Edwards

Democratic politicians have fallen in love with the liberal blogosphere, said the San Francisco Chronicle in an editorial. But as John Edwards has just discovered, 'œthe Internet is not always your friend.' As he launched his presidential campaign last month, Edwards hired a pair of progressive bloggers to help guide his Web strategy, figuring they'd 'œbuff his street cred' among the young, left-wing activists who read and write political blogs. But last week, conservatives dug up some of the two bloggers' more incendiary postings from recent months, and Edwards was forced into damage-control mode. One of the bloggers, Amanda Marcotte, labeled Catholicism an 'œancient mythology,' while mocking Jesus' virgin birth in graphically sexual terms. The other, Melissa McEwan, has called religious conservatives 'œChristofascists' and 'œlousy motherf---ers.' Edwards said such comments 'œpersonally offended me,' said John Broder in The New York Times. But he brushed aside demands to fire the pair and instead extracted public apologies from them. Then, this week, Marcotte announced she was quitting the campaign because her presence was a distraction. Such are the perils 'œof grafting the raucous culture of the Internet to the decidedly staider world of a presidential campaign.'

How did Edwards hire these bigots in the first place? said Kathryn Jean Lopez in National Review Online. Marcotte's and McEwan's views are easily researched by sitting down at any computer. In the 'œfree blogosphere,' people can rant about anything they'd like. But somebody who wants to be president should take the trouble to screen out bloggers who dismiss Christians as deluded fanatics. Can you imagine if they had insulted blacks or Jews instead of conservative Christians? asked Investor's Business Daily. 'œBoth would have been gone in a heartbeat.' Edwards often talks about the 'œtwo Americas.' He's right. Marcotte and McEwan's America 'œis an ugly place where people are filled with venom for traditional religious beliefs and practices.'

This won't be the last firestorm of this kind, said John Dickerson in Slate.com. All the major presidential hopefuls now see the Net as crucial both for building grass-roots support and raising money. That's why campaigns have been courting and hiring bloggers and pouring resources into 'œWeb outreach.' But the flip side of the bloggers' 'œauthenticity' is that they are more raw, more angry, and more politically incorrect than either the mainstream media or the typical campaign aide. That leaves modern campaigns trying to achieve the impossible: harnessing the energy of the blogosphere while still maintaining the 'œimage and message control' any serious campaign needs. 'œIt's a ready-made car wreck.'

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