cross-posted at dailykos
I just read the most absurd column in the New York Times. I don't know if you got a chance to read it yet, but it comes across in a real clear way that the author, JODI KANTOR, thinks that the Edwards are bad parents.
I know that's the most ridiculous thing you've heard about Edwards recently, a high threshold to meet, but check out the language. It's not even remotely subtle. In 2008 Race, Little Ones Go on the Trail With Daddy
DES MOINES ? Emma Claire and Jack Edwards, 9 and 7, were on their umpteenth campaign trip earlier this month, this time through small towns where their father was decrying rural poverty and the power of lobbyists. |
The two children barely listened. They scampered away from speeches as fast as their parents would allow...
"I don?t want to do this," Jack protested to his father, John Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate and former North Carolina senator.
"I don?t care whether you want to do this," Mr. Edwards replied.
A moment later, Jack hid his face in his hands.
"Mr. Jack, do we need to go in the back and have a conversation?" asked Mr. Edwards, lifting his son?s head.
The boy sat for a few more minutes, fidgety but obedient, before being freed and happily bounding with his sister to the fort they were building in the back of the bus.
The author then goes on a longish and fairish rant about certain candidates and their choices around campaigning and parenting, except for this little dagger: Mr. Edwards and Mr. Obama represent poles of the debate ? Mr. Edwards has upended his children?s lives for the campaign while Mr. Obama is determined to keep his daughters rooted at home with their routines intact ? while the others fall somewhere in between.
The train starts to pull into the station right about here: Mr. Edwards, who lost his oldest son in a car accident 11 years ago, is determined to avoid regrets like the one Mr. Brownback described, even if it means dragging Emma Claire and Jack through thousands of miles and stump speeches.
The author mentions that the kids won't be able to spend time in their "28,000-square-foot pleasure palace," and that Elizabeth Edwards "hatched this plan" to have them traveling with their parents as much as possible and then comes this incredibly bleak image: instead of their routine of school, sports and friends, they will travel with their parents, spending days on buses and nights at Comfort Inns...
To hear the couple talk, it will be an enriching, madcap adventure that will allow their children to learn things on the road they might not in a classroom, and it will fulfill their highest priority: being together.
To hear the couple talk?
WTF, people.
Traveling together, though, does not always mean being together. On a recent Iowa trip, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards were busy with voters, interviews and phone calls, and the children spent good chunks of the day in the care of their baby sitter.
It is a familiar life for them. When Mr. Edwards was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, Jack spent Halloween walking the aisles of a campaign plane in a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger costume, collecting candy from the press corps. This fall, his parents say, he will be sorry to miss playing on his sports teams at home. Asked what she would miss, Emma Claire sounded alarmed.
"How will I get to see my dog?" she asked. WTF, Jodi.
No sports, no dog, no "pleasure palace," no routine of friends, arts and crafts and all the joys of childhood for the kids as long as their parents are running. No the kids can look forward to being uprooted, upended and dragged all over the country to boring speeches, fleeing to vending machines, the fort in the back of the bus, the occasional trampoline and a whole lot of time without their parents in a Comfort Inn.
Is it me? The language is absurd and I think it's incredibly offensive that the author would write so negatively about the Edwards's choice for their family during this campaign. I think one of the joys of childhood is spending some time with your parents doing something really cool. Traveling around the country running for president with your Mom and Dad sounds pretty cool to me even if the trail can be a grind. And I think we can all agree that those kids want to be with their parents as much as possible, the songbook notwithstanding. Good for them. Happy Travels.
John and Elizabeth Edwards will be on Face the Nation Tomorrow morning. Tune in to see them for yourself.
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