Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

January 22, 2004

Has Mr. Positive Turned Nasty?

ABC News "has obtained an official 'John Edwards for President' precinct captain packet that includes myriad personal attacks for Edwards caucus-goers to make against his Democratic opponents, perhaps belying" his claim of running a positive campaign.

"The document -- marked CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVILEDGED (sic) and NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION and signed by the senator -- encourages Edwards supporters to tell undecided caucus-attendees that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is a 'Park Avenue elitist from New York City' and say Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts has 'the stale record of a Washington insider' and 'has been a part of the failed Washington politics for too long.'"

An Edwards spokesman responds: "Senator Edwards was not aware of this document. Once he found out about it, he takes full responsibility for it. He thinks it was wrong and has instructed the staff not to do anything like that again."

Update: Though ABC News claims this as an exclusive, Ryan Lizza actually reported on this "thick caucus field manual issued by the Edwards campaign" that "contained detailed persuasion scripts" two days ago.

Meanwhile, Dan Conley, an Edwards precinct captain in Iowa, gives his interpretation of the document.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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