Scratch John Edwards Off List of Dem Veep Possibles

Must be, as*hole.

Haven't read back through the pages but I guess everybody knows by now Edwards admits to the affair but says he didn't father the child? I am sure he is smart enough to know about DNA evidence.

In any event; I can't help but look on this as something terribly sleazy for him to do while his wife is dying. I never liked him all that much and didn't want him for VP anyway.

BBB
I'm very disappointed with John Edwards. Elizabeth Edwards and the children certainly don't deserve such betrayal. At least John told Elizabeth instead of hiding it from her as Bill Clinton did from Hillary.

Not excusing John's behavior, what I dislike the most is the Media's hyping the matter all day and night. They apparently care more about ratings than they care about the renewed pain Elizabeth and the children are suffering. It's always the wives and children that are hurt the most.

I had expected a lot from John Edwards that he would be an effective leader to reduce poverty in the U.S. I continue to have that hope. I hope he is not silenced as Gary Hart was following his shameful sexual behavior.

Will men ever put their families first before their out of control sex drives?

BBB

Edwards' Affair Also Brings up McCain's Marital Split
John Edwards' Affair Also Brings John McCain's Marital Split to the Surface
By E&P STaff
Published: August 08, 2008

Reaction from across the political spectrum has been strong to the news of John Edwards admitting he had an affair in 2006, with many condemning Edwards' actions and denials. But it may also produce an unwanted aftershock for John McCain, reviving references to his own extramarital affairs back in the 1970s.

Steve Chapman, the generally conservative Chicago Tribune columnist observed today, "Not that Republicans would be able to make full use of this exposure had Edwards been the nominee. Their prospective nominee, after all, was guilty of the same sin during his first marriage.

"But that was 30 years ago. Good news for Edwards: Come 2038, he may be viable again."

Edwards himself, in his interview on ABC's Nightline, referred to McCain admitting that he had made many mistakes in his first marriage.

Cenk Uygur, blogging at AOL News, observes, "Now that Edwards has admitted to an extramarital affair, everyone will now condemn him and say he has no political career left. I want to ask all of those people, how is Edwards' affair any different John McCain's? If Edwards is disqualified from running for office because of this, isn't McCain as well?"

Tod Roberson, an editorial writer at the Dallas Morning News, blogs at the paper's site that while what Edwards did was wrong, voters should not express selective outrage -- and recall what McCain did back in the 1970s.

An excerpt follows.
*
And while we're all feeling holier than thou, maybe we should use this occasion to re-examine the past behavior of John McCain: His first wife, Carol, was beautiful enough to be a swimwear model when he married her in 1965. He went off to fight in the Vietnam war while she stayed home to raise their three children. He was captured and spent five years as a prisoner of war. When he was freed in 1973, he came home to find that his wife had been disfigured in a car wreck three years earlier. So he dumped her and married a much younger woman (who might be our next first lady).

"My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn't the reason for my divorce," Carol McCain told the UK's Daily Mail in June. "My marriage ended because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does."

There are people who knew John McCain back then who felt so betrayed and disappointed by him that they won't speak to him today. Maybe that'll happen to John Edwards too. It just amazes me that people can reach such incredibly high ranks in American politics and somehow think their past (or present) misbehavior won't come back to haunt them. It absolutely goes to the character issue. So if we're going to go down that road, let's do it on both sides of the political fence.

I just feel sorry for the wives who have to put up with this nonsense.

Elizabeth Edwards Stands by Husband; Hits Media 'Sensation
Elizabeth Edwards Stands by Husband -- Hits Media 'Sensationalism' on Affair
By E&P Staff
Published: August 08, 2008

In a blog posting tonight at the popular liberal site Daily Kos -- and a statement released elsewhere -- Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John Edwards who today admitted having an affair in 2006, wrote, "Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some - most recently - caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences.

"None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him."

John Edwards, in an interview for ABC News' Nightline to air tonight, admits that he had an affair with videographer Rielle Hunter, but denies he is the father of her child.

He said his wife had been aware of the affair since 2006 and that it took place while her cancer was in remission.

Can't handle the discussion focusing on Edwards so why not pile more **** on McCain? I mean it only happened 20 years ago.

Great, yet another would be societal moral crusader shows himself to be very flawwed as an individual. This looks very much like the Spitzer experience, where the public work appears to have been driven by opposite personal demons. Bennet as well.

I know, right, McG!

