What Does Edwards Bring to the Dem Ticket?

Extra pounds, in the guise of Mrs. Edwards. And that will lead to Kerry/Edwards sweeping the chubby vote.

So proclaimeth The New Republic's Gregg Easterbrook:

Elizabeth Edwards is overweight but still attractive. There's a huge demographic of Americans who are overweight though still striving to look good: Elizabeth Edwards could become their champion! On the serious side, many women have gone through the life experience of being slender in youth–check the Edwards's wedding-day photo, Elizabeth is a lithe beauty–then simply not being able to keep the pounds off following the double whammy of childbearing followed by child-rearing, which means, oh, 20 years or so without time to exercise. By being an overweight yet still attractive traditional mom, Elizabeth Edwards radiates "I am a real-world person" in a way that none of the other three wives can.

Whole thing here.

Suddenly, Dick Cheney's understated appeal becomes clearer: Beyond radiating the attractive warmth of a businessman-killer straight out of a Quinn-Martin Production, his beer belly (and multiple heart attacks) proclaim that he, too, is a real-world person (compared to, say, George W. Bush's ability to run seven minute miles into his 50s).