Democratic presidential wannabe John Edwards' decision to hire Amanda Marcotte as his campaign's chief blogger is raising eyebrows among reasonable people given Marcotte's recent writings on the Duke University non-Rape Case.
From LieStoppers:
To date, Edwards’ silence on the Hoax has implied either a tacit acceptance of the conduct of disgraced District Attorney Mike Nifong, political cowardice, or indifference to injustice in his home state. His new blogmaster, however, has been anything but silent on the Hoax. As recently as last week, and despite mountains of proof to the contrary, Ms. Marcotte continued to claim, in graphic detail, that a sexual assault had occurred and went so far as to add, “We have conclusive evidence that happened.”
Of course there is no conclusive evidence that it happened - and mounting evidence that it didn't, and that the Duke lacrosse players are the victims of a run-amok prosecutor. But that doesn't seem to bother Ms. Marcotte - or Sen. Edwards.
Blogger Betsy Newmark comments:
This is more evidence of John Edwards' cowardice in not speaking out on this case happening in his own back yard. Doesn't he have some opinions on a runaway prosecutor trying to railroad three young men by hiding evidence and mischaracterizing the evidence he does have? Even if it was acceptable to be silent on the matter early on, since this Fall it's been clear how corrupted this case had become. Or aren't the three Duke boys representatives of that Other America that John Edwards is fighting for?
She continues:
Hiring a campaign blogger is now necessary for each campaign. But this episode shows how treacherous the waters can be when a candidate just dives in and picks someone. For now Edwards and his campaign will be in the position of having to defend what this woman has written in the past and explaining why he found her particular writing style so suitable for his campaign.
Not a good start for the Edwards campaign - and an object lesson to other campaigns, Republican and Democrat, presidential and down-ballot. Bloggers have a digital "paper" trail that, in the political blogosphere, is fair game. Edwards will be lucky if Marcotte's intemperate blogging doesn't make its way into the mainstream media, which could only hurt his campaign.
What was he thinking about? His hair?
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