General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Elizabeth Edwards was a DUer. [View all]snooper2
(30,151 posts)as Elizabeth Edwards despairingly tears off her shirt in front of her husband and his campaign staffers. Yick. (You can read the excerpt in Heliemans native publication.) But the rubbernecking impulse is nearly irresistible, from one campaign tableau to the next.Even though we already sort of know the Clintons sling grenades tucked neatly inside their campaign mud, its fascinating to get inside Bills head during his rough, Nixonian ("I am not a racist." treatment of Obama. Exactly who made Hillary, woman and candidate of steel, cry that morning at the diner? The lead-up to the Clintons' end-game endorsement of Obama is captivating, because so many people think it won't happen, party bonds being as delicate as pride.
The biggest hook in Game Change goes right back to the absolutely bizarre story of the EdwardsesJohns vanity and self-obsession (and simultaneous lack of self-awareness); Elizabeths incredibly, suddenly fraught life; Rielle Hunters utter whackjob-ness; and how things spun out of control for all of them. Most readers will just shake their heads in disbelief that a groupie managed to infiltrate the ranks of what was briefly a well-oiled campaign machine. What seems unfair is the unsympathetic insider characterization of Elizabeth Edwards as an abusive, intrusive, paranoid, condescending crazywoman. A cancer-stricken wife whose megalomaniacal husband embarks on an affair with a sycophantic nut seems warranted in her bitchery.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/01/game-change-the-book-about-the-raciest-race-ever
http://www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/ajax.html?t=9922158#page:showThread,9922158,2
With her husband, she could be intensely affectionate or brutally dismissive. At times subtly, at times blatantly, she was forever letting John know that she regarded him as her intellectual inferior. She called her spouse a hick in front of other people and derided his parents as rednecks. One time, when a friend asked if John had read a certain book, Elizabeth burst out laughing. Oh, he doesnt read books, she said. Im the one who reads books.
During the 2004 race, Elizabeth badgered and berated Johns advisers around the clock. She called Nick Baldick, his campaign manager, an idiot. She accused David Axelrod, his (and later Obamas) media consultant, of lying to her and insisted that he be stripped of the responsibility for making the campaigns TV ads. She would stay up late scouring the Web, pulling down negative stories and blog items about her husband, forwarding them with vicious messages to the communications team. She routinely unleashed profanity-laced tirades on conference calls. Why the fuck do you think Id want to go sit outside a Wal-Mart and hand out leaflets? she snarled at the schedulers.
Elizabeths illness seemed at first to mellow her in the early months of 2005but not for long. One day, she was on a conference call with the staffers of One America, the political-action committee that was being turned into a vehicle for Johns 2008 bid. There were 40 or 50 people on the line, mostly kids in their twenties being paid next to nothing (and in some cases literally nothing). Elizabeth had been cranky throughout the call, but at the end she asked if her and her husbands personal health-care coverage had been arranged. Not yet, she was told. There are complications; lets discuss it after the call. Elizabeth was having none of that. She flew into a rage.
If this isnt dealt with by tomorrow, everyones health care at the PAC will be cut off until its fixed, she barked. I dont care if nobody has health care until John and I do!
Couple quick google searches, I guess it all came from that "Game Change" book and also some Vanity Fair pieces