As it must be for most Democrats, who face a double challenge this week and in the coming months of spreading the message of a candidate they're not passionate about, while building momentum on an underlying, if not overt, negative.
Edwards and Kerry can grin until Crest stocks break the sound barrier, but their ultra-brite smiles can't conceal the party-seethe beneath the surface. As students of Nurse Ratched know, repressed anger is a tricky rascal.
But the biggest road bump - and the telling-est irony - may be selling the message that John Kerry is the people's candidate. Kerry may be a lot of things, many of them admirable, but a billionaire's husband whose Swiss boarding school masters worried about the Kerry boy's "excessive amounts of self-confidence" is no more Of The People than George Bush is Of The Prairie.
And though Edwards can part the kudzu and speak down-home, he can't single-handedly solve the Democrats' authenticity problem. You simply can't fake authenticity.
Bill Clinton was a lot of things, not all so admirable, but he was the real deal when it came to The People. He didn't have to fake the schmooze or ask directions in the trailer park, while Kerry is the awkward white boy who whiffs on the high-five.
An on-line photo series of Kerry's life tells the story: here's Kerry gazing pensively; here's Kerry thinking deeply; here's Kerry sketching on Cape Cod. What, no penning poetry while stroking the pet poodle?
Fast-forward to Monday night's Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park, and here's Kerry tossing the first pitch to a soldier, a National Guard veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing contrived about that!
Americans love theater as much as anyone and expect a little choreography with their conventions. But they also possess a highly evolved sense of malarkey and know when something's phony. In the end, authentic anger may play better in Peoria than pretend populism. At least it's real.