In the middle of enemy territory, a lone Republican quietly watched New Hampshire primary returns last Tuesday at John Edwards’ headquarters in Merrimack, N.H.
“I was staying in the hotel, so I wandered down,” John Cunningham, a 27-year-old flight attendant from Chicago, explained, standing in a crowd of 200 journalists and supporters of the North Carolina senator in the ballroom at the Merrimack Radisson.
He was lucky not to be standing at the president’s headquarters, considering what he’d say next.
“[President George W.] Bush hasn’t helped our standing in foreign relations,” he said.
“I’m not a really big fan of his religious stand on many issues,” he added. “I don’t think religion has any part in the legislative process.”
Cunningham admitted he would consider crossing party lines to vote for either Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry or Edwards.
Cunningham wasn’t the only outsider at Edwards’ party. Scott Miller, a 34-year-old Kerry supporter from Merrimack who came to Edwards’ party because it was “right down the street,” said Edwards was his “second choice.”
Edwards seems to be a lot of people’s second choice these days. Now that one-time front-runner and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has fallen from grace after his third-place finish behind Kerry and Edwards in Iowa on Jan. 19 and his subsequent ‘I have a scream’ speech, the primary season is shaping up to be a two-horse race between Kerry and Edwards.
Kerry is the clear front-runner, having won in Iowa, New Hampshire, and in five of the seven primaries or caucuses Tuesday. If he continues to be as successful as he has been in the first month of the primary season, Kerry will be in position to win the Democratic nomination for president. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday said that 53 percent of likely voters would choose Kerry, and 46 percent would choose Bush. The poll had a 4 percent margin of error, but the results show that the senator would at least give Bush a good fight.
But Edwards and his populist message have a clear appeal to the blue-collar Southern voters Democrats need desperately if they intend to beat Bush in November – voters Kerry might not be able to reach as easily. Although Edwards finished a disappointing fourth in New Hampshire and fared just as badly in North Dakota, New Mexico and Arizona, his 16-point victory over Kerry in South Carolina and his near-tie in Oklahoma demonstrate his appeal among southerners. And the same polls that foretold Kerry’s victory said Edwards would beat Bush as well, though by a slimmer margin (1 percent), so the choice between Kerry and Edwards isn’t quite so simple.
Miller, the Merrimack Kerry supporter, offered a possible solution.
“I’d like a Kerry-Edwards ticket,” he said.
Shawn White, president of the Boston University College Democrats, said in a phone interview Tuesday that Kerry and Edwards together would “definitely” have a great chance to beat Bush.
“Kerry is a New England boy, and Edwards is a southern boy,” said White, a self-proclaimed “Missouri boy.” “It’s a whole different mantra down there, and to have someone on the ticket who understands that is a big thing. Kerry is running well [in the South], but Edwards is running really well.”
“Either alone could either beat Bush or give him a hell of a run. Together, anything could happen.”
Samantha Shusterman, president of BU for John Kerry, insisted Kerry doesn’t need Edwards to win the South – and the White House. She said Kerry is “a strong candidate by himself.”
Shusterman agreed, however, that having Edwards on the ticket would help Kerry defeat Bush in November.
“It’s a smart idea to have a Northern liberal and a southern liberal on the same ticket,” the College of Arts and Sciences junior said in a phone interview as she took a break from calling Oklahoma voters Tuesday evening. “It might make Southern voters feel more comfortable.”
Dean and retired Gen. Wesley Clark are still strong candidates, and one or both re-entering the field is a definite possibility. Dean’s new campaign manager, Roy Neel, told CNN that the candidate is banking on a comeback and focusing on the next round of primaries. Clark is still a relative newcomer to the race and could pick up steam as the primary season continues. Right now, however, Kerry and Edwards have the broadest appeal, and if the Democrats’ main goal is to beat Bush in November (and most agree that it is), then a Kerry-Edwards ticket seems like their best option.