Thursday, May 31, 2007

BATTLE OF THE PHONIES

I have never thought that John Edwards has any chance at all of being the next President of the United States because he is such a phony. Actors (Ronald Reagan, Fred Thompson) and pro wrestlers (Gov. Ventura) are phonies too, but they can separate themselves from their roles. Trial lawyers come to believe their own personas. That could be a problem for Giuliani too - he is far too eager to refer back to his public role in the wake of 9/11.

All-time loser Bob Shrum recounts the following story in his new book, excerpted by TIME.
[During Kerry's process to select a running mate,] Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else.

Kerry said that he wished he'd never picked Edwards, that he should have gone with his gut.

But politicians can't go with their gut, because everything is political. Voters, however, can.

What is even worse than telling that story twice as a super hush-hush secret (and who knows how many other times) is that it is almost certainly not true. But lawyers are not bound to the truth, they serve the interests of their client, and is his case his client was him.

As for Mr. Shrum, I can't see how throwing his former client Edwards under the bus is going to be good for business.

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