John and Elizabeth Edwards
 

This has been a really impressive week for John and Elizabeth Edwards. Over the weekend, Elizabeth spoke in front of a group at the San Francisco LGBT Pride festival. This was the first appearance by a presidential candidate or spouse at a pride event. She came out in support of gay marriage in her speech and I find her language around it to be really refreshing. How I wish she were a candidate herself:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...&sn=004&sc=337

Yesterday, John Edwards toured the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, apparently the first time any major candidate has visted an LGBT-specific organization during the campaign. I find this to be a welcome change from what usually happens, which is some candidates are willing to meet with gay groups for fundraising purposes but not really to look at the work we do or understand our experience. Still, very frustrating and unacceptable that John Edwards doesn't support gay marriage.

More on the LA Center visit:

http://www.lagaycenter.org/site/apps...257&ct=4027941

And - his wife told Ann Counter to fukc off today :eek:

June 27, 2007

Edwards confronts Coulter in on-air clash

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Her husband’s presidential campaign has used some of conservative commentator Ann Coulter’s most controversial statements about him to raise campaign cash, but on Tuesday Elizabeth Edwards directly confronted the best-selling author and asked her to “stop the personal attacks.”

“The things she has said over the years, not just about John but about other candidates, lowers the political dialogue at precisely the time we need to raise it,” Elizabeth Edwards said in a phone call to MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews as Coulter, a guest on the program, listened.

“It debases political dialogue,” Elizabeth Edwards added. “It drives people away from the process. We can’t have a debate about issues if you’re using this kind of language.”

Elizabeth Edwards’ husband, former Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

Coulter responded that Elizabeth Edwards was asking her to stop speaking completely and suggested it was hypocritical for the Edwards campaign to criticize her comments after promoting them in fundraising solicitations.

“I don’t mind you trying to raise money,” Coulter said. “I mean it’s better this than giving $50,000 speeches to the poor.” Coulter was referring to criticism about the former senator’s speaking fees.

Elizabeth Edwards penned a fundraising letter that hit email in-boxes Wednesday morning with a link to a video of her exchange with Coulter.

“Where I am from, when someone does something that displeases you, you politely ask them to stop,” she wrote.

Elizabeth Edwards also asked potential donors to “Please give what you can right now to help raise the dialogue and show that Ann Coulter-style politics will never carry the day.”

The on-air clash came one day after Coulter, appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America, joked “If I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.”

On that program, Coulter was referencing the firestorm following her March comments, in which she referred to the North Carolina Democrat as “a faggot” at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference held in Washington. She claimed that, during the same period of time, liberal television host Bill Maher “was not joking” when he said that “he wished Dick Cheney had been killed in a terrorist attack.” According to Coulter, Maher didn’t take the same heat for his comments that she did for hers.

In addition to promoting the latest war of words, Edwards’s campaign posted both Coulter’s comments in March and earlier this week on their Web site.

– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

Also - I think you wanna do him :p :shrug: :angel:

I think Elizabeth Edwards should run for President, She would be one woman I would vote for :thumbsup:

Me?

...he's not a bad looking man. :cool:

It's the hair and the accent :shrug:

Plus, he seems devoted to his wife and that, to me, is a huge plus!

Wow, I am so impressed with her. For one thing, I'm glad she is in good enough health to appear at events and on TV. Especially considering how draining it is to take on the Coult. Also, I would have never pegged her as a gay marriage supporter.

Bless that woman.

god this woman infuriates me.

but I am happy that both Edwards are showing some signs of support. I wonder why she's for gay marriage and he's not...I mean, it seems weird to me for them to be on opposing sides (and vocal about it) of such a "hot topic"

Anne is an awful person for attacking the Edwards' dead son - nuff said :nod:

And - if you notice, Anne, never really addresses the issue. She never says, I said this because . . . . Instead, she spins the argument to Edwards using the hate speech to make money - in an effort to stop people like Anne C. -- and she suggests that because time has gone by, her comments are more appropriate.

Again, what an awful person.

what a twat.

I wonder what her family thinks of her. I'm surprised she herself hasn't been assasinated.

It would have been one thing if she had said:

Mrs. Edwards, I made that comment about your deceased child because I think your husband is playing a sympathy card to bolster his faltering campaign. Playing a sympathy card in no way addresses the issues that concern me and many Americans.

or

even bother to explain what possible political point she made when she called Edwards a "fa**ot."

Instead, she just wants to dig and use the loss of one's child to promote her vile, hate filled speech.

What an awful person.

The text of it:

Elizabeth Edwards: Hello, Chris.

CM: You wanna say something directly to the person who's with me?

EE: I'm calling you … in the south when we -- when someone does something that displeases us, we wanna ask them politely to stop doing it. Uh - I'd like to ask Ann Coulter -- if she wants to debate on issues, on positions -- we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today -- um but uh it's quite another matter for these personal attacks that the things she has said over the years not just about John but about other candidates -- it lowers our political dialogue precisely at the time that we need to raise it. So I want to use the opportunity … to ask her politely stop the personal attacks.

Ann Coulter: OK, so I made a joke -- let's see six months ago -- and as you point out they've been raising money off of it for six months since then.

CM: This is yesterday morning, what you said about him.

AC: I didn't say anything about him actually either time.

EE: Ann, you know that's not true. And once more its been going on for sometime.

AC: I don't mind you trying to raise money. I mean it's better this than giving $50,000 speeches to the poor.

EE: I'm asking you

AC: Just to use my name on the Web pages…

EE: I'm asking you politely…

AC: … but as for a debate with me, um yeah, sure. Yeah, we'll have a debate

EE: I'm asking you politely to stop personal attacks.

AC: How bout you stop raising money on the Web page then?

EE: It didn't start it did not

AC: No you don't have cause I don't mind

EE: It did not start with that you had a column a number of years ago

AC: OK, great the wife of a presidential candidate is calling in asking me to stop speaking

CM: Let her finish the point...

AC: You're asking me to stop speaking stop writing your columns, stop writing your books.

CM: OK, Ann. Please.

AC: OK

EE: You wrote a column a couple years ago which made fun of the moment of Charlie Dean's death, and suggested that my husband had a bumper sticker on the back of his car that said ask me about my dead son. This is not legitimate political dialogue.

AC: That's now three years ago

EE: It debases political dialogue. It drives people away from the process. We can't have a debate about issues if you're using this kind of language.

AC: Yeah why isn't John Edwards making this call?

CM: Well do you want to respond and we'll end this conversation?

EE: I haven't talked to John about his call.

AC: This is just another attempt for –

EE: I'm making this call as a mother. I'm the mother of that boy who died. My children participate -- these young people behind you are the age of my children. You're asking them to participate in a dialogue that's based on hatefulness and ugliness instead of on the issues and I don't think that's serving them or this country very well.

APPLAUSE

CM: Thank you very much Elizabeth Edwards. Do you want to -- you have all the time in the world to respond.

AC: I think we heard all we need to hear. The wife of a presidential candidate is asking me to stop speaking. No.

Ann Coulter is a revolting human being who should be completely ignored. I wrote to Hardball and said I am a devoted fan of the show but found it distasteful that Chris Matthews allowed himself to be a pawn in Coulter's game. She says nothing of substance and intentionally says this crazy stuff just to get attention and sell her books.

exactly. :nod:

I think John Edwards probably supports gay marriage, or at least doesn't really care, but knows he can't win if he comes out with a pro-gay marriage position. Maybe Elizabeth's statements are a way of sending this signal to the gay community?

Edit: damn, I'm offline rest of the day. Really wanted to discuss this further...maybe tomorrow.