Edwards Follows Gephardt/Dole Models ...

Matt Lewis | January 02, 2008 9:18 AM

Could it be that John Edwards has never heard George Santayana's admonition that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it?

For the last four years, John Edwards has essentially lived in Iowa. (More recently, both

Chris Dodd and Fred Thompson have also "moved" to the state). This is not unprecedented; In 1988, Rep. Dick Gephardt moved his entire family to Iowa. Though he won the state, he failed to win the nomination. Should Edwards win Iowa, his fate will likely be the same. In fairness, focusing solely on Iowa is a desperation strategy, but it was possibly the only viable option remaining for Edwards.

But that's not the only example of Edwards' failure to learn from history. John Edwards recently kicked off a "36 hour Marathon" in which he will be campainging day and night. This, of course, is reminiscent to Bob Dole's 96-hour round-the-clock campaigning before Election Day in 1996. Granted, at 73, Dole was much older than Edwards, but the end result was that rather than making Dole look energetic, the stunt seemed to make him appear more tired.

It would be interesting to know if John Edwards is intentionally modeling his campaign after a series of failed efforts.