Edwards' cool levels debate field

iVillage Member
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: 09-24-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 12:46pm
Let me reiterate, I meant fear- as he claimed in a previous townhall style meeting- that if one votes for Kerry they are doomed to suffer at the hands of terrorists. It has been stated on this board again and again and again, that terrorists will attack, whether Bush or Kerry is at the helm. 9/11 proves that. And there have been way too many security questions in the last four years for me to feel SAFE under the Bush administration.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 12:59pm
Fair enough.

I gave Cheney a slight win, and I agree that Edwards did a little better in the second half of the debate, but Cheney did pretty well there too.

Cheney does have a better grasp of what is going on with respect to foreign policy, where Edwards showed he is still a greenhorn. although he had a grasp of the issues, but could not clearly defend the inconsistancies of Kerry on Iraq.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 1:01pm
I dont think he has ever said there was a direct link between Iraq and 9/11.

I do know that he has danced the line a few times.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 1:02pm
My point exactly, but neither the media, nor the people seem to be able to do math either.

I dont understand how rolling back $90 billion in tax cuts will pay for $900 billion in healthcare costs (and that is only one of several spending increases that Kerry has proposed), especially when Kerry promises to increase the middle class tax cut (BTW do we have a definition of what Kerry constitutes as middle class?)

Avatar for momeebear
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 1:06pm
Okay, was just checking.......
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-04-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 2:10pm
<>

That's putting it mildly.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 2:12pm
Me, too. I like the Kerry/Edwards idea on gay/lesbian relationships. Even though they believe in marrige for opposite sex they still are wanting to have the same-sex couples have the same benefits. :) Good for them.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 2:14pm
Not I.

He is a good debator and knows his stuff inside and out, and it is almost impossible to get one by on him.

Edwards tried a couple times, but was unsucessful.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 2:17pm
But dont you realize that the terrorists like John Kerry, so perhaps they would be willing to work with his administration in some form of a coalition?
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 2:18pm


Quite honestly, if I had to choose between Kerry and Edwards in that regard I'd have to choose Kerry as well, but not without an ewww. I don't find any of the four pres or VP candidates the least bit attractive, if I was voting based on that issue it would be a tough choice!

Now President Bush's nephew, on the other hand...guess I'll just have to wait a few more years for a candidate I find "sexy".

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