Salam v. Hayes

Hats off to Chris Hayes and Reihan Salam. This is perhaps the best diavlog (oh. god. hate. using. that. word) I've seen. I particularly recommend the segments about Rudy and Edwards and what went wrong in those two campaigns. My one dissent--from Chris--is about the energy at Edwards campaign events. He's seen many more of those than I have, so he's pretty well situated to make the claim that they were depressing. But to my eye, though a typical Edwards audience was led along a guided tour of some of the tougher problems facing America and, indeed, forced to look at those problems head on, they were also inspired to believe that those problems can and will be solved, and by the time the stops were over his supporters weren't depressed but inspired and invigorated. This is, I think, why Jon Cohn called him "maybe the most effective campaigner" of the big three.

In the end Giuliani and Edwards ran something like foil campaigns, and perhaps both efforts could have succeeded if each had enjoyed elements of the other. Speaking generally, Giuliani is a deeply unappealing man who ran the sort of stupid, sloppy campaign that only lasted as long as it did on the strength of his fame and the media's willingness to slobber all over him. Edwards, by contrast, is a generally likable, extremely charismatic candidate who ran a mostly--though not entirely--smart campaign, but was nonetheless forced out early because the media had all but decided against him from the start. In Chris' words, they robbed him of the political oxygen he would have needed to remain viable, and, lacking it, his campaign died earlier than it should have.