John Edwards has been a familiar face on the political scene since his run for vice-president in the 2004 election. Also, he has been in the headlines for his wife's inoperable cancer, a problem that will no doubt endear him to thousands of cancer survivors but also has many people asking why he would want to make such a grueling run such a grueling position with the possibility that his wife is in her last years. However, Edwards has emerged as a contender to Clinton and Obama for the Democratic nomination but not without begging the question...can someone who lost the election as Vice-President win the Presidency?
Although it can be argued that the biggest obstacle Edwards faced on his way to the White House in 2004 was the presidential nominee, John Kerry, it may still be said that Edwards has obstacles of a different nature. Not only is he running against the first serious female and African American contenders for the democratic nomination, he is also up against both of their powerhouse fundraising machines. With Senator Clinton reporting her quarter fund raising at over 27 Million and Senator Obama's campaign raising 20 Million in the past quarter, the Edwards campaign is lagging far behind, raising an estimated 7 Million in the third quarter.
The announcements of third quarter campaign fund raising comes hand in hand with Edwards announcement that he will receive federal matching funds for his campaign. That means that the government will match every donation that he receives up to $250 per donation up to a certain amount where he will need to stop spending. Although in past elections, nearly every candidate took the federal match, no other Democratic forerunners are. For the candidates that don't chose to take Federal Funds, they will have no limit as to what they can raise or spend but Edwards will have a spending cap. This could ultimately leave him defenseless when different advertising campaigns come out and he has no money left to spend to defend himself.
Running third in the Iowa polls, Edwards still has a chance to bounce back. In a forum called "A Presidential Dialogue with John Edwards" hosted at the University of New Hampshire in Durham by MTV, MySpace and the Washington Post, Edwards received great reviews from the people in the audience as well as those responding online. This groundbreaking, multi-media forum allowed for Edwards to field questions from the audience in New Hampshire as well as those on Washingtonpost.com and MySpace simultaneously. He was also able to see pie-charts of how viewers perceived his answers (like, dislike, etc.)
During this debate he made many interesting points which, as a college student, really spoke to issues I am concerned about. He talked about a national plan to pay for college for everyone. What I really admired about him was his ability to explain to the audience how he was planning to put his plans into action, not just trumpeting them.
He also spoke about increasing funding to problems at home and the need to stop funneling money into the war in Iraq. Although many of the answers I had heard from other candidates before, I felt as though Edwards was trying to reach out to the young demographic and find a way to get across his ideas without talking down to the students or preaching. His personable candor was really nice to see and I look forward to hearing more about him in the coming months.
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