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| Fri, Sep. 5, 2008 |  |
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| | Edwards vouches for his Southern values
Thursday, Aug 5, 2004 By John Brummett Arkansas News Bureau NORTH LITTLE ROCK - Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards seemed to get his back up Wednesday when told that Gov. Mike Huckabee had recently suggested he was not in tune with the Southern lifestyle. "I can't imagine what he's talking about," Edwards said. Huckabee said at a recent Sportsmen for Bush announcement that Edwards, though a native of South Carolina and a one-term U.S. senator from North Carolina, was out of touch with the South because he is not an avid hunter, a huge fan of NASCAR or interested in farming. In an interview on his campaign bus moments after addressing an outdoor campaign rally in North Little Rock's Riverfront Park, Edwards recounted his Southern heritage. "I played high school football for my small-town team. I was point guard on the basketball team. I spent my youth working in the mill. My dad was a deacon in the Baptist church. I was baptized in the Southern Baptist church. (He's a Methodist now.) I know very well what Southern values are." And what are they? "Faith, friendship, hard work, reputation, respect for each other," he said. "Since you asked about it, I'll tell you that my faith is very important to me," he said. "I've been one of the people in charge of the Senate prayer breakfasts ... It's just that I don't want to impose my faith on anyone else." He didn't mention farming in his speech at the rally. He said that was only because "this was small business day." He talked at length about what a John Kerry administration would do to help the 50,000 small businesses in Arkansas. One of the reasons Kerry chose Edwards as his running mate was that as a Southerner who distinguished himself in the primary for rural popularity and working-class populism, Edwards was thought to offer Kerry a helpful connection in a few battleground states, including Arkansas. Asked if he had sought advice from successful Arkansas Democrats about how to appeal to the state's voters, he said, "Oh, yes. A lot. But these discussions with your senators, Blanche LIncoln and Mark Pryor, have been ongoing for all the years I've known them. They're good friends. I just like Blanche a lot. So that's not just something we started the last few days in the context of this campaign." He said that what he had heard about Arkansas reminded him of his own North Carolina, where he defeated a Republican incumbent senator, Lauch Faircloth, by four percentage points in 1998. "It's all about respecting working people," the highly successful former trial lawyer said. "They can see whether you know what you're talking about; whether you're one of them. It's about shared experiences." Edwards said he talks frequently with former President Bill Clinton, who was widely thought early in the Democratic presidential primary race to have touted Edwards as a fellow Southern populist lawyer. Edwards said he would be back in Arkansas "several times" - at Clinton's side on some of those occasions, he hoped. "We know we can win Arkansas." Former U. S. Sen. David Pryor said after rally that he'd never seen the state's Democrats so united. Reminded that they'd united firmly and vigorous behind Clinton as their favorite son in 1992 and 1996, Pryor said, "I think we're maybe more united even than then. It's based on that mantra: 'It's time for them to go.'" |
