Reading notes

This is a remarkable story, remarkably told.

Charlotte [NC] — The spectators in the packed courtroom that hot September day in 1997 had come to watch the final act in an extraordinary legal career. But in ways that went unstated, they ended up bearing witness to two painful personal dramas, the lawyer’s and the client’s.

The case of little Bailey Griffin, maimed at birth because an obstetrician waited too long to bring her into the world, was John Edwards’s last as a lawyer, and it crystallized major themes of his life and career.

There was the hell-bent work ethic that propelled him out of working-class beginnings, the natural affinity for the weak against the strong, the transcendent connection with jurors — qualities that later would catapult him from freshman senator to the Democratic vice presidential nomination he is to accept Wednesday night. There also was a record verdict for Bailey, which doctors and insurers — and ultimately President Bush — decried as part of the problem, not a solution, for the health care needs of ordinary Americans. …

Edwards won [the Griffins’] loyalty in the first encounter.

“He was wonderful with Bailey,” Ashea said. “She had trouble breathing, and she always had saliva coming out of her mouth because she couldn’t swallow.” While many people recoiled at Bailey, she said that “he picked her up in his arms, never stood back.” …

Edwards [on Wednesday] is to claim the second-biggest prize in his party. It will mark the culmination of a remarkable journey, from modest beginnings to the top of the legal profession, to the emotional depths and now the political heights. Edwards went to Raleigh on Tuesday before flying to Boston. His last stop was to visit the grave of his son.

Intelligence and passion in service of social justice. Sounds like someone who’s exercising his gifts to the fullest, caring for the least of these, pleasing the one who made him. Who will go for us? “Send me,” says John. Yes.