An unserious choice

Although I feel somewhat vindicated by boldly predicting the VP slot would never go to Gephardt, I was also wrong by dismissing Edwards. I found it hard to believe that Kerry would pick another Senator, another Washington insider, another lawyer (hello? balance?) for his ticket. Above all, even Kerry has stated that Edwards is unprepared for the Presidency – why is he now fit to be a heartbeat away?

In fact, this choice should be wholly unsurprising because it goes to the very heart of why I dislike Kerry so much. We live in perilous times. We’ve been catastrophically awakened to the fact that, long before our “cowboy” president was elected, there’s a group of fanatics who want to destroy America. But John Kerry says the terrorist threat is overstated, he offers contradictory proposals to fight the war on terrorism, and always seeks the approval of other nations leaving America’s safety to chance. Now, he feels no compunction about putting a one-term trial lawyer in the #2 spot, for the purely political reason of injecting some life into his flagging campaign. John Kerry is an unserious candidate during serious times.

Extra reading: Real Clear Politics has a very good commentary on the Edwards pick. The Poliblogger and Vodkapundit weigh the pros and cons. Byron York has a piece called “Why Edwards Hurts Kerry.”

Plus: A flashback to John Edwards’ appearance on Meet the Press in May 2002. I couldn’t find the transcript, but here’s the Howard Kurtz roundup of negative reviews. Edwards has been getting by with his chipmunk smile. Will he fold like a cheap card table under the withering media attention? It could happen.