Hiding the Scumbag
Hiding the Scumbag
by Jane Smiley
Posted August 9, 2008

So, John Edwards had a brief affair with a woman who is over forty, and it's a scandal. Elizabeth Edwards was ill at the time, and so John is especially naughty for being so callous, and yes I gave money to his campaign, but then, I never thought adultery was a big deal in the abstract, because, as we all know, I am a liberal, and I think denying people healthcare, swindling the taxpayer, starting an unnecessary war by forging documents and lying, and stealing the oil belonging to other nations is a lot worse than adultery. If every working person in America were to be free to join a union and if we had mastered that global warming thing, then I could start worrying about adultery, and be glad of it.

So, John McCain had a lengthy affair with a young rich woman, left his wife for her when she was crippled from a car accident, and went on to live off the new wife, for decades, and it's not a scandal. Why is that? Why is a misstep, followed by anger and reconciliation, a scandal, while actual bona fide betrayal followed by abandonment (and, let's say, a parasitic lifestyle) is just one of those things?

It is said that the first Mrs. McCain has forgiven her former husband. It is said Elizabeth Edwards has forgiven her current husband.

I know, I know, the National Enquirer never went after McCain. Why is that? When there seemed to be a bit of a smoking gun about John McCain and a lobbyist earlier this year, The National Enquirer didn't touch it. The lobbyist was disappeared, the New York Times dropped the story, and shhh. NO scandal. Why is that? Wouldn't I, as a citizen, rather my president slept with a filmmaker than a lobbyist?

Is it just that John Edwards is cuter than John McCain? Is it just that the idea of McCain getting it on makes the press squirm, and so they don't touch that story? Or do they really have a pro-Republican bias that shows up over and over and over? The press seems to be saying, go ahead, Republicans, trash the country, bankrupt the country, drive the country into a economic, moral, ethical, and military abyss. We don't care. We aren't going to hold you responsible for anything, including marital abandonment and cruelty.

News of John Edwards lack of control has definitely hurt Mrs. Bill Clinton, Obama and the entire Democrat party.

Say It Ain't So, Elizabeth; You Knew But Supported His Run
I agree with Stranahan. John and Elizabeth put their personal desires ahead of their country's even if their motives were honest. I still like them but I'm deeply disappointed. ---BBB

Say It Ain't So, Elizabeth -- You Knew But Supported His Run For President?
by Lee Stranahan
Posted August 8, 2008

"You do it yourself, that's what really hurts..." - Radiohead, Just

As I write this, we're just a couple of hours into the official mainstream media phase of the John Edwards scandal and I'm already surprised. Something has happened that I didn't anticipate.

I've lost respect for Elizabeth Edwards.

As I've said previously, I admired both of the Edwards prior to this. Like most people I especially liked and admired Elizabeth Edwards. Even when I believed that Edwards was hiding something, I assumed Elizabeth was a victim. Now, that's changed.

The John Edwards interview -- which he states will be his very last comment on the subject -- hasn't aired yet but we do have a statement from Elizabeth Edwards. Ironically (to me, anyway) she posted it on the popular liberal blog The Daily Kos. The one upshot from her statement is that she knew about Edward's affair prior to his run for office.

I'm not assuming bad motives. I believe that the Edwards are both sincere in their stated positions about poverty, health care and other issues. I can even believe that the reason they wanted Edwards to become president was to promote that agenda. To the extent that's true, I totally agree with their ends but their means were so shortsighted, reckless, and potentially damaging to their own agenda that they can't be ignored.

Just taking the Edwards current statements at their words, I am left with a very uncomfortable truth -- both John and Elizabeth Edwards cynically used their marriage as a means to help John Edwards win an election. Right now, they are hoping that the emotional goodwill that they built up from their supporters will carry them through.

I'm sure I'll get some angry comments here but if you're an Edwards supporter, let me put this bluntly; if you gave John and Elizabeth Edwards time, money, support, or goodwill, they played you.

They made a conscious decision to make their relationship a focus throughout the campaign. That emotional goodwill you feel for them? They not only let you feel, they took actions and made statements specifically so you would feel it.

Then when the rumors first surfaced, they made the worst decision of all; they decided to lie about it and to keep lying about it for months. They lied in a way that made the people who were telling the truth look like the real liars. They lied in a way that turned their supporters into attack dogs. They only started to tell the truth when John Edwards was caught at the Beverly Hills Hilton and even now both John and Elizabeth Edward are calling the people who caught him the liars. That's the definition of shameless.

It didn't have to be that way.

