Covering Edwards, Covering the Horse Race

The NY Times’ Adam Nagourney writes a profile of former Senator John Edwards’ Iowa campaign in today’s paper. The piece highlights Edwards’ separation from the centrist campaigns run by Senators Obama and Clinton and notes Edwards’ focus on bringing home American troops from Iraq. The central point for Nagourney is that Edwards must sell his candidacy in Iowa or lose his hopes of overtaking the two frontrunners. This, in June of 2007.

In an odd choice, the piece closes with a quote by a master of triangulation, Paul Begala, critiquing Edwards for changing his position on the war. It’s a catchy one-liner about going from sounding like General Patton to imitating Mahatma Gandhi, but coming from Begala, the criticism loses any punch it might have. The Edwards campaign is taking a lot of flak on the basis that it’s hard for reporters to buy the genuine ‘essence’ of the candidate’s positions. It might now be time to spend more ink on what those positions actually are in detail—and let the voters decide whether to believe that the candidate means them.