After months of speculation, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry announced Tuesday that his one-time rival for the nomination, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., will join him on the ticket.
So what does that mean for Athens? Not much, considering, at least according to Democratic party boss Terry McAuliffe, that Athens is one of the most liberal counties in the nation. This county will vote blue no matter what.
The more important thing to the Democrats was to inject some life into the ticket and at least give it a chance to score upsets in the South. Most of Southeast Ohio might as well be the actual south, with rugged people more likely to respond to President Bush's admittedly guy-next-door personality than Kerry's aristocratic reputation (even though both are filthy, stinking rich).
If anything, Edwards is a perfect upbeat yin to Kerry's accomplished but droning yang. Other candidates, most notably Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt, last seen stumbling over his own words during finals week on the College Green, and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (who?), are far too similar to Kerry (Gephardt) or simply unknown (Vilsack).
And, while the Republican talking heads like to paint Edwards as the second choice to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., there was no chance a man of honor like McCain was going to betray his party, even if to spite his rival Bush.
Comical as well is the idea that since Edwards and Kerry sent vitriolic barbs at each other during the primary season, they cannot possibly work together. As right-leaning pundit Robert Novak said on CNN Tuesday, these are not strange bedfellows; John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson hated each other more than the Johns ever could.
The result of all the posturing is that Democrats can finally look at the ticket and think that it is actually something worth voting for, and not just to beat President Bush.
Kerry brings an experienced and steady hand. His war record cannot be overlooked. Kerry's actual combat experience allows him to see war as more than just toys moving across a map.
Edwards, with a similar voting record, is not, unlike Kerry, a Washington lifer. Again, for those attacking a one-term senator as being too inexperienced to be one heartbeat from the top job, keep in mind that Bush himself only spent six years in politics before accepting the presidential nod.
Of course, the anybody-but-Bush voters would have, like their Athenian counterparts, voted for, well, just about anybody. But for those of us who actually see that, after the election, a country will need to be run, the Democrats have assembled a worthy ticket. Whether they actually step into the White House will make for political theater unseen in almost half a century.
-Kyle Kondik is The Summer Post's Associate Editor. Send him an email at kk134702@ohiou.edu.
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Kyle Kondik
