The Edwards Assault On Right Wing Media: A Video Retrospective

Now that John Edwards has dropped out of the race, it's worth pausing to reconsider the role John and his wife played in what I think is one of the most under-appreciated stories of Campaign 2008.

Specifically: Thanks largely to the Edwards couple, aggressive push-back against right-wing (and even traditional) media figures went mainstream in Dem primary politics in a big way. Indeed, the Dem candidates adopted this sort of push-back as almost a de rigeur tactic, a way of throwing wrenches into the wingnut slime machine while simultaneously appealing to Dem primary voters, who can't get enough of this sort of stuff.

Let's remember that Elizabeth and John Edwards led the way on this. It began with John Edwards' boycott of Fox News, a move that was soon duplicated by other candidates, much to Fox's chagrin. It continued with Elizabeth's surprise attack on Ann Coulter on Hardball and her spirited emergence as a tormentor of other wingnut media stars and a kind of all around media noodge on her husband's behalf.

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