Bob Shrum: John Edwards A Lightweight Who Was Never Very Comfortable Around Gays, Also Known As "Those People"

Which would suprise Ann Coulter, I guess.

Robert Shrum, the veteran Democratic strategist who worked on John Edwards's 1998 Senate campaign in North Carolina, does not remember his onetime client very fondly.

In his new memoir, "No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner," Shrum recalls asking Edwards at the outset of that campaign, "What is your position, Mr. Edwards, on gay rights?"

"I'm not comfortable around those people," Edwards replied, according to Shrum. He writes that the candidate's wife, Elizabeth, told him: "John, you know that's wrong."

Edwards's pollster, Harrison Hickman, who was in the room during the discussion, says Shrum "is sensationalizing and taking out of context what was an honest discussion about [Edwards's] lack of exposure to these issues and openly gay people. I don't remember anything that expressed any kind of venom or judgment about gay people."

...

While praising Edwards as a man of "many innate political gifts," Shrum says he hoped the senator wouldn't run for the White House in 2004: "I was coming to believe he wasn't ready; he was a Clinton who hadn't read the books."

Kind of an interesting juxtaposition. Ann Coulter, who is comfortable around gays, called John Edwards a faggot. She got beaten up for that (including by me).

John Edwards, who is not a faggot, says he's not comfortable around "those people," meaning gays. Will he get beaten up for this?

Probably not. To the extent the MSM mentions it ever again -- which they, you know, won't -- they will (hypothetically) portray it as a net-positive for Edwards, demonstrating he has the touch of the "common man" about him, a sign that he is "in touch with the people" in not really liking them there queeries.

posted by Ace at 02:52 PM

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