Does he somehow think that he could come into the convention at a fairly distant third and come out on top? I doubt it, though stranger things have happened. Does he think he can force some significant changes to the platform and possibly force himself in as Veep? That seems far more likely.

Sadly, I believe that even if Edwards gets the nomination, the national media is going to make it as hard for him to win the presidency as they can. They’re already looking to do the same hatchet job on him that they did on Gore in 2000. With Gore, the plan appeared to be to paint him as a boring liar for months and months leading up to the election. With Edwards, the script already appears to be to paint him as “the angry guy”. This set up then allows the national media pundits to talk about how America doesn’t want an angry leader and that he can’t win. It also allows some of them to paint him as a hypocrite in comparison to the equally manufactured “too nice to win” picture they made up about him in 2004. Some of them are already trying to use the hypocrite angle by saying that you can’t be rich and be an advocate for the poor. I wonder whether that narrative is just brazen dishonesty or if it arises from a complete ignorance of U.S. history

Last night I had an important talk with Ann Coulter and I want to tell you what happened.

On Monday, Ann announced that instead of using more homophobic slurs to attack John, she will just wish that John had been “killed in a terrorist assassination plot.”

Where I am from, when someone does something that displeases you, you politely ask them to stop. So when I heard Ann was going to be on “Hardball” last night, I decided to call in and ask her to engage on the issues and stop the personal attacks. I told her these kinds of personal attacks lower our political dialogue at precisely the time when we need to raise it, and set a bad example for our children.

How did she respond? Sadly, perhaps predictably, with more personal attacks.

John’s campaign is about the issues—but pundits like Ann Coulter are trying to shout him down. If they will not stop, it is up to us cut through the noise. Help us fight back—please give what you can today.

www.johnedwards.com/rightwing

You can read more about the exchange in this article at CBS News.

I also watched the Republican debate from New Hampshire tonight. John McCain gave his best performance to date. I think he had the elusive quality of seeming presidential for the first time in this campaign. Some of that comes from the fact that he doesn’t seem to be pandering as hard to the primary voters. Mitt Romney continues to be the most impressive candidate on their side. I don’t agree with him on anything that I can think of, but he really comes off as smart and well polished. I need to find some polling data on how he’s doing in the south. I’m having a hard time believing he’ll do well in South Carolina, but if he does well enough in Iowa and New Hampshire, it won’t matter. The primary calendar is so accelerated this time that one slip in South Carolina may not hurt him. Mike Huckabee also continues to do damn well in the debate format.  If presidential candidates came into the race without already having been handicapped by the media, Huckabee would be a top tier candidate and Rudy Giuliani wouldn’t be.

I’ll go one further than what I’m seeing in the polls so far. Let’s be blunt for a second. John Edwards is the leading white male candidate among the Democrats and he’s running for a job that’s only ever been won by white males. I think it’s a fair question to wonder how much of Hillary Clinton’s support and (perhaps especially) Barack Obama’s support in polls comes from people who think it sounds good to tell a pollster they’d vote for a woman or an african american, but who won’t do it when it comes time to pull that lever.

I’m still finding time to read the occasional article here and there, but I’m not finding much time to comment on them. This article on the GOP field almost entirely misses the point until the final paragraph where John Zogby is quoted. Forget national polls. Giuliani needs something other than memories of 9/11 to carry him to the nomination. His social issues positions aren’t going to serve him well in the southern states. McCain will have to run a truly incompetent campaign not to get the nomination.

Here’s an interesting piece on the latest attempt to create a power sharing government in Northern Ireland.

The conservatives have nothing substantive to say about Edwards. They know that even though his message is a left-populist one it will appeal to many moderate and even some socially conservative voters.

I’m tired of the right wing fuckers using hatred for gays as a way to rile up their own base. The Edwards campaign is trying raise $100,000 in “Coulter Cash” this week to show that this kind of strategy will backfire, that everytime they do shit like this, it’ll rile us up and backfire on them.

You can see the video here. That same page also has a form where you can donate money. I just gave $50 and I really hope that some of you will give something, too. As long as we’re stuck in this paradigm where “money is speech” and often the speech that matters most in politics, then donating to counter this kind of crap is our most effective way to speak out against it.