John Edwards
appeared on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last
night with wife Elizabeth and, according to the
Associated Press, said that he did not know she supports
same-sex marriage. Indeed, the presidential candidate
said, he was surprised to learn of her position when
he read news reports of her remarks just before
San Francisco's pride parade on Sunday.
Really? The
Edwards campaign deployed Elizabeth Edwards, arguably as
much a star now as John himself, to one of the premier
gay events of the year, and the two did not discuss,
let alone strategize about, what she would say there?
Just after
kicking off his campaign, John Edwards discussed same-sex
marriage in a joint appearance with his wife on December 31
on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
Edwards acknowledged that marriage equality is
"the single hardest" issue for him
because of his small-town upbringing and that he backs civil
unions as a path to providing rights to gay couples.
When
Stephanopoulos asked Elizabeth Edwards whether she favors
same-sex marriage, she responded, "Well, it's
not particularly important whether I am, but I guess I
come from a more eclectic background and so it's less
problematic, I think, probably for me."
This Week then ran a clip of John Edwards
stumping in New Hampshire: "My daughter who is 24 and
goes to school in Cambridge--her generation and
all of her friends believe this issue will completely
disappear with their generation."
Elizabeth
Edwards, with John seated next to her, reflected on the
views of her daughter: "And I have to say
she's talked to children on both sides of the
aisle who are her age--the children of our senators
and politicians on both sides of the aisle--and
people who are her age, regardless of the political
affiliation of their parents, all believe exactly the
same thing. This issue will not exist when they are the
people who are sitting in these seats."
Does this sound
like a family that doesn't discuss the issue of gay
rights and, more specifically, same-sex marriage?
This is not the
first issue on which Edwards's sincerity could be
legitimately called into question. His "Two
Americas" campaign is beginning to reveal two
Edwards: one who seems genuinely impassioned about the
plight of poor Americans yet builds a multimillion-dollar
mansion and gets famously expensive haircuts. He's
the candidate who won awards ranging from $6 to $60
million as a trial lawyer filing cases against doctors
and hospitals. Yet he is concerned about the vast number
of Americans who lack health care insurance because they
can't afford sky-high rates and was the first
Democratic presidential candidate to offer a detailed
plan for universal health care.
As one prominent
blogger recently noted at an Edwards event, he's the
one candidate who seems to have lost control of his
public image. This is ironic, since Edwards has also
made a point of doing away with all those fancy
consultants who he believes stifled the candidacy of John
Kerry by turning him into Mr. Bland (not that he was
Mr. Charisma to begin with).
Later in the
This Week interview, Edwards said of his
wife, "She is my most trusted adviser and always has
been, always will be, and I care what she says about
things. We disagree, you know."
Stephanopoulos
challenged Edwards to name "one issue" on
which they disagreed.
"Not on
camera, I'm not going there," responded
Edwards. "But we know what they are and she is
a strong-willed woman." Apparently, John Edwards
did not know same-sex marriage was an issue they differed on
even though, thankfully, Elizabeth Edwards is not shy
about speaking her mind. (Kerry Eleveld, The
Advocate)
