John Edwards: Can He Win?

Watching Hardball tonight, they said this advertisement is an effort by the John Edwards campaign to remind people that he has a southern accent. It came out of a conversation where the consultant said that Giuliani should run commercials that show he is the only candidate that can beat Hillary Clinton. I didn't catch the name of the media consultant, but he encouraged the Mayor to run an advertisement that conveyed the message that "Sure Edwards beats me, but I won't be running against Edwards, I'll be running against Hillary, and only I beat Hillary"

Chris Matthews then went on to talk about the advertisement above, saying that John Edwards is trying to run on being southern, and by pointing out that the last two Democrats to win the Presidency had southern accents, and I would add that so does our current President. I don't think that is the message of the advertisement. I did not watch the ad and think, southerner.

But I do think that discussion is worth having regarding the southern vote. Can the south vote Democrat in a federal election? Congressman Boyd represents our thoroughly rural and southern congressional district. Our CD elects a Democrat so strongly that during the last two cycles the Republican party failed to field a candidate at all. So, yes, I do think that the south will vote Democrat, but I don't think that they are guaranteed to vote Democrat.

Southern voters are more inclined to vote for someone because they like the candidate, not the party. I think that people in the south are more inclined to like someone who speaks like they do. Which I do think gives John Edwards and Mike Huckabee an advantage, especially against some of the candidates that I think will rub many southerns the wrong way... like Mitt Romney.

I Yahoo'd (I use Yahoo over Google as a search engine) John Edwards and Southern and most of the articles were from the 2004 election, there was this one article: Link by Tom Schaller, author of "Whistling Past Dixie".

I think I might write more on this in the near future. As I sign off tonight, I still have Hardball on in the background, and it is getting ready to end. Chris Matthews keeps talking about how Sen. Edwards is the most popular D with the R's. Another interesting tid bit...

Provide some feedback, and let me know what you think....