Edwards to Fire Amanda Marcotte?

Captain Ed is commenting on the growing speculation that John Edwards is on the verge of firing the two people he hired to blog for his campaign, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.

The campaign of John Edwards, hailed for hiring two progressive bloggers for his 2008 Presidential campaign, has now said they will reconsider that decision in light of the blogging history of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan. The episode reveals the lack of vetting done by the Edwards campaign before hiring the two bloggers, and sets back the ability of bloggers to mainstream themselves into traditional political roles.

I don't think that Edwards' move will set back the ability of bloggers to move into traditional political roles. This is more an issue of poor hiring decisions.

I applaud Edwards' efforts to include bloggers and other new media into their campaign, but their choice lacked foresight. One need not look very far into Marcotte's posts to find hatred, vitriol and swearing. These traits themselves do not lend to credibility as an effective writer or organizer, but to a demagogue. If that is what Edwards was seeking, he hit the jackpot. But while a demagogue might move a small portion of the political spectrum, its negative impact on the rest of the voting public is too pricey.

So Marcotte hates Catholics, or at least appears to. Big deal, as Captain Ed pointed out, Catholics have dealt with far more substantial demons. Had Marcotte targeted her hatred just at Catholics or one other group, you could chalk up her opinions to a minor irrationality. But Marcotte seems to dispise just about everyone with whom she doesn't agree. Her writing implies that she hates these people and groups simply because they hold an opposing opinion and therefore are completely unworthy of even acknowledgement that the opposition may have a valid point or argument.

Edwards may have been trying to make a splash by hiring McEwan and Marcotte, but when the staff becomes the story, the political campaign is derailed and even at this early stage, Edwards can't afford that if he is to compete against the Hillary Express and the apotheosis of Obama.

Captain Ed closes with these paragraph:

Unfortunately, we can expect this incident to make it harder for bloggers to make the transition into traditional political roles on campaigns. We already have a Wild West reputation for shooting off our mouths and thinking later, which I believe is mostly undeserved; the media will use this to reinforce that impression of the blogosphere. The truth is that the Edwards campaign didn't work very hard to keep a couple of Catholic-haters out of their payroll, and while the media will also report that, that will get missed for the more sensational story of those bloggers and the liability they represent.

The blogosphere features many talented and rational writers on both Right and Left, and even in between. It's incumbent on the campaigns that hire bloggers (and media outlets, too) to distinguish those from the frothing lunatics at all points on the political spectrum. Their failure to properly vet bloggers reflects much more on the values and competence of the campaign than it does on the blogosphere in general.

Bloggers can add to a campaign in that they are used to snap writing, sometimes without thinking and that, more than anything else, will limit the hiring of bloggers. Campaigns like to control the message and a blogger who posts without thought or checking with the message managers will be a liability, not an asset.

Update: While writing this post, Memeorandum is reporting that Marcotte and McEwan have been fired.