Last of the Democratic bathwater, John Edwards runs down the drain

National Review, March 22, 2004

* Last of the Democratic bathwater, John Edwards runs down the drain. Edwards was an attractive figure, if you like after-shaved, multimillionaire lawyers. His lack of political experience--one term in the Senate is the whole of it--made him seem fresh, though it is hardly a qualification for taking care of the football.

Edwards's stated views on free trade were primitive and shrill, and his attacks on it and on the Bush administration invoked a Dustbowl America that, since he never experienced it, he must have seen in late-night showings of The Grapes of Wrath. Unlike Wesley Clark, he was sane, and unlike John Kerry, he lacked the ability to do significant harm. But he was not a serious man. His Senate term ends this year, and he will not seek re-election. No loss.