Opinion: John and Elizabeth Edwards’ fast-food ritual

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As we previewed in an item last week, the best-known national group of Democratic centrists wraps up its annual convention today scorned by every one of the party’s presidential contenders. But at least one of those candidates -- John Edwards -- had a good reason for skipping the gathering in Nashville.

It’s his 30th wedding anniversary, and he and his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, are at home in North Carolina. Presumably, their day includes a trip to a local Wendy’s, a tradition that stems from what obviously was a particularly memorable order of fast-food fare on their first anniversary.

The ritual received a fair amount of attention after John F. Kerry picked Edwards as his running mate for the 2004 Democratic presidential ticket. At that time, Edwards explained to Katie Couric on the ‘Today Show’ that on that first anniversary, ‘we were in the middle of moving. We were grungy and awful. And so instead of trying to go someplace fancy ... we just went to Wendy’s.’

Not surprisingly, Edwards still gets asked about the ‘celebration’ (some may doubt whether that noun truly applies in this case). ‘Now that you’re successful, do you get the double burger?’ Jay Leno asked recently when Edwards appeared on ‘The Tonight Show.’

The candidate responded by poking fun at another personal peculiarity that was much in the news earlier this year. ‘Well see,’ he said, ‘you can’t spend money on food when you’re spending money on haircuts.’

The absence of Edwards, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and other White House aspirants from the Democratic Leadership Council’s convention spawned quite a bit of comment over the weekend, including this piece by the Politico’s David Paul Kuhn and this commentary in the New York Times. Providing some solace for the DLC, Bill Clinton will be there as today’s featured speaker.

-- Don Frederick