Reading The Pictures: Taking Aim At Edwards

In light of the recent Bhutto assassination and the fact that Edwards is resuscitating a subject that seems to have been politically disappeared, this image is really disturbing.

The photo accompanies an article yesterday by controversial NYT writer, Michael Gordon, outlining John Edwards's just announced proposal for an accelerated troop pullout from Iraq. The article, however, is not a news story so much as it is a mugging.

In the fifth paragraph, Mr. Gordon takes a now familiar dig at Edwards by describing how Elizabeth Edwards (described as John's "political partner"), who was listening in on the interview, felt the need to underscore the candidates own points for him.

At the beginning of paragraph six, Mr. Gordon feels compelled to point out that Mr. Edwards's plan "is at odds with the strategy developed by American military commanders."

Mr. Gordon uses paragraph fifteen to emphasize that Mr. Edwards has never visited Iraq, while immediately undermining his attack with the fact that the Pentagon only allows visits by Congress members and Governors. (Maybe a subtle dig over the fact that Edwards left Congress?)

In paragraph sixteen, Gordon makes an issue of Edwards's phone call to Musharraf after the Bhutto assassination as John seeking "to highlight his knowledge of foreign policy." The writer also finds it odd that Edwards didn't mention Iraq in his Sunday campaign appearances "save for a denunciation of greedy military contractors." (The write up leaves it unclear, however, if the "greedy" reference belongs to Edwards or Gordon.)

In paragraph seventeen, the writer deems to point out that Edwards was actually able to speak "comfortably about the subject [of Iraq] ... without notes or help from policy advisers."

In paragraphs eighteen through twenty-two, Gordon turns into doom-sayer and Pentagon mouthpiece, warning that: "American military commanders have publicly cautioned that a rapid withdrawal of troops risks a new escalation of sectarian violence." Also citing a National Intelligence Estimate, he warns that Mr. Edwards's plan would "probably lead to 'massive civilian casualties and forced population displacement'. " In both cases, however, Gordon blurs the distinction between removing troops in general as opposed to troop specifically engaged in training, as Edwards proposes.

And in paragraph twenty-three, Gordon actually makes himself, and his ego, a subject of the story, reporting how Mrs. Edwards "politely chided this reporter for failing to ask about Mr. Edwards's plan to train some Iraqi forces outside Iraq."

So, what are we to make of this photograph? Is it possible Edwards prevents hostile reporters from gaining any more than key hole access to his appearances? Or maybe Iowa Lakes Community College, where this event was held, really is on a lake and the campaign event was held on a boat -- this scene coming by way of a porthole.

If it's not one of those explanations, or else a cheap joke on "fade to black," then Edwards reads like a target to me.

Edwards Calls for Quick Pullout of Troops Training Iraqi Forces (NYT)
Update From Breck World (or: Who's Wearing John's Pants?) (BNN)
Michael Gordon Outdoes Judith Miller (Joseph Palermo/HuffPo)

For more of the visual -- including all the hijinks from Iowa -- visit BAGnewsNotes.com.

(h/t: nightbird. image: Yana Paskova for The New York Times. December 31, 2007. nytimes.com)

Comments

[PollyTics]

I think it's funny that the only thing that Edwards critics can come up with is the idea that he had an expensive HAIRCUT. What absolute idiocy! Horrors of horrors, if the only wrongs that Bush & Cheney had done were bad judgment in hair appointments we would be in much better shape than we are currently.

It is ludicrous that people actually challenge this nonsense, ignore these ignorant accusations about bad haircuts and let's talk about Edwards ability to get this country BACK ON TRACK to the true Democracy that we once had.

Edwards is a hard man to critique and if all "they" got is a supposedly expensive haircut, then I say "BRING EM ON!"

[godlessclif]

We know who the establishment does not want. What I do not understand is why the people do not vote for the guy the establishment does not want.

It may be too late to save these rich dicks from themselves as their greed destroys the dollar.

