Why John Edwards?

[Coldstream]

I was 8 at the time, and whilst I’ve got vague memories of this election I can’t claim any firsthand knowledge.

I’m curious why John Edwards was chosen as VP and would appreciate the insight of more veteran posters. He never struck me as particularly charismatic, it’s not like his campaign was so good that Kerry needed him to unite the party. There were female options like Landrieu, Lincoln, who are also southerners and would at least have been historic.

I get the then-logic of choosing a southerner, but why not Bob Graham? Wesley Clark was also a southerner and would have doubled down on the veterans aspect of the ticket.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Was the effective runner up in the primaries, telegenic, regional balance, seen as having more appeal to working-class people than Kerry.

[Samof94]

Did they know the dark side of that man?

[Del Tachi]

The Kerry campaign was trying to capture lightening-in-a bottle by nominating a young Southerner in the mold of the two previous successful Democratic nominees (i.e., Clinton and Carter.)  Ted Kennedy, someone who had a lot of currency in Kerryworld, was also a big fan of Edwards (Kennedy said he reminded him of Bobby, LOL!)

Did they know the dark side of that man?

Edwards didn't begin his affair with Rielle Hunter until 2006.  However, Kerry does recount an eerie story about Edwards in his book:  when Edwards was under consideration for the VP slot, he recounted to Kerry a story about a moment alone with his son Wade's dead body.  Edwards told Kerry he had never told the story to anyone before, but Kerry remembered Edwards telling it to him less than 4 years earlier  

[TDAS04]

Kerry foolishly jumped on the media-promoted Edwards bandwagon.

[SInNYC]

Rumors were that Kerry wanted to pick Gephardt but the party leaders pushed him towards Edwards. Until Obama proved otherwise, conventional wisdom was that you needed a southerner on the ticket ("whistling past dixie" appeared later, and its sentiment was a minority view then). Edwards was also seen as a good personality match to Kerry's uncharismatic ways.

There were some who did not like Edwards since he changed his views by the day depending on what was popular - he was one of 7 founding members of the senate DLC wing, a strong Iraq war supporter, but claimed to be a progressive leader in 2004. Sen. Feingold actually had a major putdown of him mainly for his chameleon ways, and NYT had an article during the 2008 campaign about his ethically questionable use of his poverty institute finances primarily to fund speeches about poverty in IA and NH, but Edwards had a cult following and his supporters reacted by criticizing Feingold and NYT instead (Edwards had also offered outreach jobs to people who claimed to be progressive like some prominent bloggers).