How Popular is a Populist?

I finished my Grade-A Iowa corn fed fillet mignon at the swank 801 Steak & Chop House downtown and decided to try and catch the John Edwards event I learned about while talking with Mike Madden (newly added to the writing staff of Salon.com) this afternoon. After winding my way through the east side of Des Moines, I found East High School packed. Cars had filled up the main parking lot, an auxiliary lot and lined the streets on all sides. I was fifteen minutes late for the event and when I got inside the building, people were hanging off the rafters. Iowa's First Lady was introducing John Edwards but the best view I could get was the back of Elizabeth Edwards' head. I spotted a sign that said "Standing room available upstairs" so I cut a path behind the curtains acting as the backdrop for the main stage. I found a set of stairs and as I bound up them I almost ran into John Edwards. He smiled politely and I took his picture. We have both been there before.

Edwards took the stage to a cheering crowd and then fed them tired applause lines dissing the "glorification of corporate profits" and "Blackwater employees in Iraq making ten times what you make" certainly with no mention of the positive economic necessity of corporate profits and the very real danger Blackwater's employees live in everyday which is a bit more involved than his Grandaddy's daily walk to the mill. "Corporate greed is killing the middle class in America. The richest Americans (at least he acknowledge that rich Americans are still citizens of the US) are getting richer. They have a stranglehold on your democracy."

Surprisingly, these cracks, while meeting applause, seemed almost fatigued even for the (what seemed like) 1000 plus in attendance. The Democrats are in a dog fight although I did not hear any of the attacks that Edwards has reportedly been directing at Obama and I will see tomorrow what kind of favors Barack returns to him.

Edwards speech alternated between stories of men, women and especially children who he personally had come across that were either sick, hurt, deformed or hungry, had no insurance and Edwards seemed to indicate it was rich peoples' fault. I do believe there is a very different tone that Obama's message of one United State of America versus Edwards' clear intent to divide the working class from the wealthy class. I just wonder if all those there I saw wearing nice khakis and loafers and long wool coats (and looked a lot more like me than the typical mill worker) will be able to tell the difference between these two Americas cause I am betting if they do the calculations they may find themselves on the wrong side of the equation.

Overall this was the largest gathering of Iowans I have come across and yet the Rudy bunch was just as vocal proportionately.

I was expecting that Edwards passion would effect me in some way (I mean I cried at Rocky 5) but I was not touched or moved or left feeling any real compassion. Leave it to a lawyer to get me all confused.