I am a John Edwards Netrooter by benny06

Interesting take from benny06. Always love it when I am quoted :P

Lately I have been in the cross hairs of blogs, some of which are trying to declare that John Edwards campaign is DOA because he is accepting public finance monies. Kos, Taylor Marsh, etc, are saying that Edwards could do without it because the netroots are helping candidates raise more money in general. But Edwards had a bit slower 3rd quarter fundraising than some of the others. No one denies it, and now anyone's contribution, since many of them are smaller than $2300, are matched one for one up to $250. I am one of those who cannot donate like Oprah Winfrey, so my donation is actually worth more because of the match.

JSamuel in his comment at the Daily Kos gave 10 good reasons why Kos is misguided in his views:

1. You criticize Edwards for taking public financing because it benefits him (which I disagree with, but not the point).

2. You however do not criticize Clinton and Obama for not taking public financing because it benefits them.

3. A 527 is not a Washington lobbyist.

4. The DNC is not a Washington lobbyist.

5. Public finanicing is the way to get big money out of our primary.

6. The DNC will only be in use AFTER the primary is held so that it does not conflict with the message of public financing, which you continuously ignore.

7. You have no problem with the Dem nominee having 150M but you have a problem with the DNC having 150M.

8. Do we want to support party building and the 50 state strategy or not?

9. John Edwards does not control, run, or have any responsibility for what 527's do or the money they raise.

10. You only seem to have a problem with 527's when they are brought up by the Edwards campaign.

He is on the mark. Kos says the netroots can help as it did with Dean. But now that Kos has attention of the traditional media, he has become more like them. Taylor wants to be like them. Both are out of the traditional places media writers come from: law, journalism, entertainment, and sometimes academia. Kos is a lawyer, Taylor Marsh is out of the entertainment business and in radio. Both appear more concerned about the "image" of the campaigns rather than the ideology.

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