Though quacking loudly, John Edwards is not a modern duck
BY David All | Wednesday, September 26 2007
To John Edwards credit, he appears to be a very forward thinking candidate with regard to navigation in the modern world.
Among other things, he was the *first* candidate to do a back-flip off the high-dive in to the world of socnets, he effectively responded to a potentially harmful viral video, his campaign and supporters have been active in Second Life, and of course, the big ticket purchase is that he hired Mr. Revolution himself, Joe Trippi.
Of course, the modern trail hasn't exactly been perfect for Mr. Edwards. In fact, Team Edwards was involved in the "First blog scandal of 2008."
Tomorrow, John Edwards will once again be *first* in something by taking part in the Myspace/MTV forum. Yay!
But does John Edwards really understand and care about the modern world or is he just a big phoney being encouraged by a savvy staff?
Two interesting nuggets lead me to believe it's the latter.
The first nugget comes from David Brooks' essential column in the New York Times on the influence (or lack thereof) of the netroots which includes this bit:
Several weeks ago, I asked John Edwards what the YearlyKos event was like. He couldn't remember which event I was talking about, and looked over to an aide for help.
Couldn't remember? Seriously? How could you forget if you're supposed to be the most modern candidate?
And the Politico's Ben Smith reports that a spokesman for Edwards wouldn't even respond which is just plain stupid. [h/t Josh Levy at TechPresident]
The second nugget also comes from The New York Times, but this time, from their political blog, the Caucus. The Times' Julie Bosman reports on Edwards' appearance in the upcoming MySpace/MTV forum and notes that Edwards, perhaps trying to hide something, refuses to openly discuss the web sites that he visits:
But Mr. Edwards may not be ready for his own boxers-or-briefs moment. When asked by MTV to name his favorite Web sites, a tame request by most standards, he demurred. "I'm not telling," he said. "That'll just get me in trouble. No way, I'm not talking about Web sites."
Awkward much? Awkward indeed for the candidate who "wants" to be the most modern candidate.
Perhaps Trippi needs to set down his diet pepsi for a moment and staff this guy personally. At least that way Edwards could continue to talk like a duck. What a quack.