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Edwards walks fine line on Iraq votes:
ZANESVILLE, OHIO -- It is John Edwards' Clint Eastwood moment and one of his biggest applause lines.Well, there's a big honking surprise! These guys have nuance to spare.
"This is not a Democratic message or a Republican message," Edwards, the Democratic candidate for vice president, said at a late-night rally in Ohio last weekend. "This is an American message to al-Qaeda and all the terrorists around the world. You cannot run. You cannot hide. We will destroy you."
"USA! USA! USA!" a crowd of 10,000 chanted at the floodlit Muskingum County Courthouse.
The tough words are designed to reassure swing voters that a Democratic administration under Sen. John Kerry could deal with terrorists and the war in Iraq.
But Edwards' record on those matters as a North Carolina senator is more nuanced than his campaign rhetoric would suggest.
"There were only four senators who voted for the war and against paying for it, and two are on the Democratic ticket," Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said in an interview. "I have watched Kerry and Edwards trying to explain something which cannot be explained."I'm sure the two super heroes will find a way.
