And back to fired again
The rollercoaster continued today for the 2 bloggers hired by the Edwards campaign, or at least for one of them. Amanda Marcotte, aka Pandagon, resigned today. She cited in her resignation announcement the perceived conflict of interest that was impacting her ability to defend herself against the accusations of the Catholic league guy as one of the reasons she chose to end her employment with the campaign. I think she recognized that the conflict of interest issues hurt both the blogger and the campaign in these situations. And now she's free to take on the Catholic League for violations of tax and election laws, which should be fun to watch.
I don't condone what the Catholic League folks did, not by a long shot, but I cannot say that I'm terribly surprised that they got their scalp and that Marcotte chose to return to unattached blogger life free from the impediments of being a campaign employee. I think we'll find most of these blogger-campaign operative situations will be short-lived, even if there is no high profile attack on the bloggers coming from the other side of the political spectrum. There is a difference between unabashedly supporting your candidate of choice, which many bloggers do, and being considered by the rest of the blogosphere to be a bought-and-paid-for mouthpiece of a particular candidate, as well as a walking record of personal outpourings on a blog that may not all look so good under the hot lights of a microscope. Would you want your parents to read your blog? If not, you probably wouldn't want your candidate to be asked about things that you said in the heat of some moment many moons ago, either. I know I sure as hell wouldn't.
Meanwhile, in only moderately related news, Griftdrift has (for free) taken on the crusade to ensure that John McCain never sees the inside of the Oval Office. I can't say that I blame him, and I might have to join him. Ol' Maverick has disappointed me for the last time, agreeing to speak at a creationist group that opposes the teaching of evolution. Spineless Douchebag. (See, that's one of those things that I would probably regret saying if the Obama campaign came along and offered me a pile of cash. And they'd probably regret giving me the pile of cash once they found out I said it.)
Previous posts on this topic:
Blog Traitor, J'Accuse!
Will Blog for Food
4 comments:
I'm pretty disappointed. First, if she quit on her own then Edwards went to bat for her for nothing. Second, if she was forced out then that makes Edwards a back tracking wiener. Third, that Neanderthal will be on MSNBC crowing about winning again.
I too am disappointed she didn't stick it out. A shame.
And just for the record, I've gotten into a mind-set that I could care LESS who reads my blog, nor what they have to say about it, including my parents. I kinda wish they would sometimes, but they don't even have a computer. They are totally off-the-grid, which only increases the already huge space between us, sadly.
She claims that she resigned.
All I know is that blogging for any candidate at this early stage would only turn out to be a two-and-a-half year exercise in eventual triumph or futility. There won't be any middle ground. Either your candidate takes the White House, or you've spent a long-ass time documenting the private, public and rumoured activities of a could've-been.
And even if your candidate does become President, where will that leave you, the blogger? As much as we might wish to step into the imaginary shoes of The West Wing's C.J. Craig or Toby Ziegler, just on the merits of our biting commentary and troll-handling, it just wouldn't happen.
(Of course, if Barack ever asked me ...)
Well, ultimately it's her decision. We can all say what a shame it is, but can any of us honestly say we could handle all that public scrutiny and hate on a daily basis? I would wither instantly. No doubt about it.
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