First Presidential 08 Opinion Post

[neadods]

Pam of Pam's House Blend explains clearly and succinctly why Edwards has plummeted in my opinon from "likely to get my vote" to "wouldn't piss on that man if he were on fire."

You can pick your stupidities. Was he:
1) Too damn dumb to vet blogs before he hires the bloggers?
2) Too politically naive to realize that whoever he hired would be personally attacked?
2a) Too politically naive to know what to do when the Swift Boating hit his campaign... again?
3) Too ball-less to stand up for his own decision to hire people?
4) Too weak to protect his own people from the inevitable attacks?

Any way you slice it, someone who rolls and shows his soft underbelly at the first serious campaign mudslinging and then throws his people to the wolves to make the wolves leave him alone is unfit to lead and defend the citizens of this (or any) country.

In the meantime, there's a whiny piece in the Post about Michelle Malkin that talks of her part in the blogger harassment as "She helped lead the charge against two liberal bloggers who resigned under pressure from John Edwards's presidential campaign" while avoiding the death threats levied against them and unironically pointing out that Malkin herself has moved to avoid harassment at her home.

(That the "two liberal bloggers" might have to move for the same reason is not discussed in the rush to condemn the vicious members of the "moonbat left." That Malkin has published the personal contact information of her enemies does get a one-line mention and her rebuttal without any evidence that the Post reporter actually looked to see if her claims were true... or mentioning what she told her minions to do with the information she provided.)

Comments

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

Nothing excuses the hateful, criminal behaviour of those people. They are as Christian, in my mind, as the KKK. I doubt they'd recognise Jesus if they fell over him in the driveway, and back in the day they'd have been in the front of the Pharisee line, calling for Pilate to nail that criminal to the cross.

But

to call Christians motherfuckers, to make comments like : When God filled Mary with his sticky white Holy Spirit ...

that's crude and offensive and unnecessary. It's the kind of hate speech that gets other people pilloried, just so long as the targets aren't Christians.

They are revolting people. Edwards was an idiot to get into bed with them. You cannot defend that kind of ick by pointing fingers at other icky people.

There's more than enough distasteful behaviour to go round, here. But it's ingenuous to say that because you don't like many of the people doing the criticism, that their criticism is therefore, by definiton, invalid.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That particular line is crude and offensive. I agree with you there. But I don't agree that simply because it is crude and offensive it is defacto hateful. It wasn't a threat. It wasn't a denigration of the humanity of any reader. It wasn't a call to hurt or pillory anyone. It pissed off many, but intimidated no one.

Since her detractors *have* threatened, pilloried, and roused the rabble against their enemies, I'm having a hell of a time trying to see their point of view that her crudity is as bad as their electronic and physical lynch mob. THAT is why I say their criticism is invalid, for they are bitching mightily that her crudity is is somehow equivalent to and reason for their threats. (The Malkin article whines that she had to move, but doesn't mention that *she* has led the mob that has made others move for the same reasons.)

And my contempt for Edwards remains... if he wanted these women to work for him, he should have done his homework. Once he picked them he should have known what to expect, and even if he couldn't stand up for his own decisions, he should have protected them from the physical intimidation that was slung their way.