The Country Pundit, being of civic mind and political virtue, decided to take advantage of John Edwards' presence in the Commonwealth, and drove to a rally being held for the man.

It was held in a small restaurant that wound up being crammed with people, probably 250 or more. Pretty loud, but the George Bush rally I attended in Tennessee four years ago had better volume. (Yes, and about ten thousand people. I hear that helps. --Ed.) Edwards showed up late, which is understandable. Having worked on the middle division (as opposed to the periphery or the inside) of a Commonwealth-wide campaign myself, I know that being late is something that happens all the time. The prior stop always has one last autograph or one last influential local who can't be blown off.

Anyways, Senator Edwards was introduced as the next President of the United States, et cetera et cetera. The taking of pictures was greatly complicated due to the fact that Edwards was addressing the other direction, the one where the television crews were set up. This also means klieg lights, one of which was directly in my face for most of the speech.

A couple of things broadly remembered:

1. Edwards suggests not only "buy[ing] American" but "hir[ing] American" and also "job security" to go along with "national security". These got loud cheers and so forth, especially because he mentioned the textile plant closings that have hit Southside Virginia (i.e. the WDBJ Channel 7 viewing area such as Martinsville and the surrounding environs) rather hard.

I'm pretty sure that Senator Edwards means the repudiation of NAFTA and the imposition of tariffs or something similar. Also possible might be some sort of a direct industrial subsidy, but I'm not sure. At the same time, I honestly like the idea of hiring Americans. It is difficult-if-not-impossible to defend grandiose claims of the glories of free trade when fellow Virginians are put out of work so that someone in a foreign land gets a job.

Edwards has a good line here, and it could take off if he'd been more out in the Martinsville-Danville area.

2. Turning to foreign policy, Senator Edwards talked about how respected we were prior to 11 September 2001 and how President Bush had squandered that respect, acted unilaterally, et cetera.

I understand that these things have to be said, for they are the red meat of the party that doesn't like red meat. At the same time, I always want to ask the speaker either "So what?" or "What part of England/Poland/Australia/other countries committing troops to Iraq don't you understand?"

Similarly, we had respect for us prior to 11 September 2001. Funny, the respect of the world community didn't do a lot to stop Mohammed Atta et al from playing "Make Mine Mistel" with a couple of airliners. Sure we may have risked something to go after Iraq, but then again, I doubt the Franco-German axis was particularly interested in maintaining open respect for us.

3. Literature was somewhat tightly controlled. I usually get at least two of each available thing, but the people at the literature table were rather tightly controlling those things, and I actually had to ask for a lapel sticker. Part of me considers this good cost control but another part of me complains about not being able to preserve parts of the American political history.

Overall, I'd say this was a pretty good stop. I've been to better---read the candidate's on time---but the speech was pretty tight and the energy was there. No money was raised that I'm aware of, so that's a bit of a downer. I also didn't get an autograph.

Bummer.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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