Edwards on Hardball last night

If you missed the Hardball last night, you can watch it here.

Here is Raleigh News & Observer:
'Hardball' not so hard for Edwards:

Likely Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards passed the world leader pop quiz Tuesday night.

He correctly identified the leaders of Canada, Mexico, Iraq, Germany, South Africa and Italy when quizzed by Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball" program.

In fact, Edwards seemed to have little trouble fielding questions, ranging from the war in Iraq to his relative lack of foreign policy experience to his political ties to organized labor, before a live UNC-Chapel Hill crowd and a national TV audience.

"This is not hardball, this is batting practice," Matthews complained to the audience during a commercial break. "This guy is killing me. He couldn't do this four years ago."

Matthews also couldn't make Edwards, the former senator and vice presidential candidate, tip his hand on whether he plans to run for president in 2008, although it is one of the worst-kept secrets that Edwards is preparing to launch his second try for the White House sometime during the next several weeks.

Political Wire:
Quote of the Day:

"Running before makes you focus on something different. Instead of focusing on how crowds respond to you and what everybody seems to love of you. That's not the test for being president. The test for being president is are you the best person to occupy the Oval Office and be the leader of the free world? Because literally the future of the world is at stake here. This is not about popularity and excitement."

MyDD:
John Edwards Hits it Out of the Park

Democratic Underground:
John Edwards is doing an INCREDIBLE job on Hardball !!

My impressions? Compared to two years ago, Edwards is more serious, more comfortable, more mature, more steeled, more confident and more knowledgeable. He sounds less pre-packaged, less rehearsed. While two years ago he would sometimes dodge a question and give an answer on a tangent, now he takes the questions head-on, reframes the questions before answering them (making Tweety look realy bad a couple of times, especially the answer to the question about labor unions which was given in such a nutty rightwing frame) and is not afraid to say what he really thinks. And Elizabeth is brilliant - she put Matthews in place even better than John did. Compare that performance to the guy currently living in the White House...