Or maybe it's just a signal to liberals that Edwards isn't going to sell us out for the approval of reactionary nutcases like Bill Donohue.

I don't like Bill Donohue, myself, but nor do I think that the Christian Democrats interviewed in the article were clones of Bill Donohue. There is another temperate position for someone attempting to attract people to his campaign.

In any case, the point stands. You have two hirees who built their reputation on the internet by taking a sledgehammer and pounding everything in sight that annoyed them in the slightest. Neither subtlety nor diplomacy is their stock in trade.

How about the approval of normal people with good social skills? No matter, the Breck Girl isn't going to get very far in 2008 anyway. Actually, I hope he does. I hope he gets the Dem nomination. Yes, I do.

Judith, you're a fan of Rudy Giuliani! Where do you get off criticizing any other candidate's social skills?! This is the guy who routinely threw public tantrums and insulted people who disagreed with him, even about minor matters like the ferret ban.

If Giuliani alienates enough people over the next year, he won't get the nomination or win the race. And it will be his responsibility since his words will come out of his mouth.

The blogger twins have already alienated lots of people, including Catholic Democrats. Edwards hired them and decided to keep them, so if they cost him the nomination or presidency, it will be his responsibility.

So what was your question?

Ms Marcotte needs to keep her mouth shut !

My question, as you well know, is how you can go on about "the approval of normal people with good social skills" when you support a man famous for his public temper tantrums.

I actually lived in NYC for most of the time that Giuliani was mayor, and I had grown up here, as well, saw I saw what NYC was like before he was mayor, and I spent sometime here during the Dinkins Administration, when NYC was considered an insoluble problem with petty crime proliferating because no one would do a damn thing about it. And let's not forget about the Borough Park pogrom, which Dinkins had no clue how to deal with.

To me, these are the important aspects of his career as mayor. He did what it looked like no one else could do. It certainly was the feeling that NYC was pretty much a lost cause before he stepped in. And he made it inhabitable again.

I'm quite sure a lot of screamers about civil rights will come out of the woodwork if Rudy is nominated. They existed in plenty while he was mayor - about how he was the world's biggest fascist. Of course this was before they got introduced to Bushco., so clearly they didn't have perspective about what the world's biggest fascist really was like yet.

I don't think it matters. This aspect of his personality will be brought up, sure. But people who have visited NYC will remember how New York changed, how it got cleaned up, how its crime rate fell precipitiously, how it began to feel aesthetically like a prosperous city with amenities, as opposed to on its way to slumhood. And people will remember his leadership post 9/11 and how he stood up to adversity and how he gave back the $10 million check from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. And they'll decide the want they want to, after that.

But between Rudy and Hillary, it's more or less stalemate on the point of weird family dynamics. They cancel each other out.

"But between Rudy and Hillary, it's more or less stalemate on the point of weird family dynamics. They cancel each other out."

That's a great argument - I'll remember that! :-)