Potomac Flacks: Ford's Death Puts Crimp in Edwards Rollout

December 28, 2006

Ford's Death Puts Crimp in Edwards Rollout

Johnedwards_1 While we said last week that John Edwards' plans to announce his 2008 campaign this week were smart from a PR/timing perspective, that was before we knew that former President Ford was going to pass away this week. Ford's death clearly sucks some oxygen away from Edwards' story today (kinda like Team Edwards itself tried to suck the oxygen out of Evan Bayh's announcement about not running).

It's not the only example of the Edwards team being unable to catch a break. The AP caught the campaign pre-announcing Edwards' decision on the web yesterday. And this morning, Edwards' 9am ET announcement press conference earned something short of roadblocked cable news coverage. Only CNN covered Edwards live for more than a few minutes, and as they cut away from the live feed their talking-head commentary (including NPR's Ken Rudin) was pretty negative on Edwards.

We noticed that former Edwards spokesgal Jennifer Palmieri is doing most of the on-the-record work for the nascent campaign, but is being described as an "Edwards adviser." Will Palmieri be taking leave from her position at the Center for American Progress to help out, and/or will new faces fill the comm director / press secretary roles for Edwards?

Posted by Matt Mackowiak on December 28, 2006 in 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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Matt Mackowiak is a Washington, D.C. and Austin,TX-based Republican strategist and communications consultant and President of Potomac Strategy Group, LLC. In his career he has managed a winning Congressional campaign and worked in the U.S. Senate, at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, at a leading international PR firm, on a presidential campaign in Iowa and in White House presidential advance. Follow him on Twitter - @MattMackowiak

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Laura Gross is currently president of Scott Circle Communications. She has served as deputy director of communications at the DNC, was Gov. Howard Dean's Communications Director and she worked in the press office at USAID during the Clinton administration. Her experience also includes time in the PR department of National Public Radio and she was part of Vice President Gore's advance team when he was in The White House.
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Blain K. Rethmeier - Contributor
Blain K. Rethmeier is currently the Senior Vice President for Public Affairs for the American Insurance Association (AIA). Rethmeier joined AIA from the White House where he served as Special Assistant to the President for Communications and directed communications for the National Economic Council and Homeland Security Council. Prior to joining the White House, Rethmeier served as Press Secretary for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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