I Have Nothing to Say About John Edwards' Admission Except...

I've been an Obama supporter all along, but I have to believe that if Edwards had been moving closer towards nomination, he would have arranged a sit down with Oprah or Barbara Walters to disclose this before now.

At least that's what I choose to believe.

As a relative newcomer to politics, I've always had respect for John Edwards. He seemed like a good man, a solid candidate. I'm shocked. And incredibly glad that we have a Barack as our candidate, a man who I truly believe is dedicated to his family.

And hello, Fieldhands, from a first time poster!

Thanks, Al! I first donated to Obama in March 2007. But I must also confess that I was too quiet about my support for Obama for too long -- like many, I didn't really think he had a good chance despite all his talent. Throughout '07, I only occasionally talked him up while listening to friends sing the praises of Hillary and, even more so, of Edwards. I liked Edwards, liked his message about "two Americas" in 04 and fighting poverty in 08. But there was just something about him I didn't quite trust, though I couldn't point to anything specific. That is, until Edwards dropped out and then sat on the sidelines for weeks without endorsing Obama even after most Edwards supporters I knew quickly switched to Obama. Even before that, I thought the $400 haircut, as silly an issue as it is, actually resonated as some indicator of hypocrisy, or at least of a multimillionaire being tone-deaf to those he claimed to fight for. And all the while he campaigned for President with a mistress floating around, just waiting for her October surprise... and I thought Hillary had hubris!

 

Well, is anyone going to ask him why he ran at all and tried to keep this hidden knowing it was gonna come out and blow up in his face? The story was out last fall. Shades of Clinton, much? I always thought he was a little too slick for his own good though I liked a lot of his policy initiatives. It's just that the pressures of maintaining a marriage, his wife's illness and all the other pressures that occur we could not have afforded another Democrat who couldn't keep it in his pants. I know these politicians get offers all the time and few turn them down so this hypocrisy really needs to stop, but nobody wants to deal with it.

This was an example of the hypocrisy of media coverage and one of the passes that Hillary got by virtue of her gender.

Hillary traveled with a stylist so she could always look her best for the media, but no one ever suggested that there was any vanity or elitism about it.

The issue I hope that someone in the Traditional Media picks up when commenting on Edwards' revelation of an affair is this:

As damaging as it would have been to Edwards' chances for the Presidency if this had gotten out during the campaign, why was there no apparent outrage over McCain's admitted affair with Cindy while he was still married to Carol, and why do only Republicans get a pass on private morality v. public sanctimony?  After all, McCain opposed same-sex marriage rights to "protect the sanctity of traditional marriage," but no one called him a hypocrite.

Obama supporters, we saved the Democratic Party.......

My question is what was going through his head, this entire time, about this affair.....Did he think it wouldn't matter, or people wouldn't find out.......

I think he was selfish but at the same time, I feel sorry for him....

I can only agree wholeheartedly with Al; I truly owe my change of heart to my 27 year old daughter who was an unwavering Obama supporter who challenged me over and over about supporting Edwards. In hindsight I gave more money than I should have to the Edwards campaign, but now I know  my money is well spent on Obama. Talk about dodging a bullet!

Does he remind anyone else of Lionel Hutz, the character on The Simpsons?

and, yes, it's sad that this would even be an issue for public consumption. I'm sure that our nominee is happy to be relaxing in Hawai'i with family and friends and not being hounded by the goofballs in the US media pack.

Like, what's to say beyond it's a matter for the Edwards family. They have been handling a lot for quite a while and they need some space especially with this news cycle. I predict that there will be no let up for the next few days.

My response to all this: register more voters and talk to more voters about the issues that are dear to them and get them to organize their friends and family.

 

 

In today's environment an FDR, a JFK, a Thomas Jefferson could never be president. It's too bad there are no longer any boundaries between a political and a private life. That said, why aren't the National Enquirer and ABC News hounding John McCain and interviewing Vicki Iseman?

John Edwards should never have entered the primaries with this in his recent past.

I'm not suggesting the timing of this was intentional (at least I don't think I'm suggesting that) but could the timing of this have been any better??  The first day of the Olympics and Obama's vacation...I mean there will be no way that McCain will be able to get a word in edgewise for the next week.  Obama can kick back and enjoy the beach!