[Mariel]

I agree with you, Foreffecti­vgovernmen­t. In toto. I too have been helped by a lawyer, who helped me get medical treatment after a car accident; the insurance company wouldn't have helped without the lawyer.

[wedgie]

AND REMEMBER. The NYTimes is the paper that withheld knowledge of Bush's ILLEGAL domestic spying program for a YEAR until after the 2004 elections.

The Grey Lady is a whore.

**

[midtown]

Good for you, Mr. Shaw. I am not an Edwards' supporter, but I welcome correcting the record like this when it is patently unfair.

[davidly]

The photo immediately reminded me of that of the man with the pistol in the crowd at the scene of Bhutto's assassination.

The likes of Gordon and the freshly designated "opposing view" of Kristol further confirms the NYT's as tool for the defense industry and all of her profiteers.

[benalbanach]

Stop reading the NYT .

[Janskats]

In true National Inquirer style, a level of journalistic excellence to which Gordon regularly aspires, the picture is probably intended to appear to authenticate his "insider" take on what's supposedly happening in the Edwards campaign, by making us think he regularly peeps through windows and keyholes. Well, I've no doubt he does.

[coloneblog]

I thought Iraq was already a humanitarian disaster and that there has been 'massive civilian casualties and forced population displacement'. Perhaps Gordon doesn't think 1.2 million dead Iraqis and 2 million displaced reaches the definition of "massive." Is the Cheney/bush Iraq War over? You don't hear much about it; are the troops home? Have we stopped bleeding blood and cash?

[thebeerdoctor]

Finally I got a chance to hear John Edwards in Iowa on C-SPAN. And yes, he is the only candidate that represents the unrepresented, i.e.; the vast majority of citizens in this country. He is remarkable because he has evolved into that rarest of species: a Democrat with a backbone.
He also points out that you do not negotiate with soulless money sucking entities such as Blackwater, Haliburton, etc. He is also intelligent enough to know that consulting the health insurance on national health care is insane.

[wayoutleft]

edwards supporters are the best supporters. i just wonder how much redistributive and egalitarian change to the economic structure most people really feel comfortable with, especially the exploding elderly population, wherein enormous wealth is concentrating. (by no means evenly distributed- i hasten to add.)

[CookieWrites]

Edwards is a courageous man because Corporate America will have the Whitewater types gunning for him. The NY Times story is indicative that they are out of touch with the middle-class. They probably think that people who buy one-room apartments that cost $1-million in Manhattan are the middle class. The middle class left NYC long ago and took refuge in New Jersey.

[ramal]

Edwards remains the best hope for salvaging what is left of America. The MSM and the Corporists will do there best to shoot him down however they can.

[RedRooster]

The MSM blackout of John Edwards: Some metrics
by JedReport
Mon Dec 31, 2007 at 12:12:58 PM PST

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/31/141617/72/752/428416

[skyblu]

Of particular concern is the 'sudden' emergence of the "Oklahoma 15", a "bipartisan" group who feel their interests are not represented by the "Leftist" Democratic candidates no the "Crazies" of the Republican Party.

You many of heard about this group's plan to run Michael Bloomberg as an "Independent" candidate (as in Joe Lieberman) to create a, as Chrstine Todd Whitman and former Senator Gary Hart refer to it, a "unity government".

Sam Nunn, David Boren, Chuck Robb, Chuck Nagle,
William Cohen, former Sec of Defense and now CEO of "The Cohen Group", a strategic defense strategy group (including specialties such as "Message Management", "International Trade and Agriculture" with two new offices in China for strategic trade management (aka Mandated Anthrax Vaccines for all troops being deployed in the Middle East, regardless of contamination and permanent disabilities induced by same, and the others.

Let me say unequivocally I see coup D'etat Presidential election 2008 rapidly approaching on the horizon. If allowed to make inroads this group will quash any possibility that Americans will elect the leader of their choice.

The Oklahoma 15 are nothing more than global power brokers (energy, trade, nuclear power) who want none of this democracy crap. The people are too naive and dumb to know what the want so we'll make it easy and install our guy.

The fight has barely begun.