Edwards adds no gravitas to ticket

Lyn Nofziger, Newsday

Four years ago, when Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush selected Richard Cheney as his running mate, the word among political pundits was Cheney brought much-needed gravitas to the ticket. From the dictionary, where most people had to go because they'd never heard the word, the world learned gravitas means seriousness of purpose.

A person with real gravitas is a mental heavyweight. Bush was seen by his critics to lack gravitas, and Cheney assertedly balanced the Republican ticket by bringing gravitas to it.

Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, who will be the Democratic nominee for president, announced on Tuesday that Sen. John R. Edwards is his vice presidential running mate. And the legitimate question voters have every right to ask today is: "Where's the gravitas?"

Kerry had been winnowing out possible choices for vice president for several months before deciding on Edwards and perhaps deciding that gravitas doesn't really matter. Edwards, however, was not his first choice and perhaps not even his second. Kerry openly wooed Arizona's maverick Republican senator, John McCain, who decided he'd rather remain a Republican, and, failing to get him, was thought to be eyeing others. McCain is known for his gravitas. Edwards, on the other hand, is not, even though he came in second behind Kerry in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes. He has not produced any significant legislation. Nor has he appeared to seize any leadership role.

In choosing Edwards, Kerry may have thought he has enough gravitas for the two of them or that other factors outweighed the fact that in political circles, at least, Edwards is not viewed as a heavyweight.

True, Edwards, a Southerner, brings geographic balance of a sort to the ticket. But the days when that was of serious concern seem to be gone. Perhaps the last time geography really mattered was in 1960 when John F. Kennedy selected a Texan, Lyndon Johnson, as his running mate, but Johnson brought more than geography to the ticket. Like Cheney, he brought gravitas and, in addition, brought reassurance to many Americans who had concerns about Kennedy's Catholicism.

Like Kennedy, Kerry is a Catholic, albeit a pro-abortion one, while Edwards is a Methodist who happens to share Kerry's view on abortion. Regardless, Americans in general no longer care about a candidate's religion.

If Edwards cannot help carry the South for Kerry, can he at least bring along his home state of North Carolina? Not necessarily. He squeaked out a narrow victory in 1998, garnering just 51 percent of the votes, and North Carolina Republicans, on the heels of Elizabeth Dole's easy win in 2002, were looking forward to reclaiming Edwards' seat this year. If the odds are against a Democrat for the Senate (Edwards is not seeking re- election), there is little reason to believe Edwards can carry the state for Kerry.

Kerry, the wealthy Eastern elitist, might be looking at Edwards' middle-class background as an asset among working men and women. Edwards boasts that his father was a mill worker, his mother also worked -- at the post office, among other places -- and that he is the first member of his family to go to college.

It remains to be seen if the wealthy -- he's a multimillionaire -- polished, handsome and glib Edwards, who honed his speaking ability as a courtroom trial lawyer, can still pass himself off as a common man. It also remains to be seen if he can pass himself off as the moderate Democrat he claims to be when he will have no choice but to support and defend Kerry's ultra-liberal 20-year voting record.

Finally, there is the matter of Edwards' experience. He has even less executive background than Kerry, and his Senate record, despite the claims he makes on his Web page and on the campaign trail, is slight.

Aside from his career as a trial lawyer, upon entering office he would have less experience, political or executive, in domestic policy or foreign than any recent vice president, including the much-maligned J. Danforth Quayle. Whether or not Edwards can spell "potato," he is, as Sen. Lloyd Bentsen famously said to and of Quayle, "no Jack Kennedy."

The writer, a White House aide under Ronald Reagan, is a Washington political consultant.