The Veteran vs. the Prosecutor

A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better AmericaBy John Kerry

Unsurprisingly, Senator John Kerry's (D-Mass.) campaign book begins with recollections of his service in Vietnam--his central life experience and a huge part of why he thinks he should be president. He recalls a conversation with John McCain, a fellow senator (R-Ariz.) across the aisle, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Kerry says that he and McCain found common ground based on shared expectations for their parties: service to America, a distaste for war, and bipartisan cooperation.

These are noble goals, and Kerry articulates them clearly and frequently--although not in a very sophisticated way--in A Call to Service. Kerry has always been the unofficial "establishment" frontrunner in the race, and for good reason. He is a center-left Vietnam veteran, a Senator from the wealthy and powerful state of Massachusetts, and he possesses a personality with some gravity. But for all his big ideas, Kerry's weakness has always been his fungibility on the specifics. This book doesn't help to clarify those positions.

The book's overall theme is that we need to give up self-interest and stop seeking government handouts, instead adopting "service" as our nation's core ideal. But he doesn't exactly advocate for a scaling back of entitlement programs; he mostly means to say that tax cuts endanger those welfare programs. The book is really targeted at elites, like the wealthy, or at unilateralist America-first types--it is not meant as a challenge to the average American.

The chapters addressing government management of the economy, in health care and energy, are less a critique of how government works than of how private companies overcharge consumers and ignore environmental costs. That's not to say that these positions are wrong--only that it's a bit disingenuous to say that he's all about "service" in the same way that he served in Vietnam, a parallel that he often draws. He's about wringing a little more out of wealthy America, and he should just come out and say that. No one who reads this book will be fooled by his rhetoric.

In his chapter about teaching, however, he proposes increasing funding and rejecting choice vouchers. Both are good examples of asking Americans to give something up to serve the public interest. These policies are politically risky--far riskier than blaming faceless special interests and corporations--so Kerry shows some backbone in proposing them. But they also avoid taking on key Democratic backers: teachers' unions and school boards.

Kerry desperately wants to be something to everyone. He describes himself as a "progressive," a policy "hedgehog," a "patriot," and "a charter member of one of the most selective but fastest growing sports clubs in the world: the NASCAR fans of Massachusetts." John Kerry's campaign book is about selling an idea of himself as President Kerry to anyone who asks. Those looking to get better details from the wishy-washy Candidate Kerry should seek them elsewhere.

Four TrialsBy John Edwards, with John Auchard

Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) celebrates the ways of "regular people" in American life, and his claim to the presidency is that he would work to preserve them. Throughout Four Trials, he finds beauty in the provinciality of those he defended in court. This is John Edwards' Other America: sweetly naive individuals struggling to get ahead in a world where doctors, truck drivers, and executives make negligent decisions and destroy their lives.

Coauthored by John Auchard, a professor of English at the University of Maryland, Four Trials is thoughtful and readable. It just isn't very political--a virtue for most books, but something of a liability for a campaign book.

Edwards campaigns often on the theme of "two Americas," and is unique among Democrats in being able to see beyond the Northeast and big cities. But he's also considered the lightweight in the race for those same reasons. Four Trials does little to change that status, although to its credit it is by far the most interesting of any of this season's campaign books. Edwards is also excused for not putting forth too many specifics because he has released a detailed policy outline on his campaign web site.

Through four narratives about important trials for Edwards, we learn about his family and his background, and a little bit about his politics. As he prosecuted lawsuits on behalf of injured families and children, he learned a lot about how companies work and how strong law is needed to protect "everyday" Americans. His platform reflects this; he argues against free trade that ships average-guy jobs abroad and he rages against special interests undercutting consumer protection laws.

While Edwards is a great trial lawyer--reputed to be one of the best in the country--his approach to the world just doesn't come off as very presidential. Although President George Bush isn't known for compromise, he has been highly effective in getting what he wants. That's a quality that Democrats should covet in one of their own.

But Edwards has kept up in the race (with a lot of second-place finishes) largely because those lawyer's blinders contrast against a sunny, up-beat campaign that has scrupulously avoided mudslinging against the other Dems. Edwards has always led among last-second voters who don't like the other candidates. But what makes Candidate Edwards so appealing are, in the end, a lot of qualities that have kept people from imagining him as President Edwards.