Obama & Edwards: Fathers and Sons

I work campaigns.

I have two sons – and a third on the way.

These two things are sometimes hard to reconcile. As I’m currently talking to various campaigns about what ship to set sail on next, I can hardly imagine what it’s like to be a candidate with two young children.

Off the top of my head, three Democratic contenders (Barack Obama, John Edwards and Chris Dodd) all have young children as they pursue the presidency.

In the following two videos, Senators Obama and Edwards talk about campaigning with children:

In the first episode of the new Barack Obama podcast, he discusses his children and his father in honor of the now-past Father’s Day weekend. Somehow, I can’t imagine another candidate discussing their family in the way that Senator Obama does in this clip. It’s the type of openness that made his books successful and acclaimed…and made me subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.

In this Edwards clip, Senator Edwards is a little lighter in his treatment of bringing kids on the campaign trail. A friend who worked advance for Senator Edwards four years ago had nothing but good things to say about the Senator’s plucky son, Jack. Jack and his sister, Emma Claire, appear in this piece but flee the room when it’s time for daddy to give yet another speech. His attention turns to his own father in the next clip – as he revisits the familiar setting of the textile mill where his father worked.