Four years ago, as Howard Dean was approaching cruising altitude as a leader in the Democratic presidential field, the political world was also taking note of Dean's man behind the curtain, colorful campaign manager Joe Trippi.
Trippi, credited for nurturing the netroots success of the Dean campaign, eventually fell out of favor with both Dean as the big media vultures began to circle the campaign in its dying days. He got fired, wrote a book, became a MSNBC pundit and swore he'd never get actively involved in presidential politics again.
Whoops. He's back (not surprisingly), and is now John Edwards Web advisor (also not surprisingly). Talking Points Memo's Election Center on line newsletter has an interview with Joe out today, and he's just as feisty and quotable as ever. For a full read of the interview, click
HERE, but for a few bite-sized chunks of what he says, about Edwards and his competition, read on.
On why he's back in the presidential game after what happened to him and Dean in 2004: I really was convinced that the Dean campaign would be my last. But I sat there looking at where the war was going, and wondered, "How the hell can I sit on the sidelines? I'm still relatively young, although I'm an old fart, and I should make one more run at it."Yes, Edwards supported the war. But he owned up to it and said it was a mistake. He opposes it. He's got a real timetable for how we should get out. When you look at the real issues facing this country right now, I don't think the choice between the candidates is a close call.
On Edwards main opposition, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama: They are sitting around wondering how they're going to find sixteen Republican Senators to override the President's veto? That's baloney and everyone knows it. But that's what they're working to do. Or you have deauthorization of the war. Like we didn't do that in Vietnam? I mean, come on. The Congress has funding authority and they need to use it. There's only one candidate who's saying, "Send the President the same bill again and again, he's the one who's not funding the troops." That's a far, far cry from, "Hey, let's go find sixteen phantom Republican Senators," or "Hey, let's deauthorize the war." Sixteen words got us into this war, and sixteen phantom Republican Senators aren't going to get us out. Any compromise that would get 16 votes isn’t a compromise worth making.
On what he has in mind for the Edwards campaign: We're trying to look at You Tube in a different way. we're really happy with the success of our "We the People" ad. I've only been around a couple of weeks, and the web team hasn't gotten sick of me yet. I have thrown some furniture around...
-- Sam Hemingway
