Yes, Panda-Gone.

A few days later than reported, feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte has quit the John Edwards campaign. Liberal bloggers are swearing that she jumped, and wasn't pushed. The more interesting thing: Of the entire Democratic field for president, three candidates are making their second runs. Dennis Kucinich hasn't embarrassed himself any worse than he usually does. Joe Biden has made a gaffe that probably killed his chances, which were only on life support from the getgo. Edwards has made the worst hiring decision of any presidential candidate since Eisenhower signed Charles Starkweather to be his Nebraska media coordinator.* So… is running for president such a mighty task that no one can really "master" it? Or are Edwards and Biden unusually incompetent?

Additional fun fact: Edwards announced his first presidential campaign on September 15, 2003. He's been running for president or for vice president for three years and four months. That's got to either turn you into a pro or drive you completely insane.

*This did not happen.

Comments

[Happy Gerbil]

I don't care about her blasphemy but given the truly disgusting disregard for the guilt or innocence of the Duke lacrosse players-e.g.,since they had a penis, they deserved what they got--I'm glad to hear that that Moron Marcotte got her ass canned.

Message to the Panda-ess:

That was your 15 seconds of fame, you stupid troll. Enjoy the well-deserved obscurity that will doubtless characterize the rest of your life. And quit crying into your pillow; it's undignified.

[Mackenzie]

Ugh. And right after I read the fuzzy Time article about Marcotte in my bubble bath.

Sad panda...saaad paanda.

[Fluffy]

I thought her Duke comments seemed a bit off, but William Donohue is the personification of every anti-religious statement these writers ever made, and as such he should have been the last person whose complaints were given any credence.

[Brian24]

That's got to either turn you into a pro or drive you completely insane.

Assuming those are not the same thing.

[Mona]

but William Donohue is the personification of every anti-religious statement these writers ever made, and as such he should have been the last person whose complaints were given any credence.

Wm Donohue is loathsome beyond description. But Amanda Marcotte is a demented, bigoted shrew. Her gratuitous, vulgar lampooning of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation is offensive to even many liberal Catholics (and I'm an atheist, just not politically tone deaf). That belief, while irrational and actually heavily influenced by pagan religions, has no bearing on abortion or abortion politics, Marcotte's pet issues. But it is central to the Xian view of Christ as divine.

And the Duke Lacrosse team members, it strongly appears, were victimized by a power-crazed, evil prosecutor. Men can be victims, too, except in the fever swamps of fundy feminism.

What national candidate with any functioning campaign staff, or sense of judgment, does not vet hires when they have a paper/cyber trail? That the Edwards folks let her get through is hardly inspiring regarding his competency.

But the worst sin Edwards and Marcotte committed -- far and away -- was to create an issue legitimately exploited by the vile Bill Donohue. They made that toad right, and there is no forgiving that.

[ajay]

Incidentally, Dave, are you being paid for writing articles suggesting that Edwards is going insane? Because it's not the first time someone's suggested it. Always nice to be in at the birth of a smear.

[minorripper]

Edwards is shedding the softie,breck girl image though...here's video proof:
http://minor-ripper.blogspot.com/2007/02/john-edwards-gets-tough-with-matt-lauer_08.html

[gaijin]

Edwards is shedding the softie,breck girl image though...here's video proof:
http://minor-ripper.blogspot.com/2007/02/john-edwards-gets-tough-with-matt-lauer_08.html

LMAO!

[Johnny]

Now, offer this level of inside commentary on a republican campaign and I will stop thinking you are all full of sh*t.

I'm not takin' any bets on that happening anytime soon though....(laughing)

[Abdul]

The problem with comparing Bill Donahuse to Amanda Marcotte is that Donahue was never hired by a mainstream Republican candidate. Few mainstream candidates of either party would hire someone so prone to shooting off their mouths. Oen wonders is Edwards just threw a dart at a list of bloggers when he hired Marcotte.

[joe]

True enough, Abdul.

Edwards should have just convinced some segment of his donors to donote to her instead, so she could say outrageous things about his opponents while allowing his campaign to maintain deniability. And if any of her rantings ever caught on, he could start repeating them.

That's the way Rove does it, and it's worked out pretty well for his candidates.

[aPheasantPlucker]

"Or are Edwards and Biden unusually incompetent?"

The answer is yes, Edwards and Biden are unusually incompetent.

[lunchstealer]

And the Duke Lacrosse team members, it strongly appears, were victimized by a power-crazed, evil prosecutor. Men can be victims, too, except in the fever swamps of fundy feminism.

