Donald Trump has supporters so rabid that, according to him, he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and no one would switch votes.
When former Gov. Edwin Edwards, D-La., heard that, he chuckled slyly and reminded the gaggle gathered in his grand foyer that he said far more colorful things in his near half-century in the public eye.
For instance, in the 1983 governor’s race, he boasted the only way for him to lose that race was if he was “caught in bed with a dead girl or live boy.”
This is a man who has seen it all and has battle scars to prove it.
To celebrate the third anniversary of his early release from probation, he invited about 50 people to his estate. Along with an invitation was a gold-leafed insert proclaiming a special announcement was to come at this gathering.
The 88-year-old former governor decided that he alone is the person who will be able to deny both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and business magnate Donald Trump the keys to White House.
After attending a brief strategy run-down, examining the independent campaign’s internal polling and accounting for the governor’s unique history of gaining the coy support of voters, I’m convinced he could be right.
Who else in America’s history slayed a Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard while simultaneously getting massive support from the elusive, white working class?
The secret to his sauce is not the home-churned butter required to make his grandmother’s famous Roux, but his understanding that people will support government action if it directly allows their hard work to have meaning and prosperity.
Bringing his old-school, New Deal Southern Democrat style in today’s context is a challenge he is ready and willing to take on.
Louisiana political vets are salivating at the idea of an Edwin Edwards national independent run.
Some say it will be quite the show watching him and his political team, made up of his children and led by his wife Trina, filling out the application to get on the ballot in all the remaining states.
Others are more preoccupied speculating about his possible running mate.
When I asked what or whom he was looking for as a VP candidate, he said it had to be someone who understood “how ta end all dis bickering like cats and coyotes,” so take that for what you will.
As I walked out of his home, his wife ran out to my car and told me to follow the campaign on Twitter @EdAndTrina2016. She assured me he would be doing all the tweeting and was studying Kanye’s tweets to figure out what the people wanted.
If this was not already one of the oddest elections in history, it surely is now.
Garrett Hines broke into the newsroom to write this column. Edwin Edwards approves this message.