What you need to know about Edwards, Clinton, Kerry and the politics of conviction

If you're like me, you think the phrase "conviction politics" is an oxymoron, or at least sounds like one.

But John Edwards has a point and E.J. Dionne was there to capture it:

"It needs to be clear to the country what our core beliefs are, and the last thing we need is strategic maneuvering," Edwards says. "What people want to see is leadership and strength and conviction. This is about what's inside us. It's not about how we get to the right place."

[Dionne continues]... conviction politics has not been in vogue in progressive circles. This era's two great center-left politicians, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, have been resolute Third Wayers, tacking carefully between left and right. The Third Way was a tacit admission of conservatism's momentum.

Edwards is well positioned to offer Third Way 3.0. He's a young southerner, a working-class kid made good whose dad was a deacon in his church. He speaks admiringly of Clinton's skills, particularly the former president's ability to make others feel that he identifies with their struggles.

But Edwards's instincts tell him that tepid politics are exactly what the Democrats don't need now. "I don't think this is about moderate, conservative, liberal," he says. "Americans are looking for strength, an idealistic strength. They want to know what we'd do on Day One if we ran the country."

Here's another thing: I can't speak for Tony Blair, but I think it would be a mistake to remember Clinton as a guy with no core beliefs. Furthermore, when you're talking about politicians, I think it's a mistake to put the words "tepid" and "Clinton" in the same paragraph. The fact is, Clinton had very strong core beliefs -- they were grounded in his own biography, in his identification with "the have-nots." That's part of what Toni Morrison sensed when she wrote that infamous piece about Clinton being "the first black President."

And if you're still reading and shaking your head in disagreement right about now, I'll make you a bet that will prove my point: the African American Church will be the framing metaphor for Clinton's funeral the same way the American military was the framing metaphor for Reagan's. They will welcome him into their loving embrace and guide him home to his final rest.

Back to Edwards: like Clinton, his personal story is authentic and inspiring and it has the added benefit of providing a plausible explanation for who Edwards turned out to be: someone who fights for the little guy. The fact that he became a millionaire doing it, well, that's just a good old Horatio Alger, Jimmy Stewart, rags-to-riches Amercian success story. Who doesn't love that?

By way of random comparison, the connection between John Kerry's biography and his core beliefs, well, it was pretty tenous, although God knows there really was a lot to work with. But the whole Vietnam thing didn't work because Kerry simply never dropped the other shoe: he never explained how his experience back then informed and animated his world-view today. He was the one who famously said, "How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?" and then he couldn't (or wouldn't) say the Iraq war was a mistake! Wasn't that the whole point of a guy like Kerry running against a guy like Bush! I mean, for God's sake people, only Nixon could go to China! But Kerry simply nuanced and thought his campaign to death and American history just walked on by one of its great defining moments.

Of course, all of this is just my opinion; I could be wrong.

But I doubt it.