John Edwards Uses Elizabeth to Say What He Can’t, Even When He’s Standing Nearby

Lynda Waddington has an interesting account of a joint appearance of former Sen. John Edwards and his outspoken wife, Elizabeth, in Cedar Rapids. An Iowan asked about whether John Edwards would fight to ensure that every vote was counted before conceding a general election (harkening back to Kerry’s concession in 2004, before irregularities in Ohio had been fully investigated, and Gore’s concession in 2000, after a fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court). John gave the answer that a candidate is allowed to give: yes, I’ll fight, etc. etc. But then he handed the mic to Elizabeth, who made an argument that John could not have made himself:

“The votes don’t belong to Al Gore or John Kerry or John Edwards,” she said. “They belong to you and it can’t be our decision not to count your vote. It belongs to you and the promise was made to you that your votes would be counted. That’s the first thing — it should never have been the candidate’s decision if the votes were counted.

“The second thing is this is the reason we need to nominate John. The truth of the matter is that you hear Democrats all the time say that we should win all the same states. After 2000, they said, ‘and Florida.’ And now they say, ‘We need to win all the states and Ohio.’ Why in the world would we take such a chance when we have a candidate who, in the battleground states, is by far the most electable candidate?”

Elizabeth went on to say that, when husband is the likely nominee and placed against the likely Republican nominee, he wins nearly every state. In the same situation, she said, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wins less than half and Sen. Barack Obama wins less than a third.

“You want a cushion in the event that there are shenanigans someplace?” she asked. “This is the guy you need. What’s more than that, we need to campaign everyplace. Howard Dean is right. We need a 50-state strategy. Are we going to win Utah? Not likely, but that doesn’t mean we don’t play there and that doesn’t mean we don’t fight there. You know in 2004 we didn’t run a single television advertisement in the state of North Carolina and there was a North Carolinian on the ballot. Why? Because the pubahs in Washington all decided that we can’t win the state of North Carolina.”

Pundits have mentioned this phenomenon — of Elizabeth coming out strong because she is covered in the political equivalent of teflon — to explain arguments Elizabeth has sparked about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s electability, abut Ann Coulter’s divisiveness, and other things, but this event is an obvious example, because John and Elizabeth were standing right next to each other, and they gave answers that differed greatly not just in content but also in tone.

Lynda’s writeup on Iowa Independent has audio of the exchange (at the bottom of the page).