So far, one thing is clear: he doesn’t want to follow in Thomas A. Hendricks’ footsteps.
In 1876, after serving Indiana as representative, senator and governor, Hendricks joined Samuel Tilden’s ticket as the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential nominee. Despite winning the popular vote, Tilden and Hendricks lost to the dynamic duo of Rutherford B. Hayes and William Almon Wheeler, 185-184, in a bitter Congressional decision over 20 disputed electoral votes. Unbowed, Hendricks ran again for vice president in 1884 alongside Grover Cleveland–making him the only politician in American history to pursue the post twice despite losing the first time around.
In a pair of encounters with the press over the past 24 hours, Edwards has shown little interest–OK, make that active, unbridled antipathy–to the idea of playing Hendricks to Obama’s Cleveland. Leaving an awards ceremony last night in Manhattan, he was engulfed by a swarm of reporters demanding to know whether he would accept a spot as second-in-command. “I have no interest in running as vice president,” he said. And in case those of us in the cheaper seats didn’t get the message, Edwards appeared this morning on the Today show to address, in Matt Lauer’s words, “speculation… that you would be a possible vice presidential candidate to run alongside Barack Obama.” His answer? A curt “No. Won’t happen.” When Lauer pushed harder–“Under no circumstance will you be a vice presidential candidate in a Barack Obama administration?”–Edwards stood firm. “It’s just not something I’m interested in,” he said.
But does Edwards’ veep denial mean isn’t interested in playing any part in Obama’s potential presidency? On the contrary. Both in New York and on Today, Edwards gave markedly different–and far more open-ended–answers to the question of whether he’d serve as attorney general. “Oh, I don’t have any thoughts about any of that,” he said after the awards ceremony; “Oh, I don’t want to get involved in that kind of speculation,” he told Lauer. “Right now, we’ve got to focus on getting Barack Obama elected president of the United States–and then we’ll worry about those things.” Wink, wink. (Edwards also revealed that Obama had told him, “I want you on my team. I want to help you both in the campaign and with the work we want to do when I’m the president.” Not something you do if you’re itching to decline an offer.) I first floated the notion of AG Edwards after his Jan. 19 loss in the Nevada caucuses, suggesting that he’d relish the opportunity to “battl[e] greedy corporations and corrupt lobbyists on behalf of middle-class Americans”; a week later, Robert Novak whispered that “Illinois Democrats close to Sen. Barack Obama are quietly passing the word that John Edwards will be named attorney general in an Obama administration.” Of course, Novak’s report should be read with the requisite grain of salt. Still, it makes perfect sense that Edwards would prefer one post (AG) to the other (VP). The latter requires months of rigorous campaigning and in the end leaves you either powerless (if you win) or further diminished (if you lose); the former promises real pull and less public performing. For a guy who’s already lost a year with his cancer-stricken wife and two young children to a second failed presidential bid, the choice seems pretty self-evident.
And in case Obama has another AG in mind, Edwards hasn’t ruled out other (more debonair) roles in an Obama White House. Appearing on the Colbert Report in mid-April, the ex-candidate explained how he would decide which Dem to endorse. “I will only support the candidate who promises to make me a spy,” he said. “That would be so cool. I’d get to have all those high-tech gadgets. And I’d like to go on at least one mission a month. And it should be some place awesome like Prague or a moon base, although I’m willing to settle for Tahiti or the Rivieria–anywhere there’s a chance for a jet ski chase.” Speaking Wednesday in Michigan, Edwards revived the joke. “You know, I was promised a jet ski,” he said. “And I haven’t gotten it yet.” A hint? You be the judge. But don’t be surprised if the former senator starts introducing himself as “Edwards. John Edwards” before November.
That said, it may be in Obama’s best interest to put the kibbosh on this AG and 007 stuff and push for veep instead. After all, guess who won the election of 1884? That’s right: Grover Cleveland. UPDATE, 5:32 p.m.: What Edwards wants is still an open question, but according to Talking Points Memo, what Edwards has already received is not: the promise of a multi-day poverty tour. “Before dropping out of the presidential race, John Edwards secured a private commitment from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that they’d undertake a poverty tour during the general election as the Democratic nominee, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks,” reports TPM’s Greg Sargent. “During his drop-out speech last January, Edwards only said that the two Dems had ‘both pledged’ to “make ending poverty central to their campaign. An actual poverty tour, by contrast, would be a specific, protracted undertaking, possibly with Edwards himself, a possibility that came up in the private talks. Such a tour could be a major media event.”
Can’t say the guy isn’t persuasive.
