Elizabeth Edwards

An interesting piece on Elizabeth Edwards in the New York Times... Adam Nagourney and Patrick Healy write about her take-charge manner:

Still, several campaign advisers said the sharpest change in Mrs. Edwards’s role was the extent to which she has become a public figure in her own right. There may be a risk to this, aides to the couple acknowledged, to the extent that Mrs. Edwards might at once overshadow and diminish her husband at a time when opponents have sought to portray him as intellectually weak.

In the interview after her cancer announcement, I thought she performed very well. She could definitely be an asset to the Edwards campaign. But there is no doubt that they have to watch it. At the end of the video (posted here) the only real comeback Ann Coulter has to Mrs. Edwards is "Why isn't John Edwards making this call?"

That's the difficulty. It's so problematic, it would be wise for Mrs. Edwards, as for the spouse of any presidential candidate, to back off and stick to the noncontroversial valence issues. That's the job of the political spouse--don't say anything. What you do say when you say anything at all must be completely above reproach.

Thinks have been working out for the Edwards campaign--after the cancer announcement their fundraising went up, and these recent moves by Elizabeth Edwards seem to be working. The gay marriage quip helps the campaign, and Mrs. Edwards certainly got the better of Ann Coulter.

This last one is important--Coulter's demeaning

remark about Edwards at CPAC was really, really damaging. That kind of thing filters down and creates an association that the campaign has to combat. Presidential candidates have to look commanding, authoritative, in control. Ronald Reagan's "This is my microphone" did this in 1980. Bush 43 maintains this posture, that of being the decider.

It's death to come across as weak in a presidential campaign. That's why the spouses should follow the Laura Bush model, which has been so successful for her husband. (She learned this on the campaign trail when he ran for Congress in 1978--she criticized one of his speeches, and he crashed the car through the garage door!)

I think it's more than possible, it's a certainty that if Bush and Kerry had each other's spouses that the election would have gone Kerry's way. It's a matter of rigorous discipline--it's easy to speak your mind, it's hard to refrain from ever saying anything. But that's the job of the spouse. Things do not bode well on that score, if the Times article is accurate, for the Edwards camp. And certainly not for the Clinton camp either!