 

I never considered the $400 haircut to be a huge deal but I don't think it's fair to compare it to Hillary's stylist.  I'm sorry but it's just not the same as being a woman.  Women simply need more time and attention than men to do to get ready and meet society's expectations.  Anyway, the real hypocrisy is McCain's new ad saying "for the rest of us, times are tough."  Oh really??  The rest of us?  Since when does a man in $500 shoes and with 8 homes represent "us?"

well said. i dont give a shit that edwards has a real life. but yes. this would have destroyed the dems, had he been the nominee. MEN! jeje. 

I won't say squat about John's Flandering Phallus, other than this, if you have to lie about something, it's a pretty good indication you shouldn't have done it in the first place.

The shocking bit, I agree, is that every would-be Dem nominee has to assume, after Clinton, that this sort of thing ends the race and puts a Republican in the White House. To run on the vague hope this won't get out was careless and a betrayal of many supporters--the most anguish/anger I'm seeing is from people who took off from work to hit the streets of NH for Edwards, who donated to his campaign, all with the belief that there was nothing this flagrantly, stupidly candidacy-destroying in his background. They bet on him to put a Democrat in the White House, a move that now makes them feel deeply foolish. He disappointed a lot of people.

As to McCain--long ago affairs don't count. And frankly, I think almost every long-held POW who was married divorced on his return. It's the norm. (The Iseman stuff sure didn't have anything to back it up beyond a breathless "some unnamed person thought there was the chance it might look untoward..." whereas the story that Edwards travelled across the country and snuck into a hotel booked by a third party to see his former mistress and her child by another guy just to say "hey"....well, let's just say there seems to be a bit more to that story than Edwards is admitting.) Plus McCain's marriage to Cindy, standing by her after her stroke for example (which he didn't much seem to, in terms of taking off work to help her), has never been a centerpiece of his campaign the way "look at what the Edwards have gone through" was.

As damaging as it would have been to Edwards' chances for the Presidency if this had gotten out during the campaign, why was there no apparent outrage over McCain's admitted affair with Cindy while he was still married to Carol, and why do only Republicans get a pass on private morality v. public sanctimony? After all, McCain opposed same-sex marriage rights to "protect the sanctity of traditional marriage," but no one called him a hypocrite.

IOKYAR

I'm watching Mike Barnicle (I know....I know....) on MSNBC going on and on and on about this. A couple of talking heads have suggested that now people will ask Obama about whether he has been faithful.

Nobody has mentioned McCain. Even though everyone is saying that Elizabeth Edwards' health somehow makes John Edwards' affair a valid topic of public concern....and McCain's first wife had a whole slew of health problems when he left her.

Double standard does not begin to describe it

BTW: Have y'all seen Edge of the American West's McCain Portrait?

I never really understood why Edwards was considered a viable, prominent candidate as a single term former senator.  Edwards never got the 'he's not qualified, he's too inexperienced' talk that we hear constantly about Obama.  Even though Obama has held public office longer (8 years in state senate, 4 in U.S. Senate).

I'm happy with the Democrats' nominee.  I liked many of the things that Edwards talked about, especially his focus on poverty, but  I am VERY glad Edwards is not our nominee at this moment.  My $100 to Obama early in the process is looking like a very good investment.

You're welcome from Iowa, where we got the party started! :-)  On the ground, we knew that JE had lots of supporters, hence his 2nd place finish--good thing we flipped some of them to Barack!

Elizabeth Edwards on today's ugly news. Sigh. Very depressing.

I can't come up with any explanation as to why McCain gets a free pass on his afair with Cindy other than press bias. It seems clear Obama would not get the same pass.

I have some sympathy for these guys. Imagine what it would be like if women were coming on to you left and right, you were spending abundant time on the road, far from friends and family. Could be hard to say "no." In some of the videos of Obama shaking hands after a rally, I've seen adoring women, beautiful young ones, looking like they would do most anything for a moment or two to bask in his light.

I'm by no means saying it's alright to cheat on your wife. I've never cheated on anyone. Not on either of my ex-wives or any of my ex-girlfriends, though a couple have cheated on me. I'm just saying I can understand the impulse.

