Reply #12: I understand your point, but here's an alternative way of looking at it [View All]

a) There is absolutely nothing wrong with appealing for donations under these circumstances. They are simply asking for help to win an office and to fight exactly this kind of behavior. For Ann to "make hay" with this, one would first have to agree that raising money is a bad thing and somehow equivalent to nasty, cruel personal attacks. These behaviors are not moral equivalents, and any reasonable person understands this. (I realize there are a lot of unreasonable people out there but they are going to love Ann no matter what the Edwardses do.) Ann is hoping people are dumb enough to fall into this logical trap, but they aren't.
b) RWers and the corporate media will twist reality no matter what Democrats do. Changing one's behavior ONLY because someone might twist it, when the behavior is otherwise positive, is not a good idea. Then "the terrorists win." The thing to do is to ask politely for someone to do the right thing (as both John, in the past, and Elizabeth have done), and when Ann doesn't politely agree and follow through, try to make lemons out of lemonade, or make those comments more costly to Ann and "her side", to the extent that you have any power to do so. It is just basic reinforcement theory being applied. Rather than play into Ann's points, they are trying to make the consequences discourage the behavior. Democrats learned from Kerry's and the Clintons' experience that you cannot simply ignore these attacks or take the high ground of saying you wish they would stop, etc. That does not work and may make things worse by allowing people to believe that people share Ann's hateful views.
c) If the Edwards campaign were being crass or whatever the twisting would portray them to be, then why would Elizabeth Edwards have politely appealed (as John Edwards has in the past) to Ann to stop the personal attacks? If the Edwards campaign reasoned the way people like Ann Coulter do, they would WANT her to keep on attacking, so that they could cash in. Instead, they are taking the REAL high road and asking Ann to stop.