by delegates at the Democratic National Convention, which begins July 26 in Boston. The choice of Edwards came after Kerry surveyed about 25 potential running mates, aides said, in a process that included face-to-face meetings with some, as well as a review of their biographies, legislative records, and videotaped TV appearances. Among those on the final list were Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa. Several were called immediately after Edwards -- a courtesy inspired by Kerry's experience in 2000, when he found out he was being passed over to be Al Gore's running mate from an aide who heard it on TV. Gore did not call Kerry until six hours later. In Edwards, 51, the 60-year-old Kerry brings regional balance to the Democratic ticket, as well as a life story that is a useful counterpoint to Kerry's own affluent youth and boarding school education. Edwards is also an experienced orator whose talk of bridging the divide between "two Americas" during the primaries helped him win the South Carolina primary and emerge as the last standing alternative to Kerry. The choice of Edwards also is expected to force the Republicans to defend some states in the South. Recent surveys showed Edwards to be the most popular among Kerry's prospective running mates. Experts said the choice of Edwards does not guarantee a victory in any state, Southern or otherwise, even North Carolina. But he may convert that state, as well as Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas, into battlegrounds that divert the Bush campaign's time and attention somewhat from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the other assumed swing states. And in Midwestern states, said experts, Edwards's up-by-the-bootstraps populism may play well, offsetting Kerry's Eastern elitist aura and helping reel in undecided working class voters, who culturally lean toward the GOP but continue to struggle somewhat economically. "The choice of Edwards is an indication that Kerry does not plan to write off the South," said a Wake Forest University political scientist, Jack D. Fleer. A poll in May for the Winston-Salem Journal found Bush with 48 percent support and Kerry with 41 in North Carolina. But with Edwards on the ticket, it was a virtual tie. Without Edwards, the poll found, Bush would win among independent voters. But with Edwards, Kerry surges ahead in this group. Kerry publicly and privately questioned Edwards's political judgment and seasoning during the primary campaign. "When I came back from Vietnam in 1969, I don't know if John Edwards was out of diapers then," Kerry said in January. And Edwards didn't shy from challenging Kerry over sensitive issues, such as the Massachusetts senator's position on the war in Iraq. "That is the longest answer I have ever heard to a yes-or-no question," Edwards quipped during a debate in February after Kerry struggled with a question about whether he felt responsible for US casualties because he voted for the military action. The two disagree on the death penalty, with Kerry favoring it in some circumstances and Edwards opposing it. On the Bush tax cuts, Kerry favors a repeal of all cuts benefiting people earning over $200,000 annually, while Edwards proposed repealing the cuts for anyone earning over $240,000. The North American Free Trade Agreement sparked some of their harshest exchanges in the final debate of the primary campaign. Kerry voted for it, but Edwards campaigned against it during his Senate run in 1998. In that context, Edwards seems to not measure up to at least one of the five criteria that Kerry established in a memorandum he sent to the team that conducted his search for a vice presidential candidate, which said a running mate must be compatible "on every level." In his speech yesterday, Kerry offered a new assessment of Edwards, citing the campaign and their six years together in the Senate. "I've seen John Edwards think, argue, advocate, legislate, and lead for six years now. I know his skill; I know his passion; I know his strength; I know his conscience; I know his faith," Kerry said. "John Edwards is ready for this job." Girding for an expected debate with Republicans over national security issues, Kerry also cited Edwards's service on the Senate Intelligence Committee and said, "He shares my unshakable commitment to having a military that is second to nobody in the world, but also to restoring old and rebuilding new alliances that make America stronger." Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry's campaign manager, sought to draw a distinction between the primary battle and the looming general election campaign. "I think that when you are competing in the primaries, you are thinking about getting through the primaries," she told reporters flying with the candidate to a campaign event in Indianapolis. "When you are looking for a running mate who would be a good partner, that's a different calculus." In recent weeks, Edwards has been fitting in briefings on international security, global trouble spots, and other foreign policy issues to deepen his own expertise in preparation for a possible invitation by Kerry to join the ticket, according to Democratic Party officials. Last month he spoke about Iraq, China, and the world economy at the annual Bilderberg conference in Italy, an assembly of US and European leaders and intellectuals, "and received a rare round of applause after his remarks from an audience that usually gives polite applause after everyone has spoken," said former US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke, who advises Kerry on national security. "He was quite dazzling and in command of the issues," Holbrooke said in a telephone interview from Lisbon yesterday. "He's clearly far more qualified in national security today than Governor George Bush was four years ago."
Raja Mishra of the Globe staff contributed from Boston. Patrick Healy contributed from Rehoboth, Del. Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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