The part that's hard to comprehend is how a man could be so selfish as to run for president under these circumstances. How he could ask so many sincere, hard working people to believe in him, to give money to him, to lay down their lives (in some cases) to volunteer for him, to ask the party to bet its future on him -- knowing this was out there. That I cannot comprehend.

I too was an early supporter of Edwards. Though I never believed he was sincere about what he was saying, I at least liked what he said. And, no longer the idealist I once was, I thought that was pretty much as good as it gets. At the time, I saw Obama as too much of a centrist, a "yes man," a guy not willing to take a stand for anything.

Looking back, it seems clear I underestimated Obama. He may be a centrist. He's certainly someone willing to reach across the aisle. He does not appear to be a huge risk taker. But he's also a potential game changer. Had I known that, I would have supported him sooner. Unfortunately for me, I lacked the political insight to see what he carried. Fortunately for all of us, others among us recognized his enormous potential.

Moving back to the fidelity issue for a moment, I don't put it past anyone to cheat. Not even Obama. Certainly not McCain. I hope it's not happening. But it's all to human to be weak in the face of temptation.

Remember when there was much ado about a Clinton-Edwards meeting after the South Carolina debate? Remember when Edwards dropped out immediately after the South Carolina primary after insisting prior to South Carolina that he would carry on "to the convention?" Remember all the hubbub about who he would or wouldn't endorse and the head-scratching about why he was dragging his feet? Remember when he did finally endorse Obama, when he effectively wiped out Hillary's WV win from the news cycle and how pissed off the Clinton folks were?

My tin-foil hat question is this: did the Clinton team push Edwards out of the race over this affair business? And was his post-WV endorsement timing payback?

Hey, it's Friday. No harm in a little conspiracy theorizing!

Let's play Devil's Advocate for a minute.  Who among us thought that today's big story would be about the Edwards affair.  No one I'd bet.  It started out with McCain releasig another "Celeb" ad, Hillary Clinton & Clinton drama, and the Obama "on vacation" meme.  I know Edward supporters and former staff or pissed, but man this may have been perfect timing for Obama to go on vacation.  With the Olympics going on, this Edwards business, and McCain not wanting to touch the "infidelity" card with a ten foot pole,  no one, and I mean no one will be discussing McCain's presidential campaign.  Sadly for some, but gleefully for this Obama supporter, McCain just can't catch a break.

Maybe God really does hate John McCain.

Joined for O Feb 2007. Atypical for me to get on board so early. Also arguing back then with my friends, saying that Edwards was a big mistake.

Whoooooshhhh---the sound of a bullet going by, dodged.

one guy has an affair over his wonderful wife, still runs for President, and probably fathers a child after said wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer; the other has Scarlett Johansson eating out of his hand and doesn't bat an eye.

we made the right decision, i think.

to the dynamic involved in their supporting different canidates towards the end of the primary - though it's probably impolite to notice.

Having been an Obama supporter since '06, I accept the Life Savers!

Never have been an Edwards admirer, and am now thankful for having been right at least twice in my life.

 

 

 

@ Jim Nash - Yikes, does it ever. I hadn't remembered that little fact.

I understand that Hillary did really well today, I'm sorry that this brouhaha totally overshadowed that.

 

But given John Edwards' comments on the whole Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair, don't you think Bubba is dying to weigh in? He keeps a list and you know Edwards was on it....

 

You never know what makes a marriage and you never can live in someone else's relationship. I just know that if Elizabeth has to hold one of THOSE press conferences (see Spitzer, Silda) where you wear pearls and smile tightly while standing next to your wrong-doing husband, I will lose it.

about his infidelity and the baby in the National Enquirer just a week or two before he pulled out of the primary.  I was surprised at the suddenness but, in the end, not surprised that he pulled out because I believed the story.  I would have still voted for him, since he was still on the ballot on Super Tuesday but, on Sunday, February 2, 2008, a close friend called insisting that I check out Michelle Obama at UCLA. I did and I became an Obama supporter from that day on.

1. I'm sure very glad he didn't win the nomination!
2. But given how it turned out I'm also glad he ran. He pushed the field pretty far to the left, and we have him to thank for it.
3. I'm appalled that he would run with this in his closet. It was utterly reckless and irresponsible. This is what has me most pissed off. As others have said, what if he had won and it came out afterward???
4. Elizabeth's dKos post was very moving.

