Sabotage

Posted on 05/10/2009 at 3:44 pm by Bob Cesca

This is a hell of a story. Staffers on the Edwards campaign apparently had planned to sabotage the campaign if it looked like Edwards was going to win the nomination. In other words, they weren’t going to let him get the nomination, knowing the affair would have doomed his chances of winning the presidency.

Several of them had gotten together and devised a “doomsday” strategy of sorts.
Basically, if it looked like Edwards was going to win the Democratic Party nomination, they were going to sabotage his campaign, several former Edwards’ staffers have told me.

They said they were Democrats first, and if it looked like Edwards was going to become the nominee, they were going to bring down the campaign.

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  • http://www.xkcd.com/ ∇•B=0  Silly Ratfaced Git  ∇•D=ρ

    I admire their loyalty to the party but I am not sure I respect their solution. I think that it would have been better had they resigned from the campaign when they became convinced the rumors were true. Sabotage is an act of disloyalty and I’m not convinced that it is something one should do regardless of circumstances.It seems they only dragged the campaign out longer. Had they resigned the campaign would have stumbled and lost steam even if they gave no reason for their resignations.I am thinking out loud here. So feel free to flame me if you think I’m wrong.

  • lomifeh

    If they resigned it would have left a cloud hanging over – namely “why?” I can understand their logic but would it not have been better to just threaten to go public if he did not give it up?I am guessing they were trying to save face. It’s one thing to lose the nomination because of a bad campaign it is another to lose because you had an affair on your sick wife.

  • steve

    If this is true, then why wait until Edwards is in striking distance of the nomination? Why not just sink his campaign immediately? That would have saved everyone a lot of trouble. People who donated to the Edwards campaign would still have their money, or they could have donated to Obama or Hillary instead.Sounds like these staffers just wanted to hold on to their jobs as long as possible.

  • ceu

    IMO, they should have sat Edwards down & asked him to put the good of the country ahead of his own ambitions and end the campaign. He may have thought he was the best candidate – and it some areas, he was – but this stuff always comes out and was going to end up screwing both the party & the country.

  • http://tarackian.deviantart.com J M Ashby

    Well… I can’t blame them for this because if it were to have happened, we would have mccain/palin atm.So I say, good on them to have backup plans.

  • http://www.sigzone.blogspot.com MG

    Well, they knew that he is a dick.

  • gypsy

    my mom and i were against edwards from the beginning. being from north carolina we knew his type. he’s the type to “pour sugar on shit” (yeah, i went southern on your asses) it’s not that i think he is satan for cheating (although that was shitty esp. with his wife’s condition) it’s just that fake southern gentleman persona that is used to cover up (fill in the blank). i’m glad they were going to take him down for the better of the party/nation and because i think he is a dickish person who would act in his own self interests on all issues.

  • D. C.

    This is a weird story. I’m glad Edwards never got closer than a distant 3rd place so they didn’t have to go through this doomsday plan. I can imagine them trying to sit him down and talking about the good of the part/country, but with his ego, I doubt it would have made a difference.Now, having said that, anyone else ever notice that it’s only democrats who seem to have their political careers ended by having an affair? Serial adulterers like Newt and Ghouliani are still around and kicking. Larry Craig doesn’t seem to have paid any political price for soliciting sex in a public men’s room. Elliot Spitzer had to resign after getting caught in a prostitution scandal, yet David Vitter held onto his seat for doing the same thing.Why is that?

  • brutlyhonest

    What gutless sacks of crap. If you don’t believe in the man, don’t work for him. If you did believe in him and he betrayed your trust, tell him so and stop working for him.

  • http://tarackian.deviantart.com J M Ashby

    DC – Very good questions.

  • eve

    they didn’t go ahead with sinking the campaign because it was already clear he would not win and they didn’t want to put the family through it unless, by some miracle, it looked like he would win — so I readFrom what has been said, Edwards lied to them. They had asked him whether the rumors were true or not. It’s pretty devastating when you believe in someone and are working hard for the cause to find out they are so self-absorbed they would do whatever the wanted and the cause be damned. He lost their loyalty and didn’t deserve any loyalty from his staff or supporters.

  • hielo

    There is no good reason to be talking about Edwards.He is history. My wife said “no” after the $400 haircut. I always thought he was just too…. slick.Just another political asshole.We have Obama.