Elizabeth Edwards Responds to Mud-Slinging

For those of you new to the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, several of us had a unique opportunity last fall to meet with Elizabeth Edwards while she was on her book tour, in a private forum in San Francisco. There, Mrs. Edwards - mother, author, blogger, attorney and wife of now Presidential candidate, John - shared with us some of her personal thoughts on blogging and motherhood. It was an experience we all treasured and we enjoyed talking with her. This past Monday evening, she spoke in San Francisco for her husband's campaign and she has been actively campaigning even though she recently discovered her cancer is back and beyond the stage where they can call it curable. (Her diagnosis saddens us all, of course, but that's not the topic of this particular post.)

The same day on "Good Morning America," Ann Coulter, right wing political 'pundit', said something really shocking in reference to Mrs. Edwards's husband and I was asked to blog about it. I don't know the whole story, but I guess Coulter said something 6 months ago about John Edwards that the Edwards campaign has mentioned in their communications to motivate people to contribute funds to their campaign. Both of these things are fairly typical, but Coulter made it sound like this was somehow shocking. Coulter said on GMA: "So I've learned my lesson... [from that experience, I assume]; if I'm gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he'd been killed in a terrorist assassination plot." And to add insult to injury, she had a smug look on her face like this was something she knew she'd score points for saying.

I don't know if I've ever heard anything so deliberately mean in politics. I've heard and read some slanderous, treasonous, disgusting, brutal and offensive insults to candidates but this is out there in a realm where I thought people wouldn't go. First of all, terrorism is a serious problem with serious consequences. Second of all, she's wishing someone would die. To wish someone would die in a terrorist plot is tantamount to wishing they were murdered in the Nazi holocaust. We might wish these things of our most hated enemies - Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or Osama Bin Laden - just so the killing they caused will stop, but never should we wish it of our patriotic adversaries. John Edwards lost his son in an accident and now his wife is fighting for her life. That doesn't excuse him from political slander, but it means his family has an understanding of loss that most of us hope never to know. Bottom line: he's an American and he's serving his country in many positive ways.

Yesterday, Elizabeth Edwards called into "Hardball" while Coulter was live on TV. Edwards said on the phone on the show that this kind of thing "lowers our political dialogue precisely at the time we need to raise it". I agree. She asked politely and repeatedly for Coulter to stop making personal attacks and Coulter, playing with her long blonde hair and looking disinterested, just responded by criticizing the Edwards campaign for using this as a means to ask people for money for the campaign which she should've known full well they would do. The Edwards campaign claims that the opposition are trying to take Edwards down with their remarks - if that's the case, it could only be because of the polls that say he would most likely win in the general election against any of the leading Republican candidates. Well, the Republicans are behind the times if they think Edwards is their only problem - Clinton and Obama are now both polling above Giuliani, Romney, McCain and Fred Thompson too.

Campaign attacks happen at every level from local to national. Some allegations raised against candidates are true, some are false, but most are half truths. What astounded me is that the level of discourse has not gone to the point where a member of the opposition is essentially wishing a candidate dead. Doesn't matter who it is - the fact is this type of behavior is abominable. If he were President now, the Secret Service would be required to investigate her intentions. This is a serious offense.

As to the Edwards campaign using this occasion to their advantage in campaign email - well, that's their prerogative. I write campaign communications for candidates and causes and I wouldn't have responded in the exact way they did, without much transition from the Coulter story to the ask, but they know it's effective and they probably will make their fundraising goal by using this material. Ann Coulter should know better than to say things like that because it gets a tremendous rise out of people. Makes me wonder if she's actually a liberal in disguise - trying to make the political right look so horrible that more people will vote for the left. It just doesn't make sense. In any case, Mrs. Edwards is right to defend her husband and family from such attacks, regardless of the surrounding politics.

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Sarah Granger launched the "first true weblog to be put up by a politician" according to Wired News.