Back to John Edwards

Excellent comments on this...some good insight. Please feel free to chime in if you didn't get the chance yet. The questions were based on John Edward's recent admission that he cheated on his wife with a campaign staffer. Rumors abound that he fathered her child, but both (sort of) deny that so far.

I should preface all of this by saying that I never liked him. He struck me as a super-slick shyster from his first splash on the national scene four years ago, and I never felt like he had a whole lot to say. He had a message that clearly resonated on some level ("The Two Americas") but his rhetoric was rooted in too many half-truths, blatant distortions and false hope for my taste. Railing against free trade is just...I dunno...a waste of time ("Oh look...suddenly Obama loves NAFTA...who could have ever seen that coming?!?!?!")

So, to recap and add my own thoughts, by question:

1) Is this newsworthy? Virtually everyone said that it was, and I agree, but I just don't know why this was such a big story. Is anyone really surprised as a politician cheating on his wife? Especially one who had treated his wife's illness as something between a sympathy play and a blatant campaign event (and was apparently well known for talking about his deceased son during closing arguments of personal injury trials).

And further, why is he all that relevant anymore? He ran for President twice, and VP once and lost. So, at this point he is a former one-term Senator with no distinguishing record and little hope of a life in Politics. I have seen some people say that he is hurting his chances of a role in an Obama administration, but that was gonna be a nothing job anyway. Unless Obama was gonna make him Attorney General (and really, given his own lack of a resume, can you imagine Obama tabbing someone for this job that his opponents could call an "Ambulance chaser"?) there are not really any real jobs that Edwards would have been seriously considered for.

2) Is this our business? This is a tough one. When seeking elected office, it is pretty fair to debate someone's character. And infidelity (not to mention leveraging your position of power to chase some tail) is certainly relevant when judging someone's character...so I would say that yes, it is our business. He wanted us to trust him to run the country, but his own wife can't trust him to keep his hands off the hired help. But, as noted...he is not really running for office right now. Still, it was recent enough, and he would certainly purport to still be a viable political prospect that I would say it is in fact our business.

3) Is it worse because his wife is sick? Yes, I think it is. I don't feel like it minimizes other acts of infidelity to say that there are degrees of it. When you get married, you promise to be devoted to each other, especially in times of need. If he is out banging his PR director, he is not focusing all of his energies on helping his wife through what is likely the most difficult thing she will ever do. And, saying that "she was in remission," even if you are not intending it as an excuse, is just plain tacky.

4) Finally, the point of my fourth question was...do you feel differently about this because he is a slim, good-looking guy and his wife is, well, kinda chunky? I have to be honest, I hadn't thought of this, but the issue was raised and I wondered if it had an effect on how people viewed this.

So, there are my thoughts...continue to chime in as you feel the desire to.

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Raise your hand if you are bouncing up and down and doing happy dances because your little sister is coming to visit!!! (That's me with her hand raised:-))

She is flying in tonight and I am super, super excited to see her. This will be, by far, the most uninterrupted quality time I have had with her. Geez...I hope she likes me...lol...what if she thinks I am kind of a tool?

Anyway, I don't know how much I will be around next week. I will definitely be at the beach for the first couple of days of the week, but I will be working, so I won't be totally off the reservation. I will likely still blog a bit, too...but you will have to wait and see:-)