Southern Charm? Y'all.

Dr Schmidt:
"Can you speak at all toEdwards style - -how is Southern polite country charm goes over way betterin Iowa, or at least has in the past .. where as the Granite state hasgiven a much more frosty reception, they seem a bit more suspicious or cynical ... which may or may not give Edwards good reason to focus more on Iowa than New Hampshire..."

Answer: Yes - in Iowa Southern Charm and good looks, AND having lived in Iowa for 4 years, and having lobbied every politician in the state for that long, and having been the VP candidate for Kerry those have also helped in Iowa. (We'll have to see how long he stays on top - remeber Howard Dean?! He was on top, fund raising like krazee, had all the "deaniaks" working for him, had all the adrenalin, was on the attack against Bush full bore before any of the other Democratic candidates in 2004 started they attacks, and ... well he tanked in Iowa and then evaporated. :-D

But the Southern style is not going over well IN THE SOUTH EVEN! I am in Charleston as I blog this and African American voters in the South don't necessarily trust southern "charm" from white lawyers - they understand that it tells you little about what's inside. .. so Hillary and Barak are doing well with no Southern Charm.

The puzzle has always been why Edwards, from South Carolin and Senator from North Carolina does not "own" the South.

Reporter Question: "Is a more negative Edwards compared to the 2004 caucuses when he stood out as "the nice guy" who was all positive and did not attack his rivals fro the nomination, ... could that hurt him in Iowa and New Hampshire where people like "nice"?

My Answer: A more negative Edwards worries some people BUT this is not 2004 and you cannot run same campaign or be the same candidate you were the last time anyway! Just look at McCain!

So, Edwards supporters understand that with a huge field of Dems they need to start slashing each other.

I for one, think they need to accelerate the negative campaigning.

My advice to them: - "Just say what you are thinking about each other!" Such as:
Vegan Little Person - "Exploding Congressman - can you say shuffleboard?!" - "Conniving, slick trial lawyer - eight more years of THEM? Yuck!", "Hypocritical Trial Lawyer", "Christopher WHO?", or more generally from the top 3 "What are you "munchkins" doing in this race?", etc. etc.