SNAKE OIL SALESMAN

When this campaign started, I expected Little John Edwards to stay in the background, being the “positive” face of the campaign, telling stupid, folksy stories of his childhood growing up in South and North Carolina. And up until recently, I was correct. But the past week or so has shown Little John to be the crazy one.

Last week, My man Drudge splashed across his page this comment Little John made in Iowa:

''If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to get up out of that wheelchair and walk again"

Sigh. First of all, it’s a stupid comment. It’s in the same vein as Jesse Jackson’s comment that if John Kerry were to be elected, Ray Charles would play again. I guess it shows one of two possibilities, either the Democratic leadership thinks American’s are so stupid, they will believe John Kerry can raise the dead and make the lame walk or they themselves are stupid enough to believe it.

First of all again, I waited, without much hope, for Big Media to pick it up and show the outrage the comment deserved. It was a good thing I hadn’t much hope, because they only coverage was about the Republican’s sputtering outrage, not outrage at the story itself.

Fortunately, there are some conservative voices in Big Media and one of the best (with one of the best names) is Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. Paralyzed for most of his life, he assails Little John Edwards for offering false hope to people with spinal cord injuries. Do yourself a favor, read Krauthammer.