Elizabeth Edwards

Okay, so the Edwards’ insist that cancer won’t get the best of them — at least not yet.  And it’s obvious that they are getting some very good PR advice.  Giving their first interview to 60 Minutes was a very savvy move.  No one can say they went for a softball interviewer.  (See previous post about Katie’s line of questioning.) 

I’ll bet Edwards’ PR team is now encouraging the Edwards to give more interviews.  Won’t be surprised to see them pop up on Larry King tonight, although that will cut into the insightful analysis Larry’s panel will undoubtedly offer on the Anna Nicole Smith autopsy and DNA tests. 

Also look for photos of Elizabeth rollerblading or riding a roller coaster or something.  A picture says a thousand words and right now, they need pix of Elizabeth doing healthy things like working out, or ordinary fun things, like taking her young kids to Disneyland.  Pix that show her vibrant and alive. 

We’ve come a long way since the days when people would never say “cancer” out loud, for fear that the dread disease would come after them.  But it will take a lot to get Americans to widely subscribe to the attitude that the Edwards are demonstrating. 

Teresa Heinz Kerry

Did Teresa Heinz Kerry have a major fight with her husband before they went on the Today Show this morning?  Boy, she looked p.o.’d.  She was looking everywhere BUT at her husband when he was talking to Meredith and she seemed reluctant to participate in the interview, even when Meredith questioned her directly and her husband encouraged her to talk about the book they co-wrote that is newly published. 

In the MT 101 playbook, Teresa blew it.  She had a chance to show the TV audience a good side of herself and instead, came off haughty and oddly disinterested. 

Elizabeth Edwards

The AP is reporting:  CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) – Democrat John Edwards is forging ahead with his second bid for the presidency despite the sobering news that his wife, Elizabeth, is battling an incurable reappearance of cancer.

This isn’t going to play well with political pundits, who don’t like it when any candidate appears too aggressively ambitious.  That’s exactly what they will say about Edwards continuing to campaign while his wife battles incurable cancer, even though Elizabeth Edwards insists that the cancer is contained and more like a chronic condition rather than a life-threatening disease.   That might be true, but the American public probably isn’t ready to view cancer so benignly.  Get ready for the inevitable pundit soundbite, “If it were my wife…”  

Besides, the conservatives, who hate John Edwards for making money as a trial lawyer, will point to his previous statements pledging to drop out of the race if his wife’s cancer returned. 

Larry King’s Hardball Question

Barack Obama is on Larry King right now and Larry just asked a question for which Obama didn’t have a good answer.

Larry: “Are you surprised by how well you are doing” in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination?

Obama just stammered around before fixing on saying that “it’s early” in the campaign.  But he was clearly flummoxed. 

Now, Larry King is not known for his hardball questions, but sometimes the questions that do you in are the easy ones.  So always watch out for the easy ones because those are the ones that get you. 

Remember back when the first President Bush was debating Bill Clinton and at a “town hall” debate, a woman asked if the candidates know how much a loaf of bread cost.  Bush answered first and he didn’t know and he stuttered around and basically just solidified the general impression that the preppie from Kennebunkport didn’t have to count his pennies like the working folks.  Bill Clinton then piped up and said that a loaf of bread cost “too much” and went on to talk about how he’s “grow the economy”.  Clinton probably didn’t go grocerty shopping any more than Bush, but he was prepared for the easy question. 

What should Obama have answered?  Hmmmm.  It’s a tricky balancing act.  He doesn’t want to be widely considered the frontrunner, because part of his potency as a candidate is based on people “discovering” him.  He doesn’t want to insist he’s at the bottom of the polls because it’s simply not true.  Besides, people like to support a winner.  But he doesn’t want to appear arrogant, either. 

I probably would have wanted to hear him say something like, “that’s about the most flattering question I’ve been asked on the campaign trail so far, Larry, and I’ve been asked just about everything.  Certainly, I am really gratified that voters are listening to me and I think that voters have been searching for a while for a candidate who reflects their beliefs.  Balanced budget, honesty in government, care for our veterans….”  and so on and so on….