Mrs. Edwards’s Cheap Shot

Elizabeth Edwards, who has chosen to remain in a presidential campaign while battling terminal cancer, is a rare person indeed. She last raised eyebrows and loads of money by calling Ann Coulter on the carpet when she called into MSNBC’s “Hardball” last month and told the Queen of Mean to stop bashing everybody. Edwards has now produced another rare moment of the ’08 race that will soak up much focus in the days to come — she actually criticized Hillary Clinton. Yup. She dared to chuck the Talking Points for Rival Campaigns, where you are supposed to be unctuously magnanimous, and told Salon.com that she doesn’t think Clinton talks about women’s issues enough. “I’m sympathetic — she wants to be commander in chief. But she’s just not as vocal a woman’s advocate as I want to see. John is.” 

Wait, there’s more: “She needs a rationale greater for her campaign than I’ve heard,” Edwards continued. “When she announced her candidacy she said, “”m in it to win it.’ What is that? That’s not a rationale.”

‘Nuff said. This is a cheap shot. Clinton is the first viable female candidate for president. Sorry, Elizabeth Dole and others. She is the only woman in a field of men, trying out for a job no woman has ever held — to lead the United States in the age of terror. To say that Clinton doesn’t have a rationale for running is almost laughable; she is running on experience, the strength of her political machine and the inevitability that she will actually win. It’s not that crazy a concept — just ask any of the thousands of Republicans who are already preparing for their worst nightmare.

But just what is Clinton supposed to be saying to make her the women’s candidate? If she breaks out the knitting needles or spends too much time talking about cellulite, motherhood or child-rearing she is toast, and no political adviser would tell you otherwise. It’s a daunting straddle. Just ask Barack Obama, the first viable black candidate. With too much caution he has ceded the role to Hillary Clinton, letting her win the debate at Howard University last month, and she is currently considered the “blacker” candidate.

So does Edwards get to be the women’s candidate? Not according to the polls showing that lower-income, lesser-educated single women adore Clinton. She talks about the government services they need, and they eat it up. Women who want Clinton to be president only because she is a woman, and not because she is as qualified as the men who spend no time talking about their issues, should think again. And that includes Elizabeth Edwards.

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