He’s Everywhere

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa is a big state, but it can be a very small world.

Check out the following string of N.C./John Edwards connections experienced by this reporter on the way home from a week covering Edwards. As I was riding an airport shuttle bus in Des Moines, I discovered that the other passenger on the bus was also from North Carolina, and indeed, that we were on the same flight home. (And later, when we boarded the plane, we realized that we had even been assigned seats right next to each other.) The shuttle-bus conversation naturally turned to Edwards, and I learned that this fellow, who works as an architect, has kids who attend school in Chapel Hill with the two younger Edwards kids, Jack and Emma Claire. My companion said he was impressed that the Edwards children attend public school, and that Elizabeth Edwards apparently is a regular attendee of PTA meetings. He also said that he has seen the Edwards family car, and he insisted that Edwards, despite owning a $6 million mansion, does not drive anything too lavish. “Something like a Honda Accord,” my companion said. “Maybe an Acura.” On this last point, my journalistic skepticism persists.

Then, from the front of the shuttle bus, the bus driver piped up. He said he had attended band camp in Chapel Hill many years ago, and is now a huge Edwards supporter who will definitely back him in the Iowa caucuses. No wonder Edwards had Kevin Bacon campaigning for him recently — it seems like the new game in town is Six Degrees of John Edwards.

I will miss Iowa.