From WaPo: With Trippi's Rise, Some See a New John Edwards

[dajoki]

With Trippi's Rise, Some See a New John Edwards
By Chris Cillizza
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 23, 2007; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/22/AR2007102202332.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

<<snip>>

Those who know Edwards best insist that his campaign reflects his own life experiences, including his wife's ongoing battle with cancer, and that in hiring Trippi, a cult figure on the party's left for his role with Dean, Edwards has found someone who can translate his instincts into a coherent campaign message. Trailing Clinton and Barack Obama in the polls, Edwards is basing his campaign on a vision of bold change not shared by either senator.

<<snip>>

By all accounts, Elizabeth Edwards and Trippi have developed a close relationship, beginning during their first meeting this spring at the Edwardses' home in Chapel Hill, N.C. An hour and a half into listening to the couple's pitch to join the campaign, Trippi suddenly flinched when his diabetic neuropathy -- a nerve disorder that sends pains shooting through his body at random intervals -- began bothering him. Elizabeth Edwards noticed. And when Trippi started talking about his illness, she told him that she suffers from the same condition.

Still, Trippi turned down the offer to join the campaign. "I told them there was no way I could do it again," Trippi recounted recently. "That I really liked them and really believed they were going to take on a broken system -- but I was not going to do it."

<<snip>>

As Dean went from an afterthought in the 2004 presidential race to the Democratic front-runner, Trippi's star rose with him. But when the former Vermont governor finished third in the Iowa caucuses, the campaign was essentially over, and Trippi was suddenly out of a job. And, many assumed, he was out of presidential politics -- a decision seemingly affirmed at his meeting with the Edwardses.

On March 22 all of that changed. In a televised news conference, Elizabeth Edwards announced that her breast cancer had returned but that her husband's campaign would continue. "I sat there in my house with my wife and my neuropathy firing away," Trippi recalled, "and just said, 'You know, I am not done either,' and I picked up the phone and offered to join the campaign."

[Debi]

1. Yeah, they see him writing large checks to Trippi's consulting firm

:eyes:

[waiting for hope]

2. That was a jaded comment if

I ever saw one. Read the article, and grow a heart.

[Debi]

3. I can't, Trippi bilked Dean out of $$ that went directly into his pockets

through his consulting firm.

I was hesitant but okay w/him 'advising' the Edwards camp early on b/c somebody else was making the financial decisions regarding consultants. But that person left in late August (and the campaign kept it quiet for a month) and good old Joe kindly stepped in to help himself out.

Trippi is in this to fatten Trippi's wallet, nothing else.

I feel sorry for the Edwards.

more here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3636091