EVERYTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT...:

Could estate help keep Edwards out of White House? (MIKE BAKER, 2/07/07, Associated Press)

Sitting on 102 secluded acres -- surrounded by trees and defended by no-trespassing signs -- the 28,000-square-foot estate that Edwards and his family call home has presidential privacy.

A main home has five bedrooms and six-and-a-half baths. It's connected by a covered walkway to a bright red addition known as "The Barn," that includes its own living facilities along with a handball court, an indoor pool and an indoor basketball court with a stage at one end. Nearby, the family has cleared space for a soccer field.

With a current building value of $4.3 million, the unfinished Edwards estate is already about $1 million more expensive than any other house in the county, according to tax records. It sits on land worth about $1.1 million.

Edwards purchased the land in 2004, during his failed run as vice president. He recently sold his mansion in Washington for $5.2 million.

Edwards is a former millionaire trial lawyer.

"Well, I think we know which America he's living in," Jay Leno quipped on NBC's Tonight Show, a riff of Edwards' frequent mention of the "two Americas" -- one for the wealthy and one for the poor.

Jet request takes Pelosi's image for a bumpy ride (MARGARET TALEV, 2/07/07, Mcclatchy-tribune )

[I]t's a potential image problem for the first female speaker -- caricatured for her wealth, love of designer clothes and chocolate obsession -- to be portrayed as thinking she deserves her own Air Force Three.

Ah, the party of the people....

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 8, 2007 8:34 AM