Emotions and the Edwards Scandal

[OneDemsConscience]

2 emotions keep coming from the recent revelations.

1) RELIEF-- Barack Obama is our presidential nominee and that the worst the right-wing media machine can do is make fun of his name and call him aloof. The wingnuts can't find a good reason to dislike Obama--most of the talking points against him are ridiculous and everyone knows it. God knows it would be a different story with Edwards as our nominee.

For a while I considered voting for Edwards because I liked some of his rhetoric during the campaign. Plus he seemed more electable. But now it looks like we made the right call.

2) DISAPPOINTMENT--Man I'm pissed at Edwards. How could he sincerely believe he was a better choice than Obama or Clinton with this dagger hanging over him? I believed he was a good man, and to an extent I still do. But he's got some self-destructive qualities.

I hope he bounces back and gets stronger from this experience--preferably outside electoral politics for now.

[physioex]

1. I don't buy this dudu that this "scandal"....

Is the end of a politicians career.

1. This was a relationship between consenting adults.

2. Look at John McCain, Bill Clinton, Raygun, JFK, and I am pretty sure the Shrubs were probably involved in something but never came out.

[OneDemsConscience]

2. The McCain thing

is probably why the winger media machine isn't dwelling on Edwards.

[physioex]

3. I have said this before.....

But what happens between consenting adults is none of our business. That is between that individual and the family members involved, and I don't care to discuss the McCain scandals either. However the problem I have is with the pukes holier than thou atitude.

[Truth4Justice]

5. It IS our business when they run on a "family values" platform like Edwards did. nt

[physioex]

7. Marketing nonsense.....

Don't buy it from either side.

[orleans]

9. i would guess it is more due to the fact that it came out on the friday

afternoon news dump, and the olympics have begun.

[silverojo]

10. But those people had some previous success as politicians

All Edwards had to show for his career was one term in the Senate, a failed election as VP, and a failed attempt at winning the Dem primary.

I still believe strongly in Edwards' concern for the poor, but I'm realistic enough to face the fact that his political career (short as it was) is over.

Why do people have to screw things up this way?

[Truth4Justice]

4. Edwards: another lying dirtbag lawyer...post-Clinton era. No excuses anymore.

this idiot could have put Mcshame into power.

[physioex]

6. That's because of the media....

McSame has been implicated in the same scandal.

[JCMach1]

8. Ummmm Obama is also a lawyer

:(

[Truth4Justice]

11. Just one more reason I dont trust his words. Lawyers are two-faced liars, for the most part. nt

[TexasObserver]

12. Your posts are untrue, for the most part.

You're guilty of lawyer bashing, particularly the lawyers on the plaintiff's side, who are almost universally Democrats. That is a rightwing meme, and those who repeat it are smearing a solid portion of the Democratic coalition.

[Carolina]

14. I hear ya and they can take their billable hours shit

and stick it. I have begun to hate lawyers too.

$63 fucking dollars to read a half page email... but I digress. :mad::wtf::grr::puke:

[TexasObserver]

13. Relief and Disappointment is right.

I backed Edwards until he got out of the race. I was surprised to see him bail. I thought he'd continue until he became the consensus candidate, but Obama proved to be stronger.

Not just me, but my adult children, two of whom knew John from their work in the Kerry campaign in 2004. Both met with John numerous times and worked with him whenever he came into Florida to campaign. Of course, we had no hopes for Texas, so I sent them to Florida to work there the last four months of the campaign. They were in their early twenties then, and it was the first presidential election they'd voted in, or gotten into.

They persuaded me to back John last fall. I want a Democrat elected president, and I seldom pick an early favorite. Whoever the party picks, I'm going to get behind. If I had been picking based upon the record that I find most acceptable, I would have picked Russ Feingold.

So, we threw in with Edwards. When he got out, we quickly lined up with Obama. He had risen in our estimation, and Hillary had fallen.

I am most relieved that John fell out. What a disaster it would be for this to come out now. We would be finished. It would be worse than when Eagleton stepped down.

I will never forgive him for what he has done to all who believed in him the past year.

[KharmaTrain]

15. But What About The Children????

I firmly agree that it's a good thing that Senator Edwards isn't the nominee, and a year ago, if I had my druthers, he would have been the person I would have supported. His wreckless and stupid behavior is now his undoing and something he'll have to deal with, like a scarlett letter, for the rest of his life. No matter what he does, this sorrid episode will be at the top of his life's byline.

It's understandable about the outrage by former Edwards supporters and the piling on by his opponents. Politics is a bloodsport, idealism is now trumped by the petty, the personal...the visceral...that's a ratings winner. Substance and perspective don't have the sizzle. And nothing sells like sex...the American psychotic obsession with it (especially when its someone elses sex life) has become the number one attention getter. Be it selling cola to electing a leader. Based on this standard, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy would be dismissed...and Warren Harding reverred.

The saving grace is that Senator Obama is the nominee, not Senator Edwards...and that Obama won the nomination on his merits, not on Edwards' foibles...he's a candidate who won on his strengths, not over the weaknesses of others...as opposed to Gramps who survived a demolition derby that included Rudee's infidelities (how soon we forget about that) and a party that needs distractions to avoid facing the responsibility for what they've done to this country over the past 20 years.

I wish the Edwards well in the rough times that are sure to follow. It's sad when someone's libido gets them into trouble, and maybe he can rehabilitate himself...especially with those who really did put faith (and money) into his causes and now feel betrayed. But this scandal deserves to go back to the tabloids now...its not material to the election nor the serious issues that need to be discussed.

Cheers...