John Edwards' advice for 2008: "Don't listen to Mary Beth Cahill"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7775251/site/newsweek/

It's traditional for out-of-work politicos to head to Harvard's Institute of Politics for genial wonk talk. It's also traditional for failed veep candidates to put major distance between themselves and their old campaign. The two customs intersected when John Edwards stopped by Cambridge last month. Over lunch, Edwards held a Q&A session with students, faculty and political bigwigs, including Kerry-Edwards campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill, a visiting fellow at the institute. Edwards was asked for one lesson he'd learned from the 2004 campaign. His answer: "Don't listen to Mary Beth Cahill." The response in the room was stunned silence, observers later recalled. "No one laughed when he said it, and Mary Beth grew bright red," said one attendee. "It was very awkward."

Edwards "has a great deal of respect for Mary Beth Cahill," says spokeswoman Kim Rubey, who says her boss made clear "he was teasing like he would an old friend." (Cahill did not comment.) Joking or not, Edwards has reason to break from the 2004 team as he considers his own future. Officially, he's diving into anti-poverty work and focusing on his family (wife Elizabeth is undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer). Unofficially, he's also laying the groundwork for a 2008 run and speaking out on domestic issues across the country, including key early primary states Iowa and Wisconsin. This week, NEWSWEEK has learned, he'll host a retreat in D.C., where close advisers and big donors will discuss plans for the poverty center he founded at the University of North Carolina and how his One America PAC can help Dems in state races nationwide. Also on the agenda, says one confidant: brainstorming "how to keep his public profile up there and build a bigger network for 2008... If Elizabeth is well, he's going to make a run for it."

Capturing the Democratic nomination isn't easy for any former one-term senator, and the disappointing 2004 run doesn't help. That could be why Edwards is privately disparaging the management of the 2004 campaign, telling supporters he is "livid" that Kerry-Edwards ended up with $14 million in unspent cash. This summer, he and Elizabeth will pack up their Georgetown home and head back to North Carolina, where he can burnish his outsider credentials. Aides insist he has a serious shot in '08, pointing to last week's Marist poll showing Edwards performing better against Republicans than any Democrat nationwide. The same poll, however, showed Edwards behind Kerry as Dems' choice for 2008—with both Johns significantly trailing presumed candidate Hillary Clinton. Still, says one adviser, "someone will become the Hillary-alternative candidate ... The question is how do you position yourself to be that person."

[tallahasseedem]

1. Of course everyone grew silent...

they knew he was telling the truth even though she was sitting right there. She was a complete jackass for advising Kerry not to respond to the Swift Boat Asswipes.

[orwell]

2. Good for Him

and spot on correct.

MBC blew it with the delayed swift boat response. This was her counsel and it was deadly wrong.

Kerry blew it by listening to her, against his own judgment, inadvertently presenting himself at a critical time in the campaign as a weak leader when he was directly attacked. He never fully made up that lost ground.

She and Shrum were far too timid in their "strategery". The time for safety is long past. The Barbarians are no longer at the gates. They sit in murderous glee, holding all the oppressive levers of power.

Bye bye Mary...Thanks for nothing...

[Paul Dlugokencky]

3. Alternative Redux?

"Still, says one adviser, "someone will become the Hillary-alternative candidate ... The question is how do you position yourself to be that person."

Didn't Edwards position himself as the Kerry-alternative candidate late in the 2004 primaries?



http://www.cafepress.com/kickindemocrats

[kodi]

4. a year too late, johnnie

i understand why cahill did not wish to wrestle with the swift boat pigs, as it would give them prominence.

however, it appears to me that cahill has an unrealistic idea of american politics.

why would anyone that wrong be in charge of a national presidential campaign?

politics at the presiential level are not akin to running for a local school board, and it appears that cahill was unprepared for the assault on kerry from the right.

and all i can say is "lady, where in the flying fuck have you been the last 10 years?"

it points home to the insular lives that top democratic party operatives must live.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

5. It was a "win-win" deal for Rove.

If they fought it, it would give them prominence.

They didn't fight it, it gave them prominence.

So it came down to a matter of degrees, and it's a question we will never have an answer for:

Would fighting them have resulted in LESS publicity, or MORE?

:toast:

[kodi]

6. the issue was not publicity, it was negative or not so negative publicity

not responding ensured only the negative would be what was discussed. replying would have countered some, much, if not all of the negative publicity.

doing nothing? that they did not attempt to take matters into their own hands?

they left their destiny to the whims of others.

take the initiative. was that so hard for cahill to understand?

[calimary]

9. Absolutely. The fact that Kerry did NOT stand up to these guys the

INSTANT they poked their heads out of the slime - that he did NOT go on the offensive and attack back was code to many wavering voters that he was not a strong leader. REMEMBER, guys: the voters wanted someone strong. REMEMBER what The First Jackass said over and over on the campaign trail - "you may not agree with me, but you know where I stand." A lot of people bought that, bigtime, because it said to them that he was at least firm on something. He stood for something. When Kerry came under fire and did nothing, and said nothing, that spoke VOLUMES to the voters. It also told them, correctly or not (and I definitely think NOT correctly) that - well, if he's not gonna stand up for himself when he's attacked, then what's he gonna do when/if America is attacked again? Sit there and do nothing?

I TELL YOU, GUYS, I HEARD THIS FROM PEOPLE!!! I HEARD THIS EXACT COMPLAINT FROM PEOPLE!!! And people also had this impression that bush, on the other hand, was into kicking ass, while Kerry just HAD to take "the high road" that all those purported "East Coast limousine liberals who don't roll up their sleeves and do any real work" like so much. "Well, at least, bush went out and kicked their butts." My butt-kicker, right or wrong, I suppose. John Kerry offered NOTHING to disabuse anyone of this deep-down-in-the-gut reaction to the two candidates. NOTHING. He took the high road and went straight over a cliff.

Unfortunately dear little Mary Beth just got played like a fiddle. And so did Kerry for listening to her.

And of course, a LOT of good it does us now.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

10. Yeah, unfortunately, I heard that same complaint too.

I think too many of us have heard it to deny its authenticity.

I'm not saying it makes it go down any easier, but it shines a light on the real damage.

[flpoljunkie]

7. And the Swift Boat Liars continued to run the ads right up to election day

in crucial battleground states.

Rove and Dubya made sure the smear would go on unabated right up to the election. Remember these people will be "whatever it takes to win."

[AP]

8. The problem wasn't so much that they didn't fight it. The problem was that

they had to fight it.

It's like with Clinton. They hit him on the draft thing (and granted he hit back). But the fact was that Clinton very effectively set a priortization of issues that meant that dodging the draft wasn't going to be a major concern for voters.

Clinton would have been hurt the most if Bush had hit him on something that undermined voter's perception that Clinton was going to look after their best economic interests (because that was the thing that Clinton convinced voters to value the most).

Unfortunately, Kerry hadn't set out an alternate ordering of priorities that people embraced sufficiently firmly that the swift boat vets shit didn't matter.