Please don't let it be true that Elizabeth is being given a speaking role at the convention. What a needless distraction. Can't they find the wife of some other former one term Senator or failed Presidential candidate?

How about that Cohen/Tinker race? Pretty cool, huh! 

On XY Hair and XX Hair -- there is no equality.  Wish it weren't true - oh how I do!  Like Tara suggests, the public expectation of looks is totally different for a man and a woman.  The time, effort and expense it takes to meet those expectations are correspondingly different.

I still don't care that Edwards spent $400 on hair. But I always thought Edwards was a phony -- his voting record never matched his rhetoric (bankruptcy reform act, for one). I have some minor chord, internal glitch when I find out someone supported him in the beginning.  I mean, no biggie, it passes without any residual stick in my brain -- but I notice.  

Couldn't Edwards have waited until Nov 5th ? Sigh...

Looking from the other side of the world, this drama of US elections with various unsavory racial/gender/religious/marital sub-plots is saddening. The real issues are getting buried, especially with the fucking US media giving a free pass to the RW thuggish candidate, who would do more damage to US and the World than the present idjit.

When the primary was over, Obama seemed to have to plenty of Veep choices. Now, the field is shrinking at an alarming rate.

amk

AMK, I agree with your comments about the media.  You may be right about the timing, but I thought the timing was good for us.  It seemed to me that today was chosen deliberately by Edwards because it would have the least bad impact of any day between now and election day.

On the TV show West Wing they used to talk about Friday being "take out the trash day" because Friday is the best day to release news of anything that is not good.  I think this must be triple take out the trash day: it's Friday, the Olympics are starting and Barack is off in Hawaii on vacation.

On a different subject, I was shocked today to see the media asking if this Edwards thing will be bad for Barack. Barack is such a straight arrow family man, I would think this would only be good for him.  Why wouldn't it be bad for the guy who actually cheated on his wife and left her for another woman?  

Just when you think the media can't get any worse....

This should be the BIG take-away from today: CNN is rolling through recent scandals (Gary Hart counts) but leaves out McCain's ditching disabled wife for very young heiress.

Early, persistent, and loud Obama support from the beginning has dodged us more bullets than this one (no list, PUBet!), but this is a big one.

Edwards only real path forward in public life: make, w/ Elizabeth, a health care super-career like Gore's on climate.

in Feb. 2007, so thanks, Al.  A special shout-out to all those who trudged door to door in the freezing cold of Iowa.  Edwards was finished after he lost Iowa.

 

Let's see:  Edwards has an affair with someone involved in the campaign and he thinks this will not be revealed.  He and Elizabeth were delusional.  I only hope he is telling the truth about fathering the baby - if not, the truth could cloud our convention, depending on when it might be revealed.  I don't think either one of the Edwards should speak at the convention - too much of a media distraction.  They should quietly disappear for an extended period.  If they care about the country's future, they will.

Obama was not my first choice.  Well to be truthful, he wasn't my second either.  But I have more than embraced him. I already logged more hours for Obama than any other campaign in my life.

But, you're right it wasn't the affair, it is the narcissistic jeopardizing of the Democratic Party. As if gooper spooks wouldn't unearth this.  About 3 minutes I reckon.

I'm not judgemental or very interested in the private effects of Edward's journey into narcissism, as he called it. His 28,000 square foot mansion clearcut into a Tennessee forest, and his sojourn into Hedge Funds bothered me more.  He seems to acknowledge the error of his private ways, but not that money made by rearranging rather than producing wealth is not innocently earned. I agree with Edwardas stated positions on healthcare and poverty more than with Obama's, but Edwards seemed a little verbally clumsy and unengaging in the debates.

I'm a hypocrite myself though, because McCain dumping his wife because he wished he was younger and richer seems to represent his true narcissistic and money-dazzled self.

Will the downside of this philandering Eddie issue (which will be pushed ad nauseum by the frigging media) be that the independents and dem leaning repugs will now choose the known devil (???) thinking what-else-we-do-not-know-about-this-Obama-guy ?

amk

1. The Democrats dodged a bullett. Could you remotely imagine folks who thought Edwards was ‘the safe choice’, because he was The Southern White Guy.

