On why I think political consultants are WAY overrated

But then, I'm a little biased as I so heart John Edwards and despise any and all political consultants I personally know.

And, sorry, I'm too tired to write too much so I'm just going to link and copy and paste parts of the article. So sue me.

Politics is a dirty, dirty game. If you play it correctly, you can get a lot of things for yourself nice things. If you don't play it, you get shit and shit upon. Jaded? You bet I am! It's what keeps me going.

Political consultants have always had a bad name and make politics the dirty game it is. Karl Rove certainly hasn't helped the situation for consultants. And, neither has the bickering James Carville on Crossfire. This article from The New Republic shows the slimy bitterness that too often envelops politics and turns so many young people off it. The blame game is prevalent in politics more than any other profession I've worked in. As shown in this snippet:

Shrum went on advising Edwards for several years, including as Edwards was contemplating his vote on the fall 2002 Iraq war resolution. In the one passage of the book already widely leaked, Shrum recounts how he and other political advisers pushed Edwards into a vote for the resolution that Edwards--and, even more so, his wife, Elizabeth--didn't want to cast. The episode didn't make Shrum look great. But the real damage is to Edwards, who comes across as a cipher taking orders from his handlers. As Shrum puts it: "[H]e was the candidate and if he was really against the war it was up to him to stand his ground. He didn't."

Ah! It's all so petty! To those of you in the political business I ask, "Why do we do this?!"

Suffice to say, I will NOT be reading Shrum's new book. I get enough crap from the consultants I know; I don't need any from those I don't.