Edwards Mirrors Liberal Icon

Taking a page from Robert F. Kennedy, John Edwards, whose candidacy has taken on an increasingly populist hue, embarks on an eight-state tour of the American South.

As Here & Now reminds us, months before his death, RFK visited Appalachian coal-country, spotlighting the grinding-poverty of citizens overlooked in the “War on Poverty.”

Edwards kicked off his own “Poverty Tour” Sunday night in New Orleans, where he meet with residents of the Lower 9th Ward. And as the video produced by the campaign clearly shows, like much of the rest of the city, the Lower 9th still clearly bears the scars of Katrina:

While Kennedy wasn’t immune to charges of grandstanding during his Appalachia visit, Edwards, who actually knows what it is like to be poor, lives in an arguably more cynical political ecosystem then that of 1968 — one of 24/7 news and legions of politicized bloggers. The steady drip of stories about $400 haircuts, the 28,000-square-foot manse and the cellulite-reducing flat-tops
has done little to bolster his prospects: he remains frozen in third place behind Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama.

Rick Klein says this tour is a critical chance for Edwards to shift campaign narrative focused back onto his message. Morover, Klein suggest this is Edwards’ last real chance to generate momentum:

The tour that wraps up tomorrow is as much about reviving Edwards as it is about the plight of the nation’s impoverished: If Edwards does not change his campaign’s narrative — and he remains close to becoming a permanent national punch line for his tone-deaf displays of wealth — it’s hard to make an argument that Edwards will be positioned to break through in this field.