The Edwards interview

Drudge has all kinds of headlines about Katie Couric's interview of John and Elizabeth Edwards last night on 60 Minutes. I watched in real time and was a bit taken aback myself at the lack of softballs being tossed.

But her questions were not unreasonable. This is a man who aspires to become the leader of the free world and we need to know this stuff. Ironically, the questions were of such a nature that Katie was probably the only mainstream journalist who could get away with asking them. Just imagine had Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly been doing the asking. So, give Couric some credit for doing what 60 Minutes always does to Republicans. It's not supposed to be Oprah or Olbermann.

Edwards kept his cool and responded pretty well, although I couldn't get the mental image out of my head of him dragging her around on the campaign trial as she's going through cancer treatments. I'm trying to resist getting overly judgmental since everybody handles challenges differently.

I was intrigued by one of his answers regards running with a sick wife when he used words things like "service" and "too important" as the reasons for pressing on. That was probably stock politico-talk, but it could have been interpreted as a belief that not only would a Republican victory be bad, but also a Hillary or Obama victory as well. Katie didn't explore that area.

He did manage to squeeze in a few down-home Democrat talking points and deflect a personal issue when he mentioned running to give everyone the same chance at getting filthy rich that he had. Couric didn't think to ask him who he thought was currently stopping people from reaching the Edwards plateau, nor did she point out that opportunities are so vast we're even letting foreigners in to enjoy them without penalty. Something for the debates, I reckon.

MORE 3/26/07

Speaking of opportunities for foreigners, this LA Times story was all too predictable in it's coverage of the pro-illegal immigration rally in LA yesterday, leaving the impression it was the counter-protesters (citizens) who caused all the problems. Then they dropped this bomb:

A crowd of about 60 immigrant rights supporters gathered on an adjacent corner of the two major downtown streets, making their own voices heard by waving Mexican flags, stomping on an American flag and, in at least one case, burning it. "Racists!" they yelled at the anti-illegal immigrant groups.

Edwards was correct when he said this next election was "too important". We best choose wisely.