This is all very good for Saint John McCain and the deliberately oblivious pile-on press….

It’s putrid

Linky no worky.

Hi Jane *sheepish grin for wrecking a perfectly good post yesterday*

Paraphrasing a line from “My Fair Lady” – Just WHY can’t the Yanks be like the French?

it really avoids so much muck and trouble

And TradMed can’t get enough of it. “Is there more? Did he tell all the truth? Why wasn’t this covered ny Media?”

Well there is a story that has barely been covered by Media: Bush lied about WMD, about anthrax, about AlQaeda ties to Iraq and over 4,000 US military are dead (never mind tens of thousands of Iraqis dead and millions displaced). TradMed has yet to cover this and ask any questions (never mind tough ones) about the lies and about what has not yet been uncovered.

Yes Edwards is disappointing, but he’s done and has to account for his failings with his family. Bush has destroyed thousands of lives, TradMed won’t even ask a question, and he’s getting ready to drestroy more in the 160 days he has left in WH!

Just a little perspective. I guess what the Edwards story has is sex, so lesson for politicians – you can cheat, lie and destroy anything you want as long as there is no sex involved (of course this applies more to Democrats than to Republicans as witnessed by Vitter and Craig, both of whom are still in Senate – if Edwards had been a sitting senator he would have had to resign as TradMed would not have quit coverage until he did so).

i guess that cheezy insincere smile on his face was what it looked like.

Edwards is a jerk and snookered a lot of people. Now it is time to relegate him to that pile of dung where he belongs.

he risked a lot running for President with this particular skeleton in his closet

That’s a terrible way to describe Rielle whatever-her-name-is. She is thin though. They did it in a closet? Besides it’s August. Nothing else is going on, except the Olympics, the war in Georgia, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the economy circling the drain. Nothing important anyway.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our Summer of 2008 official blonde woman all self-righteously grab-on like Bush grabbin’-back in China story so that we the deliberately obtuse media do not have to talk about real presidential campaign issues or global events stories.

They’re so haaaaaaaard, it takes work, and it gives our wee press brains a header. Please, please, don’t make us be not-sheeple-press. Let us talk about something totally irrelevant to the campaign instead. A loser who was never going to get the nomination proved he was a louse as well.

Psssst, have you heard the one about how white women like Obama?

Spare me.

McCain is playing the race card and gettin’ away with it. McCain is draggin’ his wife through sleaze like the dying Sturgis bikers’ rally to inoculate himself against questions about his relationships with Vicki Iseman.

The hypocrisy of The Villagers is on full display as usual.

*singing quietly* All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth edit button back…

Just WHY can’t the Yanks be more like the French?

Good Morning Jane and Firedogs,

and then there’s Tweety

who opened his show by mentioning how he’d missed “the whole Edwards affair” and proceeded to go to his porn of choice: Penn Notes/Wolfson Commentary

when Mr Cbl and I returned from the market 45 minutes later he was still fucking talking about it and he was still breathless

my gawd, not just something ‘bad’ about Senator Clinton, something bad via gossip

Dear Diary.
today was the best show evah!

These guys never seem to get involved with someone who understands the meaning of the word discretion. All they know is that this is their moment in the sun, and the world is good. Edwards will never again be threatened with the tag “authentic” because now we know he’s anything but. I don’t think he’s destined to ever regain credibility, and obviously if this woman has anything to say about it, this will not be out of the limelight for a very long time. People would be better off just forgetting John Edwards ever existed. The unfortunate part is, the innocent party in this so-called love triangle, the wife who was the victim, will also be tainted by their stain.

Because our pols dalliances are not hot.

Last week the movie the Contender was on HBO. I watched it again for the first time in years. Made in 2000 it was about a pres having to replace his VP and nominating a woman. God forfend! Sleezeball dug up some pictures of a frat gang bang that she allegedly took part in. That became the story—BUT she refused to dignify it with any answers whatsoever. Just wouldn’t go there.

In the end it turns out it wasn’t her, she didn’t do it, but with that revelation her refusal to go there was even more spectacular.

Oh for some politicians like that to be for real. Recommend. Worth seeing again.

AsI recalled Edwards began (or was involved in) the affair back in 2004 after he accepted Kerry’s VP nomination. The “skeleton” was a lot more active THEN…and yet John-boy still went at it. Kerry was in a close race…not only did Edwards distract himself from the goal at hand…but he could have destroyed Kerry.

The guy appears to have a self-destructive bent that goes well beyond himself…it involves others.

Frankly, we’re fortunate that Obama was the “upstart candidate” that took hold this cycle.

fox is still making a big deal about clinton’s claim that without edwards she would win important primaries

of course they ignore the fact that without edwards their would be someone else to take his place, there were going to be anti clinton votes going somewhere and hardly any of those would have went to obama

in the beginning obama seemd like a long shot, whoever would be voting for edwards would not likely vote for obama, so someone like kucinich would have been their instead of edwards.

