The Kerry-Edwards Honeymoon is Over

by rayman

First, let me point out that this article in the NYT is written by Adam Nagourney who, as we all know, has always been scrupulously fair 'n' balanced when covering the Democrats, right? And in a patented Nagourney Special, it's chock-full of catty backbiting from unnamed Democratic sources. Still, the article worth a read, if for no other reason than to get a handle on the early dynamics of the 2008 race:

Although the men went to great lengths in the campaign to present themselves as friends, associates of both Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards quoted them as questioning each other's campaign performance. This early skirmishing has been noted by some Democrats with amusement. Several Democrats, including associates of both men, suggested that in the end Mr. Edwards and Mr. Kerry might find that after being at the top of the pile in 2004, they were now vying to be the alternative to a much bigger star of the party, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

[...]

"I have a lot of respect for Kerry, but in my gut, I feel it would be a big mistake," said a major Democratic fund-raiser, who did not want to be quoted by name criticizing Mr. Kerry as he tried to recover from the last election.

Over the last month, Mr. Edwards, who did not run for a second term in the Senate in order to seek the presidency, founded a center at the University of North Carolina to study poverty. Mr. Edwards these days has made little secret of disagreements he says he had with the presidential campaign, saying for example that it should not have pulled out of Missouri and that it was slow in responding to the attacks on Mr. Kerry's Vietnam record by other Vietnam veterans.

"I wanted to fight back the day it started," Mr. Edwards said recently on the ABC News program "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos.

Mr. Kerry's campaign aides disputed Mr. Edwards's statement. "The veep is supposed to be a teammate of the presidential nominee - and he and his senior staff were part of every significant decision that was made in the campaign," a former senior Kerry campaign adviser said.

Can you feel the love?