Edwards pitches jobs in 'forgotten America'

Sen. John Edwards and his press secretary, Jennifer Palmieri, greet customers in a Charleston bookstore Saturday as he signs copies of his book, 'Four Trials.' (Yalonda M. James / The Associated Press) e-mail this story to a friend

Edwards had come to talk about jobs in this undeveloped area he called part of the "forgotten America."

Spearman, 23, a political independent who will "probably" vote Democratic, is looking for a candidate.

Edwards, a North Carolina senator, is looking for votes in the state's Feb. 3 primary.

While the senator's response satisfied Spearman, it left him still undecided. "Yes," Edwards had answered, then paused as if waiting to see whether a one-word answer would suffice.

Continuing, Edwards said he supported Second Amendment rights, but with safeguards to keep guns out of the hands of violent offenders and other limitations: "I don't think you need an AK-47 to go hunting."

To Spearman, "it could have been a more detailed explanation, but (Edwards) was looking for other questions than what I asked."

Focus time

Edwards' final campaign visit of 2003 came as the time neared for casual voters to begin focusing on this state's primary, which follows the Iowa caucuses Jan. 19 and the New Hampshire primary eight days later.

Later in the day, Edwards addressed supporters outside state Democratic Party headquarters in Columbia, where he paid the $2,500 filing fee to ensure a place on the ballot.

Don Fowler, former national party chairman, who is neutral in the race, was on hand. He said that with the holiday season still in full swing, "people aren't interested" in the campaign, but that will change in January.

State Rep. Ken Kennedy, D-Greeleyville, showed up at Brown's Barbecue north of Kingstree to hear Edwards.

"I like him, and a lot of what he's talking about," Kennedy said, but he's still torn between Edwards, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the national front-runner, and retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a third of the nine contenders.

Roy Poston Jr., 34, an antiques dealer from Hemingway built like an NFL defensive end, wanted to hear Edwards' views on job creation, an issue important to him because his father was laid off at the Georgetown Steel plant.

"He's a hometown boy," Poston said of the Seneca-born Edwards, "so I feel some kinship with him."

Humble appeal

Caesar McKnight, a local attorney who introduced Edwards to the crowd of 100 seated at folding tables in the beige cinderblock meeting room, said he's supporting him because of Edwards' humble mill-village upbringing.

"I identify with him. He worked his way through college. The person who most understands the struggle is the person who's of the struggle," McKnight said.

Edwards talked jobs in Kingstree, a struggling town in impoverished Williamsburg County, where the unemployment rate is 17 percent.

His own background gives him the best understanding of the needs "of places like Kingstree."

"I grew up in a working family in a rural area," he said. "I understand the struggles and the worry that Pee Dee residents are facing day in and day out because I lived it."

Edwards warmed over his jobs platform of fair trade, not free trade: ending "the absolute insanity" of tax breaks for businesses that send jobs overseas but offering a 10 percent tax cut to manufacturers who create domestic jobs and providing seed money for start-up businesses in high unemployment areas.

He began the day signing about 100 copies of his book, "Four Trials," as people lined up at a Market Street bookstore in downtown Charleston.

Friday night, Edwards met with Lowcountry supporters for a "working dinner," said Lane Brown, a former North Carolina legislator who now lives at Johns Island and was an early Edwards booster.

"We told him it was critical for him to spend more time in South Carolina, to the extent it doesn't detract from his efforts in Iowa and New Hampshire," Brown said in Kingstree. Edwards was receptive but noncommittal, he said.

Poll results

Edwards has led in several independent polls, but so have Dean and Clark. No candidate has broken out of the upper teens, and most polls show one-third or more potential voters undecided.

Time and the outcomes in the first primaries will help determine the outcome in South Carolina, Fowler said.

"What happens in Iowa and New Hampshire will define the alternatives in South Carolina," Fowler said. "Anybody who does well in Iowa and New Hampshire will have a chance in South Carolina, but if you don't do well in either one of them, you're dead.

"There might be three or four left, but no more," he predicted.

U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Dean lead in Iowa, and Dean has a strong edge in New Hampshire over Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

Fowler said if the primary were this weekend, Edwards and Dean would be the top vote-getters, with U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt having "a shot at it."

Such statements, he said, are irrelevant because so many people remain undecided and the impact of Iowa and New Hampshire is yet to be felt.

Another candidate, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, campaigned Saturday in Columbia and Florence and has scheduled campaign appearances today in the Pee Dee and Monday in the Midlands.

In Columbia, Edwards worked the crowd with two of his most recent endorsers at his side, rock musicians James "Soni" Sonefeld and Dean Felber of the South Carolina group Hootie and the Blowfish.

Edwards remained in Columbia overnight and was to speak this morning at Sidney Park AME Church.

Gephardt's son, Matt, is scheduled for file his father's papers as a candidate Monday, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman will file in person Tuesday.

Dean will campaign in Florence and Georgetown on Tuesday, and Clark will be in Charleston on Wednesday.

Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.