Edwards firing Marcotte & McEwan fatal shot to campaign
I'm on a hideous work rotation and haven't been able to read the posts but I see Edwards is going to fire Marcotte and McEwan. If Edwards caves into the minority voice screech machine, and other right wing wackos who represent a demographic that will never be in his base and are using this faux scandal to throw some red meat to their rabid followers, he'll lose more than two really good bloggers. He'll lose the support of the greater majority of reality based internet activists who, although they may use more polite language, basically agree with Marcotte and McEwan on a lot of issues.
If he goes through with it, he might as well fold up shop. He's done. For one thing, if he hired them without reading their blogs in the first place, and didn't know their style, then he's too stupid to be president. That's the way this demographic talks and this is the target group of voters that he needs to pull this off. The wrongwingnuts led around by Malkin only have as much power as one gives them. If he's unwilling to stand up for Amanda and Melissa now, and allows the wingnuts, who scream ever louder as their numbers diminish, to dictate his staff, then he doesn't have the cajones for the job.
He's surely lost any chance of getting my vote, and I was actually considering supporting him based on the hires, even as I parsed his disturbing remarks on Iran.
Note: I've been on this story from day one. More posts here, here and here
If he goes through with it, he might as well fold up shop. He's done. For one thing, if he hired them without reading their blogs in the first place, and didn't know their style, then he's too stupid to be president. That's the way this demographic talks and this is the target group of voters that he needs to pull this off. The wrongwingnuts led around by Malkin only have as much power as one gives them. If he's unwilling to stand up for Amanda and Melissa now, and allows the wingnuts, who scream ever louder as their numbers diminish, to dictate his staff, then he doesn't have the cajones for the job.
He's surely lost any chance of getting my vote, and I was actually considering supporting him based on the hires, even as I parsed his disturbing remarks on Iran.
Note: I've been on this story from day one. More posts here, here and here
posted by Libby Spencer at 9:41 PM
6 Comments:
Just logged back on so this is the first I've heard about it, but the whole sorry episode speaks volumes about how behind the curve Edwards and his machine are in regards to blogs and networking. I absolutely agree that if they're fired Edwards is toast because at this point blogging and the net are far more important to campaigning than old style political operatives realize. They shuddered when the likes of Malkin et al made a stink? Fuck em, they're cowards.
I'm at the end of a really brutal work rotation and barely able to form sentences this morning Nolo but I'd say, fuck em they're cowards, pretty well sums it up.
There may be nuances I'm missing but but if they get weak in the knees at the first swiftboat attack then they should just go away. Don't they realize the brownshirts will do ANYTHING to destroy their political opponents and the ONLY thing to do now is fight? Of course they're going to lie, of course they're going to smear, you bet they'll feign the fake righteous indignation and pretend to get the vapors at the mention of a cuss word.
By the way, Amanda points out the archaic definition of 'vulgar' means 'of the common people'.
Libby, uhh Ms. SPencer,
thnks for your reply in the other thread about on this topic.
I guess I'm just gonna have to disagree on whether or not Amanda is very far out of the mainstream. Mabye bloggers have their own mainstream, I don't know. But I think if people go around and look at the comments sections of the various blogs on this topic, they'll see that there are more mature arguments being made than just critqing her language...cursing.
I for one had conlcuded before this incident, that Amanda Marcotte was like a left-wing version of Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, etc, so my argument doesn't rely on people like Malkin or Donahue. Donahue, in particular, makes my skin crawl.
Pandagon has recently pointed out John McCain's recent hire and how ridiculous this person is and unfair it is that Malkin and Donhue and those like him will trhow a fit over Edwards hiring Marcotte but that McCain hired this obviously contraversial right-wing lighting rod. But see, what if I admit that the right is basically full of shit? What then? It may be that once we remove all the brush from on top of the argument, and get down to the core, that I may lose, but it seems inappropriate to focus only on the brush. Maybe that's a silly metaphor, but I'm bascially saying that there are more substantive claims from people who are making much more solid argument about the content, not only the style, of Marcotte's words. If John McCain can live in a world where he doesn't have to be held accountable for his hire, then so much the worse for John McCain. he's not a guy that I would consider voting for anyway. But for the record, since John McCain has hired a guy who he previously called descipable, as John Stewart would say, the striaght talk express has taken a detour through bullshit town. But that doesn't change the argument about Marcotte one bit.
I'm like you this morning, groggy.And like many of you I'm sure, I'm beginning to tire of this.
I've gotten into the statements Ms. Marcotte has made way too many times. It's not productive and its actually counterproductive. Suffice it to say that there are many non-right wingers who, even after you sanitize the comments in question, even after you get past what right-wingers say and Amanda Marcotte' style. Her style is abrasive and prickly, and that raised some issues, like what one believes the level of discourse should be. But even her content is very problematic, and not only to right wingers.
I suppose maybe this just means that my ideological disgareements with the left-wing bloesphere are deeper than I imagined, since it seems that it has been eternally decreed in Heaven that my right-wing friends don't see the problem with FoxNews, and my left-wing friends don't see the problem with Michael Moore and Amanda Marcotte. Both of these phenomena (which mighjt actually be the same phenomena) are surprising to me. BTW, I know Fox News is MUCH more distrubing to me than anything on the left, which is one of the many reasons I'm a Democrat.
But be honest, most of you have to believe Bill Clinton was out of line with his Sista Soljah moment right? I mean Clinton was a Southern white male, and Sista Soljah was a black female, so Clinton could never have understood what she had been through right? So when he called her on her lyrics, he was just jumping the gun and taking her words out of context and not realizing that those who are in groups that have been historically persecuted have a greater right to lash out uncontrolably than those who aren't in historically subjagated groups...right? This seems like a basic application of the ideology Ms. Marcotte operates by.
Edwards didn't fire them.
Jay J - please call me Libby. I'm not one for formalities. I'll concede that Amanda has a raw style and is prone to profanity but I don't think it's fair to compare her to Coulter and Malkin. As I've said, I don't read her that much, to my knowlege she hasn't called for violence against anyone. And even in this "offensive" post about the Duke incident, she was advocating for respect for the victim, not lynching the alleged perps.
I don't love that style either and I'd agree that it's that kind of confrontational attitude on both sides of the fence that coarsens the debate but that doesn't change the fact that Amanda is often right.
As for Moore. I don't understand the Moore hatred. Or the Clinton hatred. Or the Kennedy hatred. These people are not running the country. They're not sending our young people off to die on speculative military misadventures. It seems to me that hatred is irrational and misplaced. And I think that premise is bolstered by the fact that the same people who are afflicted with these hatreds accuse anyone who calls on the president to account for his actions that actually do impact us as being afflicted with some kind of irrational hate for Bush.
Jam - thanks for the heads up.
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