We are 20 days away from the convention. 88 from the election. It would be over.

2. He couldn’t have better taste? Um, she looks haggard to me.

3. I need men to answer this question for me. If you’re a rich man, and you have children (both sexes), please explain to me why you don’t just get a vasectomy? I had that question with Jesse Jackson, and I’ve got it with Edwards.

4. He’s a multi-millionaire many times over, and he’s paying the hoochie from the campaign funds? You’re telling me that there wasn’t some offshore account she could have had access to instead?

5. The kid’s his, and she, like Jesse Jackson’s hoochie, has found her way to financial stability. Filmmaking ain’t stable. Now, she’s got a guaranteed 18 year check coming in.

6. Pathetic.

AMK,

That's some serious chicken-littling right there. I don't think this is gonna have any impact on the race as it stands whatsoever.

First of all, as far as timing goes, he couldn't have pulled it off better. The wolves were at the door, so NO he couldn't have waited till after the election. So he dumped it into the biggest news hole of the entire election cycle.

By the time anyone is paying attention to politics again, this will be so yesterday's news it won't be funny. I just don't think it'll come up hardly at all. By the time the Olympics wave crests, it will be all-convention all the time.

Aside from never wanting this to happen to anyone at any time, and of course depending on how one feels about the various players, we here have been thinking about that 2nd place finish in Iowa and its effect on the race, esp. on the 3rd place finisher, as well as a few other races where Edwards took a bite out of competitors' totals.  Shafted by a philanderer--again! and imagine impact, variously, on candidate and candidate's campaign surrogate-in-chief.  Phew! no wonder he's so angry--nothing like guilt revived to fan the flames!

But at the same time it's a good curative for Clinton nostalgia of any kind, esp. as we head to the convention--anything that re-raises Monica always reminds people about the marital circus with those two.

I was incredibly pleased with the wisdom of the voters in the TN primary.  I am glad I learned about the Cohen - Tinker contest via the Bilerico Project early enough to contribute to Cohen, whatever tiny difference my contribution may have made.

Sometimes the good guy wins!

private matter but who didn't care about John Edwards' history of suing obstetricians for cerebral palsy babies, or suing the Red Cross, or voting for the Iraq War, or apologizing for many of his important Senate votes, or suddenly becoming a populist when it was convenient to do so.

People who are suddenly disgusted with John Edwards because he's admitted to an affair need to ask themselves what they were thinking before.

I guess I am just wierd--but I do think that how one lives, in relation to the issues that they advocate, has everything to do with how we are to 'judge' people.  Someone that hords money while they declaim the fact that people are starving--well, yes people, this contradiction does deserve discussion, skpeticism, and further scrutiny.

We all judge---and we are all thethered to the dominant ideoloogical coding that ascribes 'good' and 'bad', 'better and 'best', etc.   We all have to develop ourselves and our projects within a normative framework of values/ethics.

More, I would say that we are all hypocritical with respect to our principles, what we profess to believe in--and I mean 'hypocritical' with respect to gradations of 'greater or lesser'.

People that are pretty consistent with how their values jibe with their lived lives, and how they relate to others, DO garnder more respect in  the sphere of politics--where developing policies and rules are central.

However, only an idiot expects perfection--and MLK, Jr. one of my heros, is a testament to that.  King probably had numerous affairs--and he probably (eeee-gads!) had sex with a white woman more than once.  But--maybe not.

We are sexual beings--and this energy is sublimated and manifest through various ways.  How we limit and express desire is part of who we are.

In my view, that Edwards could really think that he could get away with, and not pay a price for, this affair is also evident in his general politics.  He understood that he could live in obese opulence--and that people would eat-up the idea that he really cares about the 'little people'.   Edwards believed this because this is what he saw on a day-to-day basis.  His competitors in the political rhelm didn't call him on this (not on the Democrat side, anyway)--so he thought he could engage other ignoble behavior and not be called out.

Let's face it, some people simply have better instincts and a better, more compelling vision of how we humans can and should develop and maintain our affairs than others.   I thought that Obama had better instincts than did the array of competitors in the Democrat primaries--and I have a hunch that he will be a much better president that was Bill Clinton.

