A Little Political Snarkiness

I've tried. I've really tried. Those of you who know me and my big mouth can vouch for me--I've been blogging for over a month, and I have yet to post anything on politics that could be taken as anything other than good-natured and even-handed. Equal time for both sides, pleas for common ground, as much "why can't we get along" as Rodney King, only minus the riots. But today I can't help it--I'm going to be snarky about John Edwards. The big news on the blogosphere today is that he hired a blogger, one Amanda Marcotte, and now may have fired her. Seems she has posted some not-so-family-friendly stuff on her own blog--a few droppings of the f-bomb and assorted bad language, plus some vitriolic stuff that was gratuitously insulting to Christians, conservatives, and others. There are dire predictions that his initial hiring of her will hurt with the center who decide the general election, while his firing of her will offend the netroot/nutroot dem base who decide the nomination. Now, this is a little bit of nothing, substance-wise. But it is just further evidence that old John just isn't ready for prime time. A week ago he was in the news for similar foolishness--he's in the process of building the largest house in his NC county. It's a 28,000 square foot mansion with a full basketball court, squash court, 2 stages... the works. Now, I don't mind that he is buying a nice house; he can afford it, and he has earned the money practicing law. But if you're going to run for president on a campaign of being the only guy in the race who cares about the poor, and pepper all your rhetoric with talk of "Two Americas," those who are comfortable and those who struggle, it is only common political horse sense not to build a house that one of the two Americas could live in with room to spare. Again, it's not DOING IT that's the problem, it's the apparent lack of two brain cells bumping against each other that doing it belies. Somebody tell me again why this guy is among the front-runners! He got beaten for the nomination last go around by John Kerry. JOHN KERRY. You, know, the really unappealing guy who couldn't even beat a weak George W. Bush. And the main knock on him then was that he had no experience (1 term in the senate). Now, the only new experience he has is losing one more election! As I have written before, Obama with no experience seems like a blank slate onto which one can project their own hopes and dreams. Edwards with the same resume screams out "empty suit!" Now, obviously I don't plan on voting for the democrat nominee at this point. But Biden, I understand. Obama intrigues me. Even Hillary, bless her heart, has been running since around Watergate and makes some sense as a candidate. But this guy? PLEASE. OK. End of rant. Sorry. Maybe I'll post something ugly about Rudy Giuliani soon... just to be fair.