I am fully convinced that if there was just a short affair with Rielle Hunter in 2006, John Edwards could have run for President eventually. Just not in 2008. Elizabeth Edwards shouldn't have supported his bid for the White House and she especially shouldn't have helped him promote the story about what a great husband he was. Elizabeth Edwards as a wife, friend, and adviser should have told her husband emphatically and in no uncertain terms to wait and to get the story of the affair out in the open as soon as possible.

Imagine if the affair story had been revealed back in early 2007. Some people, myself included, wouldn't have cared much in the first place. Others would have forgiven Edwards an affair in four or eight years, especially if Edwards filled that time with good works and devotion to his family.

Because I believe in the Edwards agenda, I still want to believe in the Edwards as people. Right now, though, I don't see either of them as victims of anything but their own ambition.

How is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'?
How is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'?
by Cenk Uygur
Posted August 8, 2008

We have this weird notion in America now that if a politician is caught in an affair that his career is done. We seem to be saying that what he did in his private life effects his policies or how he governs. But we all know that isn't true. We know that because almost all of our great presidents, and great leaders throughout history, have had numerous affairs. Obviously it didn't hurt how they governed at all.

I love the idea of someone saying Alexander the Great can't lead his empire because he's cheating on his wife (by the way, doesn't Alexander's bisexuality single-handedly destroy the idea that gays can't serve in the military). How about Genghis Khan? He had so many affairs that nearly 1% of the entire world population has his genes. Not fit to lead? And there have also been men of great compassion who led noble fights while still doing ignoble things in their private lives. We are all human at home.

We have now heard the stories of JFK receiving sexual favors after speeches in his limo and partying with several women on a yacht while his wife was delivering. But those are all in the past -- so they don't count. But John Edwards is caught having an extramarital affair and the overwhelming assumption is that his political career is absolutely over. How does that make any sense?

Does John Edwards care less about poor people today than he did yesterday? Would his affair lead him to change his position on NAFTA? How would it alter his policy on Iran?

Some will claim, as they did with Bill Clinton, that it's not the affair but the lies that went along with it. Really? Did JFK come out and tell the American people - or his wife - "by the way, while my wife was in the hospital I was having an affair with not one, but several women at the same time"? No, of course, he lied too. Every man that has ever cheated on his wife has lied (and so has every woman who has ever cheated). It is part and parcel of the affair.

Now, we get to the most relevant question - if John Edwards' political career is done, why isn't John McCain's? John McCain had a well-documented affair on his first wife, with his current wife. He has admitted in the books he has written about his life that he ran around with several different women while still married to his first wife. And don't forget that he left her for a younger, richer woman - multi-millionaire Cindy Hensley who is now Cindy McCain - after she had been severely hurt in a car accident.

So, why are McCain's actions any more excusable than Edwards'? Because it was thirty years ago? Does that wash it away? Will we be fine with Edwards running for office again in a couple of years because then it will all be in the past? What is the statute of limitations on an affair?

Remember Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan and Ross Perot were so upset with how John McCain dealt with his first wife that they didn't forgive him for a very, very long time. Perot still hasn't forgiven him. In fact, he said recently about McCain dumping his first wife for Cindy, "McCain is the classic opportunist. He's always reaching for attention and glory."

So, I want every pundit who condemns John Edwards today to tell me what the difference between him and McCain is and why John McCain shouldn't also be run out of politics for his adulterous affairs and what he did to his first wife.

Keep hope alive!

Weird, but I don't see how an affair should make a person so vilified. Certainly, what surrounds the affair matters...but is the Medieval Times or what?

The gall of that guy to say he lost respect for Elizabeth Edwards over this?...

Are we really so naive that we believe most of the people in politics haven't cheated on a spouse?

but most of us don't go around telling other people what they should do either.....apples and oranges.

Forgive me lash, but didn't you have something to say about this on the very first page?

I agree

Other than that; yea too much is being made about it and I never did believe in blaming the wife for staying.

And why not? Running for prez when you have a skeleton in your closet, waiting to come out, like this? It's an affront to those who supported him. If he has won the nomination this **** would have sunk the Dem party in the Fall.

There's a lot of hubris involved...

Cycloptichorn

My problem with it was that his wife was dying.

Many of the comments since then makes it appear that having an affair is some unpardonable sin--for which he owes the world--rather than his wife--some deep apology.

Cyclo--

I guess if he'd won the nomination--there are many more important things to consider---and whether or not he'd boned someone other than his wife shouldn't make or break a good, viable candidate for public office--depending on the circumstances. I am just beginning to think this type of thing is a bit archaic.

Re: How is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'


oh I don't know

maybe because he didn't lie to America about it?