The Sanjaya Malakar of politics

From The San Francisco Chronicle:

Democrat John Edwards has eloquently established his credentials as an advocate for the poor with a presidential campaign focused on the devastating effects of poverty in America. But the former North Carolina senator's populist drive has hit a series of troubling land mines: a pair of $400 haircuts, a $500,000 paycheck from a hedge fund, and now a $55,000 payday for a speech on poverty to students at UC Davis.

The problem now facing the Democratic presidential candidate is whether the pileup of headlines, including the latest regarding hefty fees from university speeches reported Monday by The Chronicle, threatens to obliterate Edwards' dominant campaign theme. The former senator, who has been portrayed as the champion of the poor and the son of a humble mill worker, now faces the possibility that voters will have a different image: that of a millionaire trial lawyer who talks one way and lives another.

When I said that Edwards was an empty headed twit a while back I was not using hyperbole. The man is an intellectual lightweight. He just isn't very smart. He became rich as a lawyer not by being a better legal mind than his opponents but by being skilled at playing on the jury's heartstrings. As a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer he convinced juries to give large cash awards to clients based not on the guilt of the defendants but on sympathy for the plaintiffs and the knowledge that the defendants were covered by deep pocket insurance companies.

If Edwards had been required to make a living in the legal profession as anything but an ambulance chaser he would have eked out a marginal living writing wills and drawing up powers of attorney. That is if his short attention span would have allowed him to persist in such a mundane lifestyle.

Edwards' story of being born into a family of humble means is true and like many people who begin life poor and then find themselves wealthy he is unable to resist the ostentatious display of his money. Surely a man who aspires to run for the White House on the platform of being the voice of the poor and downtrodden could have chosen to live in a more modest dwelling. But Edwards did not and in fact the connection between what his mansion, along with his $400.00 haircuts and his hedge fund employment and astronomical speaking fees, would reveal about his priorities was beyond his limited intellectual powers to grasp.

Edwards will never be ready for prime time and someone who cares about him should take him by the hand and lead him out of the limelight before he harms himself any further.