by Geoffrey Bennett

Elizabeth Edwards
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Elizabeth Edwards

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is making news again. This time, her words about Sens. Obama and Clinton in the August issue of The Progressive magazine are what's drawing attention.

Said Edwards: "We can't make John black, we can't make him a woman. Those things get you a lot of press, worth a certain amount of fundraising dollars.''

Now for good measure, let's recap a few other of Edwards' attention-grabbing lines:

About Hillary Clinton to Salon.com:

"I think one of the things that make me so completely comfortable with [John Edwards running against Clinton] is that keeping that door open to women is actually more a policy of John's than Hillary's ... Look, I'm sympathetic, because when I worked as a lawyer, I was the only woman in these rooms, too, and you want to reassure them you're as good as a man. And sometimes you feel you have to behave as a man and not talk about women's issues. I'm sympathetic — she wants to be commander in chief. But she's just not as vocal a women's advocate as I want to see."

To pundit Ann Coulter on MSNBC's Hardball:

"I'd like to ask Ann Coulter — if she wants to debate on issues, on positions — we certainly disagree with nearly everything she said on your show today — but it's quite another matter for these personal attacks that the things she has said over the years not just about John but about other candidates — it lowers our political dialogue precisely at the time that we need to raise it ... It debases political dialogue. It drives people away from the process. We can't have a debate about issues if you're using this kind of language."

And posted in response to John Dickerson's Slate.com op-ed:

"John Dickerson needs to read my husband's book, Four Trials. In it, he will read the stories of four families uprooted by tragedy or accident who leaned, in their worst moments, on John Edwards. He was but a young man when he represented a former salesman, E.G. Sawyer, who, because a doctor prescribed an excessive amount of a pharmaceutical, was confined to a sliver of life in squalor. Without John's strength, intelligence and voice, he would have died that same way."

How is this playing online? Well, the blogger behind Think on These Things has had enough. His post on the topic is titled "John and Elizabeth Edwards Are Getting On My Last Nerve." (Nuff said.)

And asks the blog Slant Truth: "Does she really expect anyone to believe that her husband is at a political disadvantage because he is a white male?"

What say you?

We say we want those running for office (and those in their inner-circle) to "keep it real," to use the phrase. But just how real? Play campaign manager for a moment. Will Edwards' straight-shooting style get her husband's campaign in trouble? How would you advise them?