In an interview published today with Salon, Mrs. Edwards says Mrs. Clinton is not as vocal an advocate for women’s issues as she wishes she were and lances the Clinton campaign’s suggestion that people should vote for Mrs. Clinton because she is a woman. Mrs. Edwards also says Mrs. Clinton “needs a rationale greater for her campaign” than that she is in the race to win, which is what Mrs. Clinton said when she announced her candidacy in January.

Mrs. Edwards, wife of John, who is the candidate, has been over some of this terrain regarding Mrs. Clinton before. Last fall, she told a forum sponsored by Ladies Home Journal that she had some things in common with Mrs. Clinton — they both went to law school and both married lawyers — but that they then made different choices.

“I think my choices have made me happier,” Mrs. Edwards was quoted as saying. “I think I’m more joyful than she is.”

Mrs. Edwards subsequently said that the magazine had misrepresented her comments, blending answers to two questions into one quote. (The magazine stood by its transcript.) But she also called Mrs. Clinton to apologize.

Either way, it seems that there’s something about Mrs. Clinton that is clearly frustrating to Mrs. Edwards. Her latest comments seem aimed at puncturing a hole in the Clinton campaign’s lead among Democratic women. Polls suggest that Mrs. Clinton holds sway over blue-collar women — the same unionized, downscale voters to whom Mr. Edwards is trying to appeal.

Mrs. Edwards hinted at her frustration a few weeks ago in an interview with The New York Times, when she noted that Mrs. Clinton was using the televised debates to make her views sound similar to those of the other Democrats.

“Early in that debate Mrs. Clinton said something about, ‘Basically we’re all the same about this,’ and that wasn’t actually accurate,” Mrs. Edwards said, referring to a discussion about Iraq. “They weren’t all the same, and if everything all looks like it’s packaged like butter but some of it’s oleo, you know, or margarine, you’ve got to — voters need to know what it is they’re buying.”

In the Salon interview, Mrs. Edwards seemed to be suggesting that Mrs. Clinton was getting a free pass on health care because she had championed it as First Lady, while Mr. Edwards was the one who had put forth a comprehensive plan.

She said that Mrs. Clinton had discussed some cost-saving measures on health care, “but she acts like that’s going to make health care affordable to everyone,” she said. “And she knows it won’t.” She also criticized her for “not really talking about poverty, when the face of poverty is a woman’s face, often a single mother.” And she said Mrs. Clinton had created some “wiggle room” on her position on abortion.
(At a Planned Parenthood forum today , Mrs. Edwards said that her husband “would never, and I mean never, equivocate on his support for a woman’s right to choose, to gain a few votes or to position himself.”)

The Edwards campaign may find that such pointed remarks help Mr. Edwards raise money, as Mrs. Edwards’s confrontation with Ann Coulter did a few weeks ago. But it may also find that they overshadow her husband and his message.

Edwards ‘lived’ in Iowa from 2004 to 2008. The polls looked good for him in Iowa. That was his ace in the hole. I think it worked in 0zero’s favor like everything else dove tailed for him.

Whether the Obama campaign threatened Edwards with spilling some beans about his affair is beyond me. It was reported that the media knew a lot about his affair, but out of respect for Elizabeth did not report it. Sounds like the Kennedy days.

john’s bad judgment in knowing what the pitfalls were irritates me. i feel sorry for elizabeth however i don’t admire her quite as much as i did.

[B]ut we can’t in the name of feminism ignore that Rielle was the instigator.

I’m not excusing Riel’s role in all this in the name of feminism. But
do we know for certain that she instigated the affair? Perhaps John pursued her. In any case, it really doesn’t matter who pursued whom. The fact is that as adults they made the choice to have the affair. Both are responsible; however, John, as a public figure, defrauded not only his family but his constituents. He also made the choice to break his wedding vows.

Sweetie, Obama’s still a “boy”–clueless, immature and absolutely lacking toilet manners…so let’s not PLAY THE RACE CARD everywhere, dahrling!….ENOUGH…and you don’t know who you’re talking to, you fool!

While I think Bill also should have said NO, beside the kneepads am I remeberring right that they were inb his office and she lifted the back of her dress and showed him her thong?