ALMOST AS HARD AS PICKING A HAIR GEL:

Edwards Learns Blogs Can Cut 2 Ways (JOHN M. BRODER, 2/08/07, NY Times)

Deliberations over the fate of the two bloggers, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, created a crisis in Mr. Edwards's nascent campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 and illuminated the treacherous road ahead as candidates of both parties try to harness the growing power of the online world. The case of the two women had left Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, with difficult choices.

Mr. Edwards could keep the women on his staff and have to answer for the sometimes vulgar and intemperate writings posted on their personal blogs before he hired them late last month. He could dismiss them and face a revolt in the liberal blogosphere, which is playing an increasingly influential role in Democratic politics and could be especially important to his populist campaign. Some bloggers saw the controversy as manufactured by conservative groups.

Or, as Mr. Edwards did Thursday, he could keep the two bloggers on staff, but distance himself from their views.

It's a good indicator of how trivial his campaign is that the employment of these two could become a crisis and that he not only found a decision about what to do to be difficult but then biffed it.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 9, 2007 1:32 PM