This quote from a Kerry aide jumped out at me from the New York Times this morning (Mickey Kaus also noted it): “This whole idea that you sort of cherry-pick the states you are going to compete in — that’s a vanity game, it’s not a real game.” This gets at a potential Edwards vulnerability — the fact that he is a bit of a showhorse instead of a workhorse, looking and talking a good game but without a lot of substance behind it. I also wonder if Kerry will begin to hit on the fact that John Edwards, the scourge of special interests, is almost wholly funded by one special interest, the trial lawyers. I believe I’ve heard Kerry mention this in the past, but it seems a ripe and perfectly legitimate point to make. I go back and forth on whether Kerry or Edwards would be more electable, but the contrast between their speeches last night couldn’t have been more stark. As the Times put it, when Kerry “bumped Mr. Edwards’ own ebulient speech off the air, it was as if a pep rally had morphed into math class.”