The Radicalization of John Edwards
March 9, 2007 — -- On Thursday, ailing Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards rejected an offer to engage in a nationally televised debate with front-runners Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Sponsors of the debate would include the Democratic Party of Nevada, the Democratic Party of Arizona, the Democratic Party of Colorado, the Democratic Party of Montana, the Democratic Party of New Mexico, and the Western Majority Project, a liberal political action committee. Why would Edwards, who is currently running 25 percentage points behind Clinton and 13 points behind Obama, turn down such a rare opportunity to directly confront his opponents? Why would the television candidate of all television candidates turn down a chance to look pretty on national television?
Edwards rejected the invitation because Fox News is co-sponsoring the debate.
Really. Seriously. No joke.
"There were a number of factors and Fox was one of those," explained the Edwards campaign. "We're already planning to participate in a jam-packed schedule of debates across this country. … We can't attend every single debate and forum."
Edwards is running scared. Because he's running scared, he's running left. Soon he'll be infringing on Dennis "I've Got No Strings" Kucinich territory.
Edwards hopes to gain votes by outflanking Clinton and Obama. If he can solidify the netroots crowd -- the Daily Kosians who despise Fox News' conservative bias more than Al Jazeera's pro-terrorist bias -- he may precipitate a groundswell of Huffington Post support. Edwards remembers the lusty ovation Bill Clinton received after Clinton's spittle-flecked tirade against Fox News interviewer Chris Wallace. Edwards wants to duplicate Clinton's "conservative media bias" routine.
It's an interesting strategy, particularly for a candidate whose radical, quasi-Marxist "two Americas" nonsense is undermined by his own gaudy lifestyle. Edwards cannot credibly play the radical. Edwards cannot play the role of outsider – his vice presidential run in 2004 made him too mainstream for that. He cannot play mainstream-gone-radical-revivalist -- Al Gore has that market cornered. He cannot play Bill Clinton -- Clinton's style has already been co-opted by both his wife and Obama. Unfortunately for Edwards, he has to campaign as John Edwards.
Which isn't to say that Edwards' newfound repugnance for Fox News won't win him some supporters. Radical left organization MoveOn Civil Action has already embraced Edwards' newfound hatred of Fox News. "The Fox debate should just be canceled and a more legitimate news source should be found," says Adam Green, MoveOn Civil Action's spokesperson. "[The debate is] a lame proposal that would have multiple Fox personalities joined by one lone Air America panelist. That's a rigged, unfair and unbalanced debate."
Yet, for some strange reason, both Clinton and Obama are considering attending the debate. If Fox News is the cable news right-wing Satan, why would such liberal luminaries even consider sitting on the same stage as a Fox News moderator?
But desperate times call for desperate measures -- and John Edwards is a desperate candidate. Obama's candidacy sucked all the air out of Edwards' campaign; even Edwards' fabled hair looks flat. To electrify his candidacy, Edwards has morphed into Howard Dean. He has hired (and fired) a far-left blogger known mainly for her profligate use of the word "f---." In the midst of a presidential campaign supposedly concerned with the big issues, he has spent an inordinate amount of time focused on Ann Coulter's use of the word "faggot." He has stated that Israel is a threat to world peace, then denied that statement. His electoral marginalization is matched only by his self-imposed political marginalization.
Ben Shapiro is a Townhall.com contributor and nationally syndicated columnist.