A certain diary has climbed onto the rec list with the headline that Edwards is "lead[ing]" on Pakistan. The fact that a diarist has claimed this and that dozens of people have rec'd the diary is pretty astonishing considering that Edwards did not seem to take any special interest in Pakistan before today - certainly not compared to any of the other Democratic candidates.
"Leading" on an issue means talking about it when no one else is. I will admit that, while Edwards is not one of my top 3 choices for the nomination, he has led on a number of important issues - health care and poverty immediately come to mind.
But John Edwards has not been a leader on Pakistan. Edwards has been no less engaged than the other non-Biden candidates on Pakistan, but he also has been no more engaged than, say, Obama has been on the issue.
The ONLY Democratic candidate who can claim that he or she gave particular attention to the gathering crisis in Pakistan before today is Joe Biden, because he is the only one who was spending time on the campaign trail warning about the dangers presented by the turmoil in Pakistan BEFORE the assassination.
It seems that Edwards - like Dodd, Obama, and probably the other candidates as well - did make a perfunctory statement on Pakistan after Musharraf declared a state of emergency, spoke about Pakistan during at least one speech the same day he released the statement, and made some comments on the same situation when the candidates were directly asked about it during a debate. But Biden is the only candidate who actually released a plan detailing how the U.S. should respond, and was the only person who talked to Bhutto and Musharraf then.
Edwards spoke to Musharraf today? Good for him. But Biden spoke with Musharraf over a month ago when the crisis in Pakistan was simmering rather than exploding. Near as I can tell, Edwards did not speak to Musharraf at any point during the past several months, while the situation in Pakistan was rapidly deteriorating. (Search 2)
Biden also spoke to Bhutto 6 weeks ago. Near as I can tell, Edwards never spoke to Bhutto at all. (Search 2)
(As an aside, Bhutto disagreed with Edwards's debate-time comments on the situation in Pakistan when asked about them on NPR. I know that's not necessarily indicative of anything, and it's not directly pertinent to the topic of this diary since the comments were made by Bhutto rather than Edwards, but I thought it deserved mention, since it was the only thing I found linking Edwards and Bhutto from before today. Take it as you will.)
I commend Edwards for having the initiative to become more engaged on the situation in Pakistan. But leadership is taking serious steps to try and address a potential problem before it explodes into a crisis, and not after the problem has become impossible to ignore. Only Biden can claim to have done that.
(PS - Everything above equally applies to anyone who claims that their candidate has led on this issue, or any person who claims that the current crisis in Pakistan vindicates the views of their own candidate on foreign policy issues. I only single out Edwards supporters because none of the other candidates' backers have a diary on the rec list calling their horse a "leader" on the issue.)
UPDATE: A commenter pointed out that Edwards also mentions Pakistan on the general anti-terrorism part of his website. However, it mentions nothing about Bhutto, Musharraf's recent state of emergency, or anything else indicating that he thought any more about this issue than the other candidates. It's also 3/4 of the way down on a page addressing the broader issue of the war on terror; there's no indication that he recognized that Pakistan was in imminent danger of erupting into crisis.
This is also commendable, but again - it's not leadership.
UPDATE 2: I also do want to say that I realize that it's not appropriate, and more than a little disrespectful of Bhutto, to post diaries pumping up any candidate on the Pakistan issue today. But here's the truth - I would not have posted ANY diary about Biden and Pakistan if I hadn't seen someone posting the ridiculous claim that Edwards is "leading" on this issue. I apologize for the timing of this post - and I will gladly delete it if the Edwards diarist deletes his or her post claiming Edwards has led on this issue.