John Edwards -- the Candid Candidate?

In his reaction to the televised press conference where 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee and 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced that his campaign will continue even after Mrs. Edwards was diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer, veteran Democratic strategist Tom O'Donnell spoke for many when he observed about the clearly devoted couple: "They were both completely real. There was not a false note sounded by either of them."

Edwards, who has been running third behind U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois in most polls of Democratic voters, is challenging history. What do Republican Henry Cabot Lodge in 1964, Democrat Edmund Muskie in 1972, Democrat Sargent Shriver in 1976, Republican Bob Dole in 1980 and Democrat Joe Lieberman in 2004 have in common? Every one of them was a defeated vice presidential nominee in the immediately preceding election who sought — and then failed to win — his party's presidential nomination.

If Clinton is running on her indispensable experiences as co-pilot in her husband's now-more-fondly-recalled eight White House years and as a gender-pioneer, and if Obama is running on the unprecedented electricity he generates nearly everywhere and the unstated premise that his election would, after George W. Bush's disastrous tenure, redeem America to Americans, then John Edwards is running on bold specifics laced with impolitic candor.

There are significantly more poor Americans, more Americans without health coverage and substantially more income inequality among Americans today than there were before George Bush and Dick Cheney were inaugurated.

While Obama pledges to get health insurance for everyone by the end of his first White House term and Clinton, burnt by the failure of the task force she commanded to provide health care for all in Bill Clinton's first term, has gone into her "listening" mode, Edwards proposes to provide health insurance for all by, among other things, expanding existing programs such as Medicaid, offering tax credits to make health insurance more affordable and legalizing multi-state insurance pools offering a variety of plans at lower rates.

The cost, acknowledges Edwards, could be up to $120 billion.

Wouldn't that mean higher taxes? "Yes," answers John Edwards, stepping right on an alleged "third rail" of contemporary electoral politics, "we'll have to raise taxes."

What taxes? For starters, Edwards would eliminate all the tax cuts President Bush championed for Americans earning more than $200,000 a year. How's that for a willingness to afflict the politically influential comfortable?

You don't get the garden variety Democratic coddling of the politically powerful middle class from the former North Carolina senator. His "moral issues," instead of same-sex marriage or school prayer, are "the 47 million people who don't have health care coverage," "the 37 million people who face every day trying to take care of themselves and their family, living in poverty," as well as "the half the planet who live on $2 a day." He has set the goal of ending poverty in 30 years, and he spells out a program to do so.

On his vote to support the U.S. war against Iraq, Edwards, in stark contrast to Clinton, has publicly and repeatedly admitted how wrong he was. He told Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" that "it wasn't just the weapons of mass destruction I was wrong about. It's become absolutely clear — and I'm very critical of myself for this — become absolutely clear looking back that I should not have given the president this authority."

Nobody running has spent more time effectively than Edwards has in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Ironically, the importance of these four "small" states will be magnified by the concentration of big-state primaries on Feb. 5. No amount of cash for TV commercials will bail out the candidate in Florida, New Jersey or California who has failed to finish in the top three in Iowa or the top two in New Hampshire.

Barack Obama has a compelling theme of Hope. Hillary Clinton has a persuasive resume and impressive organizational prowess. But John Edwards, who has put the candid back in candidate, has what each of them now lacks — a defined message and specific agenda.

To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

COPYRIGHT 2007 MARK SHIELDS