Hello, World: Welcome to the Internet

That was my first impression when I started reading up on this yesterday.

I agree with Ezra Klein, one of Amanda Marcotte's predecessors at Pandagon, who wrote that he was surprised to see the Edwards campaign tap Amanda for the job. My surprise had nothing to do with any misgivings about Amanda; I've been a long time fan of her writing. What surprised me about it is that I can't think of a more aggressive, combatitive, "sharp elbowed" blogger on the progressive side of things that a campaign could hire for netroots/blog work. Short and sweet: She's a polarizer.

I hope the Edwards folks realized this when they hired her; in fact, I was hoping that this was one of if not the main reason they hired her. It's not as if she wrote all this stuff in secret and then tried to hide it away from everyone; she's always been very public with her opinions and eviscerations and has always been very accessible to her readers. What she wrote is a matter of public record, as easy to find as Googling her name or selecting her tab on Pandagon's site to read everything she's written there, warts and all.

I think the Edwards campaign is at a crucial point right now; if they can Amanda and Melissa, it's going to hurt them with netroots & activist support but more importantly, it's going to look like good old fashioned John Kerry weakness. I understand that you don't want someone like William Donohue on your case, accusing you of being anti-Catholic because of the views of people you hired, but the laundry list of crazy things Donohue has said is too long to air here. And why anyone to the left of Hillary Clinton should give a fig about what Terry Moran or Michelle Malkin write is beyond me.

Pragmatically, it comes down to who is going to vote for you. People with beliefs like Donohue, Moran and Malkin will never, ever vote Democratic. EVER. There is nothing John Edwards or any other Democratic candidate can do to change that fact. If they are fired, then it'll be something else next week; that is the "one step to the right" brand of conservatism that people like those practice. No matter what you do, it's never going to be conservative enough for them because they're never going to believe you really mean it. I do not see the logic in appeasing people with no intentions of giving you a fair shot. That's bad strategy. I do see the logic in standing up for your staff, warts and all. That's leadership; that's the kind of thing that registered Democrats and likely Democratic primary and caucus voters will react positively to when election day rolls around.

Statement from John Edwards (appropriately enough, issued on the campaign blog):

The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwan's posts personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word. We're beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can't let it be hijacked. It will take discipline, focus, and courage to build the America we believe in.

Nicely done.