As the handicapping of vice presidential candidates continues, Democrat John Edwards has kept alive speculation that he’s in the running.
“I'm not seeking the job,” he told reporters in Denver this week. “But anything Senator
Obama would ask me to do in his campaign or presidency I would consider seriously.”
But has a tabloid newspaper sunk any chances he had?
For two days, reactions to
a story posted this week by the National Enquirer have spilled into the
blogosphere and at least one network TV show.
The Enquirer, which months ago alleged an affair by former N.C. senator, this week said its reporters caught him having a rendezvous with the woman,
Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.
The paper said Hunter had two rooms at the hotel Monday night. It said a team of reporters watched Edwards go into the hotel at 9:45 p.m. and then ambushed him on his way out at 2:40 a.m. when, it said, he ducked into a bathroom.
The paper published no photos or no eyewitness accounts beyond those of its reporters. A hotel spokeswoman declined to talk about the alleged incident Thursday, citing a “non-disclosure policy.”
Asked about the allegations in Houston Wednesday, Edwards said, “ “That's tabloid trash. They’re full of lies. I’m here to talk about helping people.”
But the political damage may have been done.
“Many a vice presidential candidate has been doomed by rumors, ones that have both been true and untrue,” Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director, told the Observer. “The
Obama camp loves to call him ‘No Drama
Obama.’ He’s not picking somebody that provides drama, no matter how true or untrue the allegations.”
Or, as an
Opinion blog on the L.A. Times web site said Wednesday, “
Barack Obama's VP shortlist might have gotten shorter.”
Don Fowler of Columbia, a former Democratic National Chairman, agreed.
"Any kind of report like this, unless there is some absolute proof that it is not true, will be believed by some people," he said, "and the degree to which it seems to have credibility will be believed by more people. And when you select somebody to be vice presidential candidate the number one rule of everything is, you sure as hell don't want somebody who will hurt you."
The Enquirer story was mentioned Wednesday night on CNN’s Glenn Beck show. But for the most part, the mainstream media has ignored it.
Bloggers have taken note.
Slate’s Jack Shafer called it a double standard, and contrasted it with press coverage of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who was arrested arrested at an airport last year “for playing footsies in a toilet stall.”
To Enquirer editor David
Perel, the
blogosphere is closer to the mainstream than traditional media.
“‘Mainstream’ media is a misnomer, the amount of attention the story is getting online is huge,” he told me Thursday. “Basically, new media is leading the way on this, and that’s going to continue to happen.”
I asked
Perel about photos or eyewitness accounts. He
wouldn’t talk about that.
“Well, stay tuned, that’s all I can say,” he said. “Everything’s done incrementally. So I’m not going to tell you exactly what our process is. Perhaps my time frame is different than your time frame. I’m not worried about the rest of the media. I’m worried about us.”
Perel called it “an extremely difficult story to work.
“We wanted to continue with it until we found a smoking gun. I basically wanted to catch him in the act and that’s what we did. Got day and date, time and place.”
Fowler suggested the story could hurt Edwards more than other politicians.
"If you had this rumor about Bill Clinton it probably wouldn't cause a ripple," he said. "But given John Edwards and his public relationship with his wife, something close to a model of the perfect family and their perfect relationship, it would hurt that much more."
Around two dozen Hillary Clinton supporters, some carrying signs saying "Dump Dean," attempted to shout down Democratic national chairman Howard Dean during an appearance in Charlotte today.
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