Edwards Initiates Operation Apology Drop

John Edwards is in the middle of a 3 day campaign swing through New York (Sen. Clinton’s territory).  Yesterday, while speaking to reporters at a union-sponsored event, Edwards apologized again for his Iraq war vote and took a subtle snipe at Sen. Clinton:

If you asked me what I think the most important personal characteristics of the next president are, I would say honesty, openness and decency.  There’s not a single voter in America who doesn’t understand that their president is human, and their president will sometimes makes mistakes…[Voters] want you to be willing to change course when something’s not working. We’ve had six-plus years now of a president who is completely unwilling to do that.

Granted, this time he stopped short of directly referencing Sen. Clinton, but he didn’t demonstrate the same restraint last week at the Nevada Forum when he said that “Clinton’s decision not to disavow her vote was ‘between her and her conscience.’”

Contrary to his campaign’s belief, I don’t see a substantial benefit from having Edwards out there consistently apologizing.  It’s important for a candidate to demonstrate that he/she is willing to take responsibility, the whole “Buck Stops Here” mentality; however, it’s extremely damaging for a candidate to consistently remind people that he/she was wrong on a major issue and further it’s just silly to suggest to voters that an incorrect decision is somehow a legitimate criterion for being elected.  It’s clear why Edwards is doing this, in my opinion, he’s trying to get himself into a little spat with Hillary over the vote, thus garnering some desperately needed publicitly, while weakening Sen. Clinton.  Unfortunately for him, he’s wrong on two levels:

• First and foremost, this is apologetic quest is not an effective strategy for a general election.  So even if he wins the Democratic primary, he will have built a wall between himself and the White House (if he keeps on this path).
• Secondly, this strategy isn’t helping him in the primary.  It’s actually working against him and slowly making him less relevant.  Each time he needles Sen. Clinton and she fails to respond, he loses legitimacy.  Heavens to betsy, it only takes a supporter of Sen. Obama for Sen. Clinton to respond, yet Edwards compares her to George Bush and she just brushes it off.  The media, the voters, they’ll see this trend and wonder why other candidates aren’t taking his criticisms seriously and in turn, his support will continue to wane.

My advice?  Get off this love train, stop telling people they should vote for you because you’re sorry and because you’re decent and start telling people they should vote for you because you know how, not you will, but you know HOW to deal with Iraq, Iran, terrorism and N. Korea.  Start telling voters that you’re the best person to not only protect them from terrorists destroying their lives, but from government wasting their money and eroding their civil liberties.  This is a campaign for President, not Miss Congeniality.

My best to you Sen. Edwards, I hope you heed this advice (like other 2008 Central advice to you).