Edwards' cool levels debate field

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Registered: 08-05-2004
Edwards' cool levels debate field
206
Tue, 10-05-2004 - 1:56am
Here's the original link: http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/politicians/edwards/story/1699641p-7949529c.html


By ROB CHRISTENSEN, Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- If Vice President Dick Cheney thinks he'll be facing the "Breck Girl" - the epithet Republicans like to pin on John Edwards - he may be in for an unpleasant surprise in their debate Tuesday.

Edwards is a canny fighter who outprepares his opponents, according to lawyers who have faced him in the courtroom. He isn't afraid of more experienced adversaries, has a large bag of rhetorical tricks and connects with audiences.

"If I'm going in a knife fight, and I have my choice, I am taking John Edwards," said Jim Cooney of Charlotte. "John doesn't like to lose."

Cooney ought to know. He dueled with Edwards in 10 cases.

Cooney is one of many Tar Heel lawyers who debated Edwards before a jury during the 1980s and 1990s, when Edwards made his fortune as a trial lawyer before being elected to the U.S. Senate.

Their advice for Cheney: Under no circumstances take Edwards lightly.

Edwards' strengths:

* He prepares thoroughly.

* He connects with his listeners in their language.

* He makes complex arguments easy to understand.

* He takes his opponents seriously.

Edwards made a living off more experienced lawyers who saw his mop-haired choirboy looks, small-town charm and wide grin and took him for a lightweight. That's one reason he rarely lost a courtroom debate.

And in some respects, the Cheney-Edwards debate also would seem a mismatch. Cheney is the very image of experience and authority -- a former White House chief of staff, defense secretary, congressman and corporate CEO.

But former rivals say Edwards has a history of besting people like Cheney: white-haired, "pillar of the community" corporate lawyers, respected doctors and all sorts of experts. He also has a history of taking on large institutions -- hospitals, insurance companies, trucking firms -- and coming out on top.

If Cheney goes after Edwards' inexperience in government, several lawyers said, he'll be walking into a trap.

"He's made a career of going up against the experts, leaders in their fields, whether it's medicine or epidemiology or engineering," Cooney said. "The first time Cheney gives him the lecture -- 'Well, young man' -- it will be interesting to see how he handles that. Various experts have tried it before, and it has not worked very well.

"He is well-experienced in going up against people who are experts and who believe very strongly that they know a lot more than he does."

Made-for-TV style

Intense preparation is Edwards' trademark, and few expect him to be stumped or surprised by a question. Nor can he be rattled easily.

"I would be surprised if he is intimidated by Dick Cheney," said Tex Barrow, a Raleigh lawyer who has faced Edwards. "I have never seen him intimidated by anybody. ... He will be very well-prepared and be very passionate about his positions."

Edwards has never been regarded as a great courtroom orator in the Clarence Darrow mold. His style is more conversational. It is a style that is suited for more intimate settings like the courtroom -- or the TV studio -- than a large hall.

Indeed, some say Edwards' vice presidential acceptance speech in Boston in July was a bit flat.

"In many regards the debate will be a more natural setting. ... It's just his background," Barrow said. "It's one on one. The courtroom is a lot more intimate exchange than a speech to several thousand people."

He also rarely hammers home a point, preferring to lay out the evidence and let the jury come to the conclusion where he led it. His style is to distill the major points, removing the jargon, so that everyone understands his points.

"He'll use 25 years of experience in talking to jurors and look into that television camera ... and make every person in the living room think he is talking to them," said Billy Richardson, a lawyer who has worked with Edwards on cases. "He is secure enough to let them form their own conclusions. That is a powerful technique."

One of his favorite techniques, the lawyers say, is to ask the rhetorical question of the type Ronald Reagan asked in his 1980 debate: Are you better off than you were four years ago?

Nor is Edwards afraid to take someone apart. He just does it with Southern charm and a smile.

"It is not John's style to be mean or sarcastic," said his former law partner, David Kirby. "John has the ability to destroy a witness or a witness' position in a polite manner."

Edwards once dismantled an economist -- testifying for the opposition -- whose sons he had coached in soccer and with whom he had been friendly.

The North Carolina lawyers who have watched Edwards in the courtroom say there is no way that he will take Cheney lightly. They also say that Cheney would be foolish to prepare lightly for Edwards.

"Knowing John," Cooney said, "he has played out all the angles that Cheney could launch and his response to Cheney's attack, and how Cheney will respond to that, and how he would respond to that. He plays four or five moves ahead -- like chess."


Staff writer Rob Christensen can be reached at 820-4532 or robc@newsobserver.com.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-05-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 8:50am

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 8:59am
<<"I guarantee you, a sizable percentage of uneducated people no doubt think we are in Iraq to retaliate for 9/11.">>.... that doesn't make it true. So how about educating them? How about asking the Kerry-campaign to stop bringing up that non-point each chance they get? I assume they are educated, no?

Djie

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-05-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 9:27am

I'm not understanding your point here.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-24-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 9:36am
Cheney had a real problem making any eye contact whatsoever. His nostrils flared to enormous proportions everytime Edwards spoke. He attempted to evoke fear in America once again there towards the end and that infuriates me. It's so slimy! He gives off such evil vibes.
Avatar for isabella710
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 9:38am
I thought Vice President Cheney did an awesome job. Seems like from what I'm hearing, Kerry and Edwards have been absent a lot. If they don't take their current positions seriously, how can we expect them to lead our country?

I trust Bush and Cheney. We have seen what they have done and I think it has been a great job. Our economy is doing better even though they inherited the Clinton recession (I remember clearly the last 1-1/2 years of the Clinton presidency and how poorly things were going). And also seeing how 911 happened our economy is doing great. I'm seeing help wanted signs everywhere now. Edwards was saying how peoples' salaries are going down. I don't know about anybody else, but mine has been going up. I'm middle class and I feel I (and most people I know) am doing pretty darn well. We just sold our home and bought another home since the interest rates were so low.


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Avatar for isabella710
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 9:42am
I found all the faces that Edwards was making to be quite annoying too.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-24-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 9:45am
On NPR this morning, several sound bytes were played in which Cheney made comments that in effect tried to convince the American public that Saddam and 9/11 were in fact related-
Avatar for isabella710
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 9:49am
<<>>

Are Democrats the only ones arguing this point? We know that. We didn't go after Sadaam for 911. We went after him for the resolutions he kept breaking.

<>>

Yeah, a trial lawyer is one we need to listen to. One of the culprits as to why we're paying so much for healthcare; all those lawsuits we're all paying for.



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Avatar for isabella710
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 9:58am
<<

Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld nor Cheney ever connected SH to 9/11. Kerry and Edwards do it every chance they get by bringing up this "point".>>>

I totally agree with you here. The Dems are the only ones arguing this point.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 9:59am
Yep....no experience, no understanding of the issues that face the US or the world.

Cant get any cleaner than that.

I did see the debate, and I thought it was a good debate, but Edwards still has no grasp of foreign policy, and that is not something, especially in today's day and age that I want someone learning on the job.

Edwards did better in the domestic issues, as he has a much better understanding of those.

I think Cheney did win the debate, but not by a big margin, and it wont have that much affect, if any, on the Presidential race, except for perhaps putting John Kerry's absolutely abysmal voting record on the military and national security back on the stage.

Overall it was a much more interesting debate than the Presidential one. At least these two men could carry on a dialogue, and I thought that Gwen Ifil (sp?) was a very good moderator. Perhaps they should allow her to moderate the Presidential debates next time, and put that fossil Jim Lehrer to moderate the VP debates, which are fairly meaningless.

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