Editor: Edwards is a 'Big Phony'

Seems the editorial page editor of The State, South Carolina's largest newspaper, isn't buying John Edwards' presidential act. In fact, Brad Warthen calls Edwards a "big phony."

Here's one example why, at a 2003 campaign event:

His face was impassive, slack, bored: Another crowd, another show. Nothing wrong with that — just a professional at work.

But then, I saw the thing that stuck with me: As his introduction reached its climax, he straightened, and turned on a thousand-watt smile as easily and artificially as flipping a switch. He assumed the look of a man who had just, quite unexpectedly, run into a long-lost best friend.

Here's another example from 2004. Edwards did lots of smiling, glad-handing and "It's an honor for me to meet you" type stuff with the common folk where it could make an impression. But where it didn't matter?

he utterly ignored the folks in our customer service department and others who had hoped for a handshake or a word from the Great Man. He had saved all his amiability, all his professionally entertaining energy and talent, for the folks upstairs who would have a say in the paper’s endorsement.

This stuff reminds me of the clip of Bill Clinton at Ron Brown's funeral. He's walking along, joking and laughing with someone and when he sees the camera on him, his face instantly morphs into a mask of grief and somber reflection and he looks down as he is struck with on-cue remorse.

It was a rarely-seen (for the public) and perfect example of what best characterizes liberalism:

symbolism over substance.