Opinion on Edwards' Speech

I watched a ton of the speech last night. He had a lot of the "Two Americas" theme in there. He claimed they would retain the tax cut for 98% of Americans, soak the rich and be able to provide better health care and expanded education funding (citing expanded tax credits for tuition and health care). He claimed they would rebuild alliances abroad and be able to have less of the burden borne by American troops (how, he didn't explain). He said we would be tough on Syria and Iran (how, again?) and would hunt down al Q ("We will destroy you.").

Analysis: He's pretty effective with the stump speech on Two Americas, but I think this populist stuff only sells in small doses, especially when there's very little substance to his statements. To me, if Edwards were anything but a Democrat, the press would be savaging him mercilessly for his lack of substance. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Dan Quayle was smarter and had more relevant experience than Edwards. Edwards is a good, at times very good, communicator of a message, but he's way short on substance ( I hate the term "gravitas."). His sale of Kerry was pretty good (not as good as Clinton's sale), but again focused on Kerry's war experience as the reason he should be elected. I will say that his wife gave a terrific introduction -- Elizabeth Edwards, point in fact, is more prepared to be First Lady than her husband is to be President, should he need to take over.

Bottom line, I kept thinking this is how Hollywood would cast a candidate for VP in a movie where the VP's role is to stand in the background and smile. The "we will destroy you" line just didn't sound right coming out of his mouth. And if you think Bush's smirk is annoying... well, Edwards has got one as well.