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Shouting Distance

"This is about being heard," Edwards declares. "If I get heard, I'll be the nominee. If I get heard, I'll be the president." (By Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)

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And that's a big if.

The latest McClatchy-MSNBC poll in the state has Obama leading with 38 percent, followed by Clinton at 30 percent and Edwards at 19 percent, with 13 percent undecided. The poll also indicates a six-point surge for Edwards over the last week.

After the Edwards caravan leaves, James Dockins stands across the street inside his convenience store, Smokies, talking about life in the Homeland Park community. "These people have it tough. I have it tough as a store owner." No jobs, not many sales at the store. "We run a big credit because of it. I try to help out people, and it broke me."

He takes a seat on a stool at the pinball machine. Most of the people who came to the rally probably walked, he surmises. Not many of them have cars. A lot of folks had to sell their cars; some were repossessed.

Dockins has had his own setback -- a terrible heart attack a while back. He collapsed on the wooden floor of his store, and paramedics revived him three separate times. He was dead, and brought back to life.

Now, he is sipping a grape soda. Slowly. Don't underestimate the power of prayer, he says.

"It might be what this country needs -- somebody to pray for it."

He didn't attend the Edwards rally, doesn't get involved in politics -- "that's how you make enemies" -- but he watched from a distance. And from a distance, he was impressed. Maybe there is something to this John Edwards.

"John Edwards had that big a following, especially in this neighborhood? It's surprising," Dockins says.

Surprising.

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