John Edwards, the former Vice Presidential candidate, was in Seattle last week promoting himself with a different crowd  -  bloggers and  hard-core techies.  I think the reviews were mixed.  

"Dave Winer, an early blogger and one of those at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, disagreed with the notion that it was a non-political appearance. He said Edwards was laying the groundwork to seek endorsements from the bloggers, and he said other potential candidates should have been invited because of that." (Con)

"Kathy Gill, a senior lecturer on digital media at the University of Washington and author of the blog uspolitics.about. com, said she believed Edwards’ comments on the subject of political authenticity and transparency were notable..I didn’t know what to expect, and I was more impressed than I expected," said Gill, who described herself as politically independent with progressive leanings." (Pro)

My take is that both things are true - it’s never one or the other.  But, John Edwards could have accomplished more if he stayed around and listened to the parts of the conference - like Al Gore did at TED.

"Edwards arrived shortly before speaking and left immediately afterward, and that didn’t go unnoticed. Attendee Natala Menezes of Seattle said it was good that Edwards appeared, but she noted that former Vice President Al Gore not only spoke at the Technology Entertainment Design conference but also attended the rest of it."

Ok, down to business - did John Edwards appearance create any Buzz for him?

I think it did.  Al Gore got a lot of visibility with An Inconvient Truth.  John Edwards kinda has been playing it low key for a while - he’s just begun to step his appearances a notch.   Question is, what will John Edwards citations in blog search be next week?  Probably a lot less.

There are times when all three possible candidates spike at the same time - it could be useful to use BlogPulse to figure out what the blogosphere is saying, like on June 11th and June 23rd - based on a quick scan of posts - they all seem different - the only common theme is no charges for Karl Rove in the CIA Leak case.