Of all the figures on the national political scene, there is only one person who I think we can genuinely say is participating in the blogosphere, as opposed to just using it: Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Senator John Edwards, the once- and, it appears, future-Presidential candidate.
Elizabeth, who spoke at the PDF annual conference this past May, has been online for a decade, though mostly reading and commenting on blogs anonymously. But in the last year or so, she has been popping up on various blogs, including the Huffington Post, OrangePolitics, and ArchPundit, in her own name, and writing in a voice that is unmistakably her own. Whatever you may think of her and her husband’s politics and ambitions, she deserves credit for actually embracing the culture of the net.
If you follow the links above, you can find her ruminating on what it’s like to raise young children in her 50s; her explaining in careful detail why she and John chose to live in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area (and why they temporarily were registered to vote in two places and why they hadn’t updated their voter registration); her praising John for admitting that his vote for the Iraq War was a mistake (her acerbic retort to one commenter who thought that wasn’t enough is brilliant: “If you want people to change their minds and agree with you, you ought to quit stoning them when they do. Just a thought.”); and her defending herself and other spouses of presidential candidates from charges of meddling in their campaigns (“Do I want the best for John? You bet, but not one smidgen more than Christie Vilsack or Cindy McCain do for their husbands. And these women will — when and if the time comes — spend a lot of themselves in the campaign that bears their husband’s — and their — name. They will know although it is not their campaign, it is their life that will be affected. It was unfair in 1992 to suggest that Hillary not speak up in Bill Clinton’s campaign; it is unfair to suggest that if one of us expresses our opinions, pro or con, on anything that we are being petty and certainly unfair to suggest that we are being vindictive.”)
The bloggers involved think this is pretty cool. After Edwards posted her comments on OrangePolitics, which appeared after the site’s proprietor, Ruby Sinreich, welcomed the her and her family “to the neighborhood,” Sinreich told me she was impressed. “She is so smart and fierce and charming it’s scary,” she wrote me. Nancy Watzman, whose post on the Huffington site about being a late parent attracted Edwards’ attention, told me she thought it took even more courage to write openly about personal life than political matters. (Full disclosure: Nancy and I are longtime colleagues and wrote a book on money and politics together.) Judging by the response on his blog, ArchPundit was pretty humbled by the experience.
I emailed Elizabeth Edwards to find out if her appearances in the blogosphere writing in her own name were random and whether they were likely to continue in the future. Her answers suggest that we could be in for a really interesting ride as the presidential campaign of 2008 plays out.
My first question was “Do you have a rule-of-thumb for when you post a comment in your own name?” She answered:
Although I have used other names, I am using my name now.
Maybe it is a self-imposed sort of discipline.
I don’t have a rule I apply to posting. Usually I leave negative posts alone — people are welcome to their opinions, but why should I bring any more attention to them? The exception that I made for ArchPundit (and will make again if necessary) is one I will probably continue to make: when there is bad information in the post, I want to correct it. I know how short the distance is between uncorrected misinformation and notions fixed in concrete, in all parts of life but even more so on the internet which has such a echo chamber — “Saw this posted at TheBestBlog and again at MyFavoriteBlog and so I am posting it here on my blog.”
Except on our community’s blog or when live-blogging or chatting, I do not engage in a serial discussion, as I once did. I post and then I largely leave it alone. I admit to going back to see what happens after I posted, but — and sometimes this does require a lot of restraint — I try not to post again. I don’t want to develop a habit of engaging someone over a long period of time. It is really hard, particularly for someone who has spent a decade online in the back-and-forths. And it is hard because part of the point is the conversation. But I have that conversation on our community’s blog and if someone wants to engage, I hope they come there. Of course, I hope they come there anyway.
I also asked the obvious follow-up question: “Are you going to stop posting in your own name if your husband runs for president again? (I hope not.)” Her answer:
John’s running for President would not stop me from posting. In 2003 and 2004, what it really did was cut down the time I had for reading and posting.
Our email conversation ended with me thanking her for her time, and wishing her and her family “happy and restful holidays.” Her answer was sweet and revealing: “And thanks. I am certain we will have a happy holiday, and just as certain we will not have a restful one.”
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