A Thought Experiment

[DaveT]

Let's imagine that in January of 2008, Hillary Rodham Clinton developed a serious health problem and decided to drop out of the race between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire Primary. Instead of her finding her voice, it was John Edwards who overtook Obama in a poll-confounding New Hampshire surprise. In our parallel universe, Edwards then gets exactly the same vote totals that HRC has won through now. Going into the final days of the Pennsylvania Campaing, Edwards faces the exact same mathematical challenge that confounds the Rodham Clinton candidacy.

Edwards goes negative -- making a huge deal out of Obama's pastor, his bitter comments, his Rezko association, the whole Kitchen Sink Routine.


Question -- does the political culture turn on Edwards with disgust and hoot him out of politics?


Or does a certain demographic profile excuse everything he says and does on the theory that Obama is even worse?

[cali]

1. unanswerable. n/t

[DaveT]

2. Aw, come on. Give it a try.

In my opinion, he would be attacked mercilessly for his mean spirited abandonment of the issues. The MSM would call him a spoilsport and every encounter with the working press would be a cross examination of why he does not drop out.

[SpiralHawk]

3. But that would be totally inconsistent with who Edwards is...

..and how he conducted himself in the campaign.

Bogus fantasy.

I'm gonna try...

...to forget I clicked on this thread.

[Armstead]

4. I can;t picture Edwards doing that

That's the main reason I can;t answer your hypothetical.

I could picture Obama and Edwards going at it over real issues or real differences in their belief about governing style.

But I honestly think that if Edwards were in Clinton's shoes, it wold have been a much more honorable and honest campaign on both sides....Passiionate perhaps, but passionate for the right reasons.

[H2O Man]

5. I do not think

that your proposal is realistic. There is no evidence that John Edwards would stoop to running Willie Horton ads to try to win. He has, in fact, been gracious in defeat.

[DaveT]

6. That pretty well makes the point

I was trying to make -- just from a different angle.

No other nationally prominent Democrat would even try tho do what Rodham Clinton is doing. And if anybody did, it would cause a wave of disgust and outrage that would destroy that politician's career.

So why isn't that happening now?

[Boz]

7. No because he is a democrat, a bit of grief for negative, BUT its the Clinton as Republican

Most of the uproar is rooted in that, not just negative campaigning, but negative campaigning BY A REPUBLICAN NAMED CLINTON.

Edwards would never take it that far, there would be sniping and a bit of a grumble, but the uproar is against the Republican running for the democratic nomination not the democrats that are running such as Edwards and Obama.

[BlooInBloo]

8. How fucking stupid is that? Thought experiment: Let's imagine that Edwards...

.... turned into a purple dinosaur. Would he eat Obama?

Come on! If you don't answer you must be scared of something!

Sheesh. Not every grammatical string of words actually describes something interesting.

[rug]

9. No, Edwards would not eat Obama.

[rug]

10. No, Edwards would not eat Obama.

[DaveT]

11. sorry to have wasted your precious time

But you completely missed the point. Since everybody missed the point, I accept the fact that it was a poorly conceived strategy for making the point.

But, I was suggesting that Hillary's obscene campaign would not be tolerated from anybody but her.

[phrigndumass]

14. I could see what you were implying with your scenario

but I didn't want to reply, because the "anybody but her" argument is too similar to Geraldine Ferraro's point she was trying to make about Senator Obama. Thought it best to leave it alone. What is unacceptable one way should be equally as unacceptable the other way.

I'm not implying that's what you meant, it just seemed too close in comparison to me. I wonder if others felt the same way.

:hi:

[yourguide]

12. ROFL!!!

Ha!

[anonymous171]

13. Obama would directly attack Edwards and ask him to drop out.