Edwards
August 9th, 2008
So, I am guessing that this does not do wonders for Edwards’ vice-presidential chances.
What alarms me is that Edwards, knowing he has this skeleton in his closet, chose to run at all this time. That’s a judgment which (depending on your perspective) is even worse that deciding to have an affair in the first place.
Talk about the Democrats (unknowingly) dodging a bullet….
I am shocked and deeply disappointed. He championed my politics and he put them at risk. Interestingly, he couldn’t get any media support in January, but he’s getting it now.
While I’m very disappointed, I am not entirely surprised. Good looking, charismatic, rich and powerful, I can imagine lots of women throwing themselves at him as he traveled around. Kissinger said that power was the ultimate aphrodisiac. A guy from my high school was drafted into the NBA and in less than three months time of signing his first contract and reporting to training camp, it was reported he had gotten several women pregnant. There are some women, I imagine, who prize the rich and powerful and are somewhat skilled in the pursuit. In the case of Clinton and Edwards, I imagine two guys with the world at their feet, who end up compromising their careers, public responsibilities and their families to some women who would seem to me very mediocre. You’d expect them making these kinds of mistakes to a Heidi Klum look-a-like, but that’s hardly the case.
This is nothing new. If Monica Lewinsky never emerges, Gore wins in 2000. Lots of people where angry at Clinton for having to explain to their five year old child, coming home from school asking about what a ‘blow job’ was. They took their anger out on Gore, voting for the ‘honor and dignity’ they thought Bush would bring to the white house. Maybe as many as 10,000 Americans have died because of that (9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq etc…) and 120,000+ Iraqis have died, tens of thousands of American maimed and wounded, the economy devistated, the world order falling apart, all because Clinton couldn’t bide his time.
I hope some one comes along and picks up where Edwards left off. There’s about a hundred million Americans out there who live lives in, or bordering on squalor, who have pretty much lost their champion tonight. Lots of children are living needlessly in poverty and many children starving for attention while their parents work multiple jobs.
On the other hand, McCain is evidence that eventually this kind of thing gets set aside. I would say that McCain (and for that matter Gingrich) did far worse in ditching their faithful wives for younger, prettier, and in McCain’s case, much wealthier women.
If anything good from this comes up, it will be that it might draw some light on McCain’s infidelities.
Overall, I think Americans have some high standards on personal conduct they expect of their leaders – in an age where 50% of all marriages end in divorce. However, if they are going to take a hatchet to Democrats for this, they might as well take one to McCain too.
Personal life vs. Political life
Yes, he’s sleazy. Yes, he shouldn’t have a political career after this. But come on. This is a personal issue. Leave it alone. This affair shouldn’t cause Edwards’ political ideologies to die with it. We need others to take up his goals and ideas because, as uncouth as his behavior was, his political ideals are still worth fighting for.
Michael: I would be quite OK with ignoring the affair, especially as Elizabeth has come to terms with it and has forgiven him. That’s not the major sin here. The sin is that he knew he had this lurking just below the surface and he asked Democrats to put the party’s future in his hands at a critical juncture. Whatever you and I might forgive–and Republicans always forgive their cheating and wayward candidates, just look at McCain & Giuliani–had Edwards won the nomination, we’d be in deep crap right now. The Democratic nominee would be involved in another love affair, which, after Clinton, would torpedo his chances altogether anyway–but with the possibility of a child, having to disprove that, then the inevitable howls for endless investigations and the free pass it would give the GOP to use the justice system to look for any dirt on him, etc., etc.
Had Edwards won the primary, John McCain would now be the presumptive president, not just the nominee. And that’s Edwards’ big sin: knowing he could sink the party and lead the nation to more Republican destruction of the nation, the constitution, the economy, everything.
I can easily forgive Edwards for a dalliance. I could never forgive him for putting all of our fates at risk like that. It was more than just stupid, it was massively incompetent, hugely derelict, and, well, you get the idea.
Edwards, the ambulance chaser, is crooked as a dog’s hind leg !
That, and the possibility that Edwards used campaign funds to set the woman up.
The whole thing is a disaster. I feel very let down.