With Stephen Colbert announcing his entrance into the presidential race, the John Edwards campaign lashed out.
“What is more troubling than his quest for a status his own mother won’t grant him (favorite son) are his ties to the salty food industry,” said Edwards spokeswoman, Teresa Wells. “As the candidate of Doritos, his hands are stained by corporate corruption and nacho cheese. John Edwards has never taken a dime from taco chip lobbyists and America deserves a President who isn’t in the pocket of the snack food special interests.”
This jab at Colbert backfired. Edwards actually accepted two donations totalling $750 from Joyce Duesman, formerly a Frito-Lay executive and now a V.P. with PepsiCo, which owns Frito-Lay.
Now that Colbert is out of the race, Edwards has even more room to steal Colbert’s rhetoric.
On Halloween, the day before the South Carolina Democratic Party rejected Colbert’s application to join its ballot, Edwards released a new campaign advertisement to YouTube titled “Heroes.”
Who are the heroes? Well the American people, of course. “They are the ones that we speak for,” Edwards says. “They are the ones that we stand up for.”
Edwards must have started to watch “The Colbert Report,” because Colbert espouses the concept of the Everyman as the true hero four nights a week on his show.
In fact, on the first episode, Colbert declared, “This show is not about me. No, this program is dedicated to you, the heroes. And who are the heroes? The people who watch this show, average hard-working Americans.”
This week, Edwards is trying to outdo Colbert in both hero rhetoric and narcissism. David Bonior, Edwards’ national campaign manager, has invited supporters to become a part of “A Gallery of Heroes.” By submitting a photograph of themselves, and a $15 donation, everyday Americans can be featured in the “Heroes of One America” mosaic. What is it a mosaic of? Why, John Edwards speaking into a microphone with red and white stripes in the background, of course.
Sure, Colbert is popular and he would have a better chance in a general election than say, Dennis Kucinich, but that doesn’t mean someone who wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate should be taking campaign pointers from him.