Photo Op Phony

"When I heard about this event going on, I just had to come out here," he told thousands of onlookers who had come to watch a marching-band competition between historically black colleges and now suddenly were in the middle of a political rally.

Then, after posing for a couple of picture with negroes, he left - mission accomplished. The newspapers will run pictures proving that he's close to the darkies.

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Why Edwards "had to come out here" was left unexplained. He did not watch even a minute of the performances. But the symbolism was clear: The stop was a quick and easy way to get face time with a large number of African Americans in his home state, where his campaign faces an uphill climb.

But, sadly for the Democrats, African-Americans are getting too sophisticed for this tripe anymore.

Edwards made a similar visit to a black church. "See, he's just trying to show that he went to a black church," Toni Paul, 35, a nurse, told her three children as Edwards shook hands outside a Charlotte church. Asked about her comments by a reporter, Paul, who is black, said she was "unimpressed" that Edwards had stopped by "because I want to see what he will actually do for us, what he will do for the African American community in Charlotte."