Edwards Says He Can Compete Anywhere

Edwards Says He Can Compete Anywhere
Friday, July 27, 2007
Associated Press
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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP)--Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards says he's the only southern Democratic candidate, has shown he can win in the South and that he can compete anywhere in the country.

The only Democratic presidents elected since 1964 have been from the South.

Edwards, in Myrtle Beach to greet supporters at a local restaurant, was asked whether he is the only Democrat who can hope to win against a Republican in November 2008.

Said Edwards: "I know what I know is that I can win. I'll let the others speak for themselves."

Edwards greeted supporters for about 30 minutes before heading across town to a fund-raiser.

He ended the day speaking to college Democrats in Columbia, describing his Republican opponents as George W. Bush on steroids and saying the country did not need four more years of that.

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=51991

ANY Democrat should be able to hold on to the Kerry states from 2004....If the Democratic nominee can pick up some areas in the interior west (Missouri, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada) then the south & even Ohio/Florida won't matter......

The 4 western states listed above are about 30 electoral votes, Kerry had 252 EV....We don't need the south to win...

Did he help Kerry get any Southern states in 2004? He's not even leading the Democratic field in his home state anymore. Which Southern state is he planning on picking up? Clinton has a better shot if she can rally the African American vote and her connections in Arkansas.

where he has shown he can win in the South. My recollection is he took Democratic primaries in the Carolinas, in which he was a favorite son (as Dean took Vermont as a favorite son), but that he lost all the other Southern states to Kerry. As VP candidate, he helped Kerry take exactly zero southern states.

I'm asking what he has shown, and even if he had shown any strength in the south previously, would that strength be weakened further this time by virtue of his having been absent from his position in the Senate for a number of years and by virtue of his having calculated to camaign to the left this time around. I remain hugeously unconvinced of this argument.

Kerry didn't put resources into competing in the southern states. That wasn't Edwards choice. Plus, campaigning for himself and campaigning for Kerry are two different things.

As for the primaries vs. the general election, there's a big difference between doing well with democrats and doing well with independents and republicans.