THOMAS OLIPHANT
Edwards's edge on economy
WASHINGTON
Like Clinton, and advised by many of the same people, Kerry believes sustainable economic growth must be built on a foundation of financial sanity. That means raising the income taxes of 1 or 2 percent of America's highest-income citizens in order to maintain and broaden tax relief for those who live off their paychecks while investing in cheaper and more available health insurance. Unlike Clinton, Kerry says the United States must get a better, fairer deal out of globalization. It was John Edwards who helped lead him there during the primary season, and sticking to his guns is important both to the economy and to Kerry's political fortunes. Twelve years ago, the United States and the Democratic Party needed to embrace the future -- open markets with the expanded opportunities they offer. Clinton didn't endorse the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico when he was running against President Bush I, but he pledged to support it with side agreements dealing with labor rights and the environment. He also saw the need to complete the round of talks that would produce the World Trade Organization and to negotiate the terms of China's entry into the international system. Today, to sustain this more open economic system, it has to work better for Americans. That means treaties must be strictly enforced, flaws in existing deals have to be fixed, and the United States has to become neutral onbusiness decisions to locate jobs. In some business and ideological circles, this is called protectionism. It isn't. It is a stance that seeks to redeem the promise of John Kennedy when he won the authority to begin opening up the world's economies -- that American workers caught in the inevitable crossfire would have the US government on their side and that new rules would be enforced. As long as Dick Gephardt was in the race for president, the positions of Edwards and Kerry were not of major significance. But after the Iowa caucuses Edwards filled the void on Feb. 3 with a speech, position paper, and TV ad that powered him to victory in South Carolina, pushed him past Wesley Clark in Missouri, nearly won Oklahoma, drove him past Clark in Virginia and Tennessee, and nearly produced victory in Wisconsin. Kerry noticed and adjusted his own rhetoric on his way to clinching victories on March 2. It was a lesson he should not forget as he prepares a campaign against a president who sees globalization more as an object of worship than a process that needs mature management. This is a potent reminder of what a value-added political force Edwards represents. What made the guy such an astonishing force in the primaries translates directly to the general election -- an uncanny ability to reach not only Democratic audiences, but independent and even Republican voters as well. The exit polls demonstrated this in southern Ohio, opinion polls showed Edwards stronger among Democrats in Florida than native sons Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, and last week a Mason-Dixon survey in North Carolina shattered the myth that Edwards was inconsequential at home by showing that Kerry-Edwards is even with Bush-Cheney while Kerry alone trails Bush. Kerry's fascination with the possibilities of cross-party alliance this fall (with John McCain or even Chuck Hagel) is itself fascinating. However, the insider conversation has turned too much toward how he can implore one of them to join him. This risks the kind of negotiation over a president's authority that Ronald Reagan unwisely toyed with vis a vis Gerald Ford during the Republican convention in 1980. The survey in North Carolina last week showed that Edwards remains the only national Democrat with cross-party appeal, even as he represents a step toward the future. The people who moved with him on a hypothetical ticket were white men for whom a fellow Southerner and his identification with economic concerns trumped conservative instincts. The same phenomenon awaits in South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, and Wisconsin. After campaigning with Edwards last weekend, the Democrat running a strong race to succeed him in the Senate, onetime Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles, stated the case: "If John Kerry does not put him on the national ticket he's absolutely nuts."
Thomas Oliphant's e-mail address is oliphant@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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