I'm an equal opportunity pain in the ass pundit

[acroyear]

Edwards you're being a jerk again.

If your campaign was going to halt, then fine, do the press conference so you can get the attention and direct it to the candidate you were going to support.

But since your campaign is going on, then this entire thing was one giant attention-grabbing publicity stunt and really we all have better things to do with our time and attention than put up with that.

*sheesh*

Comments

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who has worked campaign press before, let me tell you -- it may piss you off, but on a campaign there are many good reasons to have done the press event.

1) If you don't, rumors will kill you. Then your funding dries up.

2) When reporters keep asking you "Is your wife's health going to drive you out of the race," that can scare away donors as well. It also detracts from your message.

3) Better you get out in front of it and say everything that needs to be said, and that way it doesn't distract you from your message. It's a one day story that way, as opposed to one of those lingering campaign maladies.

4. For once, you get to control your own message, and you might even get to slip in some of what you really want to say during the short time you've got the mainstream media's attention away from the frontrunner horserace stuff ("ZOMG Hillary versus Obama 1984 video!")

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

A press release followed by an impromptu press conference with whichever reporters are following you for the week would have served just as well as this 6 hour time-waster.

My point was he didn't get out in front of it and say it. He *staged* it for 6 hours of unnecessary speculation and attention. Just issuing a press release would have been getting out in front. That too would have been a one day story. Instead, he now becomes the poster-child of unneeded press conferences and tv station hijacking and thus a target (especially a target of those who will hypocritically use (or already have used) the same damn tactics).

The attention he got will merely feed the Republican PR machine that the "liberal" media gives the Democrats too much attention. Not to say that the PR machine isn't for now merely preaching to its own choir, but that will change again in 15 months.

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Releases are for print. TV needs pictures. And there's no such thing as an "impromptu" press conference unless you have a regular press pool, and former US senators with campaign offices in North Carolina don't tend to have them, contrary to popular belief.

And much as I hate to make your hardened cynicism any more diamond-like, but everybody uses these tactics. The press secretary's job is to get press. Usually you want it on better terms than "my wife's cancer isn't going to stop me fron running for president," but you take what you can get. It's a dog eat dog world out there, and the candidate is the one wearing Milk Bone underwear.

Hey -- I had to try and remake Parris Glendening into Bill Clinton during PG's first gubernatorial race; try giving THAT man some Elvis and see how much press you get.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

try giving THAT man some Elvis and see how much press you get

A reference to "Elvis is Everywhere"? (Michael J. Fox has no Elvis.)

I'll take the rest as yeah i'm cynical, but reality isn't going to make me any MORE cynical (nor is my cynicism ever going to change reality) so let reality be. :)

would that the press certain press secretaries get would be more realistic.

"AP (Washington) - White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was once again caught talking out his ass when he described ..."

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

"Some Elvis" is a Molly Ivins term.

Molly used to say that a great politician has "some Elvis" in him, some charisma, some je ne sais quoi -- nowadays it's when you hear a politican referred to with the terms "rock star."

Bill Clinton, as Molly used to say, has LOTS of Elvis.

Obama apparently has some too.

GHW Bush didn't really have a lot of Elvis.

George Bush has none. And Dick Cheney shot Elvis in the face.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Heh. The NPR Ombudsman says that Ivins likely got it from the song, but doesn't provide any specific evidence to support that other than mentioning a pointer to the song.

This page says they contacted Ivins who claimed the "Enough Elvis" test was original to her, at least as applied to candidates.

it doesn't really answer whether or not the reference to elvis was a reference to the song.

so, it'll live on as a great mystery, # 2,995,335,665 in the list at Maximillian University's temporal history department priorities.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Releases are for print.

Yeah, thinking about it now I can see the difference on the 6pm news between "in a statement released by the Edwards Campaign today, ..." vs. Edwards actually on film going "this is what it is...".

[mandrakan.livejournal.com]

It also matters, although perhaps not determinatively, that Elizabeth Edwards has quite a following herself. I think there would have been a demand to hear from her even after a press release, and this allowed the Edwards family (in addition to the Edwards campaign) to have that communication on their own terms.

Given who she is, I think the decision to have a full-scale presser was about more than merely campaign matters (although, equally obviously, there would have been no press conference if John was not running).