Having said all this--our judgements come to bear on our long-term projects in our communities, with our families, etc.   I tend to think that humans are better suited for small communities where sexual fulfillment and child rearing are engaged in a collective fashion.  And, hey, I seldom mention this because to anyone because they tend to freak out.

And, no, I don't expect everyone in the ideal communal arrangement to don Little House on the Prairie costums.  I am more drawn to the clothing inspired by indigenous peoples--so, as you can see, a deeply conservative inclination marks my political tendencies.   But even in a more sexually liberated arrangement, there are hard rules that need to be policed and maintained--prohibitions agaisnt pedophilia, incest, rape, etc.

Ok, ok--I know that I have roamed here, but suffice it to say that we all judge and making judgements is part of our DNA and ideological coding, very central to development and survival as a species.

But, back to Edwards:  I gotta say that he man has great hair, gotta give the man his due in that respect.

Thank Dog that Obama has pretty easy hair to care for--twenty bucks and a ritual visit to the neighborhood barbar shop plays pretty well in 'American' ideal of what is virtue and vice.   That Edwards couldn't see how his $400.00 haircut would play on mainstreet is pretty stunning--and has everything to do with his defeat in this contest.

I would venture to say that if here was a real pro-worker populist--and if he lived his professed values--he could very well be the next POTUS.  However, living the obese, opulant, jet-ski lifestyle was more important to Edwards than was organizing the working classes in a compelling way to take on plutocratic corporate power. And this estimation is intertwined with my visceral reaction to Edwards: he had the potential to have a huge, positive impact, but he blew it because of ignorance and vanity.

 

 

A must read/see: Charles Blow's editorial/graphics today on race in this election:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/opinion/09blow.html

AMK,

Just for you.  Let's see if this gets any play.

John Edwards Sites John McCain Affair

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/On_adultery_Edwards_cites_McCain.html#comments

The sad thing is to watch progressives who are angry about this private matter but who didn't care about John Edwards' history of suing obstetricians for cerebral palsy babies, or suing the Red Cross, or voting for the Iraq War, or apologizing for many of his important Senate votes, or suddenly becoming a populist when it was convenient to do so.

 

Rachel Q,

My sense is that most progressive Democrats are disgusted by the game of chicken that Edwards played with his party's chances this fall more than by the underlying affair itself, which most of them see as in principle none of their business.  Had Edwards begun his campaign by admitting to the affair it may well have mortally wounded his chances, but there would have (justifiably) been a lot less anger directed his way.  As is often the case, the attempted coverup is worse than the crime.

As for the other items on the Edwards bill of horribles...

For the last thirty years, this country has been engaged in a bipartisan orgy of deregulation, in the face of which tort law becomes the only way that people can defend themselves against corporate and professional malfeasance.  If you find the regime of patients suing doctors distasteful, I hope you support much tighter regulation of the medical profession. I've never faulted Edwards for his professional choices.

As for his record in the Senate, that was always a matter of real concern for me w/r/t Edwards.  However, to me the issue was not "authenticity" (whatever that is) but rather what policies we might have expected from an Edwards presidency.  I for one would much rather have a president whose deepest beliefs are not progressive but is willing to govern as a progressive than a president whose deepest beliefs are progressive but feels that he has to capitulate to the right.  Had Edwards governed as a progressive populist, it would have mattered little to me if he were doing so largely as a matter of convenience.  But I remained unsure how he would have governed, in part because of his record in the Senate.

 

I had stopped reading Ben Smith during the primaries due to his overt anti-Obama bias and too many trolls/tools posting there.

Why should progressive dem blogs harp on Edward's affair as if msm isn't doing a good enough job ?

 

amk

...but dropped any and all inquiry into the Vicki Iseman story once Saint McCain bared his teeth at them.

Even funnier how they have such utter contempt for Edwards, yet they worship fellow adulterer and former pol Newt Gingrich's every utterance.

Could it be that Edwards' real crime was being a self-made rich guy who wanted to do right by the not-so-rich and dared to tweak the consciences of the rich guys who make up the opinion tastemakers in our media?

Do remember to mention this to anyone who still thinks the GOP/Media Complex doesn't exist.