The irony here is that they are clearly victims of an overzealous prosecutor, but it's entirely possible that they are also guilty as hell. Not in the legal sense - clearly in the eyes of the law they are innocent, as they have not been proven guilty by due process, and this is right and proper. But just because they are not guilty legally, that doesn't mean that they didn't assault that woman in some way. It's entirely possible that she was more or less telling the truth, but that the prosecutor just got star-struck and decided to go no-holds-barred, constitution-be-damned after these boys.

I don't want to minimize the transgressions of the prosecutor, I just want to point out that Nifong's prosecutorial misconduct does not mean that the lacrosse team didn't get too rowdy that night.

I mean, technically OJ is innocent, is he not? But I am quite convinced that he did it. The case against the Duke kids was never as strong, so I don't want to call them guilty, but I just want to point out that it isn't unreasonable to believe that they are.

Hell, Anita Hill might've been telling the truth, too. Not gonna hold my breath, but I've got to admit the possibility.

[joe]

lunchstealer,

The guy who put together the case that Anita Hill was lying - David Brock, formerly of the American Spectator, the inventor of "a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty" - admitted that he made it up, and wrote a mea culpa book, about five years ago.

[lunchstealer]

Biden is probably unusually incompetent. However, I think that Edwards gambled and lost. He was trying something that deserved to be tried - that is bringing on a serious partisan, rather than a slick political operator. And he learned the lesson for every politician out there that you have to REALLY vet such a partisan's written record with a fine-toothed comb.

Marcotte was a terrible choice, as she's more vitriolic than smart, from the small and probably unrepresentative sample I've read. But it was an interesting experiment, and it probably didn't really hurt Edwards too much long term. It will have blown over long before the primaries really start in A FRICKIN YEAR.

Oh, and I wanna chime in with a 'me three' on the 'Donahue is a fucktard' meme.

[lunchstealer]

"a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty"

Was Brock describing himself when he said that?

[what joe didn\'t say]

lunchstealer,

If you knew anything about the Duke case beyond your immediate reaction to the intitial headlines, you wouldn't say such stupid shit.

Not one fragment of the accuser's or prosecutor's ever-changing set of crime stories is, or ever was, plausible.

Not one.

[I spotted the wave before it c]

Right after I heard about this, I posted the JE's judgment was questionable. If only he'd asked me first. If only everyone would ask me first, I'd put them straight.

I'll also add that my "buddy" Jesse - who started the site she blogged at with Matt 2, aka EzraKlein and whose continuing involvement isn't clear - is somewhat sane, all things considered. He also worked as the blogger for JerrySpringer's radio show.

There were non-unhinged bloggers Edwards could have selected and still had the 'echt'. That he chose her reveals that he or his staff have absolutely no clue whatsoever.

[crimethink]

lunchstealer,

By your logic, any guy who's ever been at a party with a stripper can be appropriately accused of rape. I mean, there's some chance that he got rowdy around a naked woman, so fire away.

[Jay J.]

Something I've seen only a few people do is draw a distinction between Marcotte and McEwan. McEwan said stuff that a mainstream candidate would feel very uncomfortable defending, but that's mostly because of her choice of words. Marcotte, on the other hand, posted many things that were not only problematic in tone, but in content. Like Mona said above, "Her gratuitous, vulgar lampooning of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation is offensive to even many liberal Catholics..."

This Virgin Birth things seems like Amanda Marcotte's MO, so it reaches beyond just Christian doctrine and the Duke rape case, but to many many things that she's blogged about.

Melissa McEwan on the other hand, (according to the quotes highlighted in the media) seems to draw a hedge around the group she wishes to attack, then she strikes. Her language may be imprudent for someone wishing to get into PR for a political campaign, but at least they don't produce the kind of collateral damage Marcotte's posts do.

So to me, it doesn't matter what Donahue (who yes, is ridiculous) wanted if there was good reason to independently judge Marcotte's words unacceptable. I myself do judge them that way. McEwan on the other hand, well I don't have a problem with the quotes I've seen so far since she seems much more willing avoid flying off half-cocked and intentionally or unintentionally insulting innocent by-standers, which is what Marcotte does.

So unless someone produces quotes from McEwan that are unacceptable, (which I haven't seen yet), I think we can go ahead and tell Donahue and the Catholic league to jump in lake. If Marcotte would have been publically fired, then we could have said it with more authority, since we had cleaned out house first.

[Mona]

Jay J., I completely agree with your whole comment, and in other venues have said I do not think McEwan should be lumped with Marcotte.