Jane, OT, kill me if you must….

Did you catch what you all have started? The Guardian is LIVE BLOGGING the Georgian situation, some of the comments are eye opening, not your usual party line at all, at all.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/ne…..flict.html

caution: another time zone in use

I’ve seen this too much lately; men of a certain middle age with successful lives who, for some unknown reason just go off the deep end, lose their way and just completely blow their relationships to smithereens. They have to know at some level that this is going to end up being totally self-destructive. But, they don’t stop. It’s amazing and troubling. What’s going on here?

Edwards’ ideas were important. And he was dishonest and hypocritical about his affair. Americans have odd views about sex, but these are what they are, and Edwards knew what the rules were. Conduct which would titillate if Edwards were an athlete or movie star is condemned in a politician. Go figure. But there it is. That’s not what is going on here though. It’s cover for something else. The media want to wrap up Edwards’ message of economic inequality and smother it in this scandal. They want to discredit the message by discrediting the messenger.

I remember submitting a comment during the early part of the primaries wondering whether Edwards was as in love with his wife as it appeared in public. I have tendencies toward cynicism, and given that he is a trial lawyer, where acting is required to be successful, I had my doubts. Some one responded that they knew the Edwards and that their devotion to each other was genuine. Well, asked and answered, so I moved on. Now we have another answer.

Frankly, we’re fortunate that Obama was the “upstart candidate” that took hold this cycle.

I am pretty sure edwards would have become unelectable before the primary and if he wouldn’t step down on his own, our delegate system would have saved our butts

this is exactly why the delegate system is there and we should not get rid of it

fine tune it possibly but NOT get rid of it, it will one day save our party

if edwards were our candidate another would have been called to arms, (possibly al gore I might add) and we would have a far better chance then with obama who has proven to be corporatist

IOKIYAR

and Hugh @ 19 – agree, agree, agree. poisoning the populist well

Edwards should now do the honorable thing and join the Republic Party.

Good point! Then a sexual tryst would not be a big deal!

So in the end, will there be more press articles about this or about the hair cut?

This is what the fourth estate has become. They should hang their heads in shame, but they won’t.

I think obama could turn this into quite an asset!

I think if he chides edwards and associates it to mccain that is a winning strategy

They will, however, polish their resumes for submission to various News Corp entities.

I would like someone to post another thread about our delegate system

I remember all through the delegate debate me and only one or two others were saying the delegate system was a good idea that would save us

most people were against the delegate system (till they understood it), so I wonder how most people feel about it now

“Nothing else is going on, except the Olympics, the war in Georgia, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the economy circling the drain. Nothing important anyway.”

umm, maybe we could add that little campaign thingy, or maybe the campaigners are glad for the distractions

Forgive me here, but an awful lot of Americans have this self destructive trait if the stats are correct. Supposedly 60% of the men and 40% of the women.

I think there are more than a few hypocrits discussing this topic and it blows my mind that every commentator on t.v acts as if they would NEVER consider making the mistake Edwards made. I watch people destroy their entire lives financially and emotionally over this one repeatedly. It’s an epidemic. And instead of looking to our own lives in regard to this matter we would all rather comment on the mistake of someone else. At least the stats suggest this to be the dynamic.

http://menstuff.org/issues/byi…..stats.html

careful there

a similar gambit in 00′ gave us Senator Scold as VP nominee

Maybe I am missing something. John Edwards had an affair. I am agnostic about that. Elizabeth Edwards is pretty solid on her own two feet. And I always felt she had a little Eleanore Roosevelt in her, who also had to contend with her husbands numerous infidelities.
I am also not sure how this discredits his policies etc. Of all the candidates, Edwards came up with the better health plan, and Clinton adopted it. I listened to Edwards ideas, and felt they had more substance than Obama’s. To me the family shtick was just the usual frosting. . .
So unless I am missing something, this is just one big yawn.
Clinton admitted to being “unfaithful” and got elected. Another yawn.

Hunter is too old and the wrong gender.

It is not nice to kick a dead horse, except Wolfson and Penn. Remember Mark Penn received propaganda money from the Booshies to pimp the neo-con Irak occupation. Penn is hated most by the Folks from the Hillary Campaign. But Penn is a rotten neo-con who deserves everyone’s hatred.

All of these articles about [Obamas] boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light.
Save it for 2050.

It also exposes a very strong weakness for him—his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.

But my favorite choice for Olbermann Puppet Theater would be this.

On February 10, Clinton finally fired Solis Doyle and moved Williams in—but did not heed calls to fire Penn, enraging Solis Doyle’s many loyalists. At this crucial point, long-simmering feuds burst into the open. On February 11, Williams’s first day on the job, Phil Singer, Wolfson’s deputy and a man notorious for his tirades at reporters, blew up in Wolfson’s office and screamed obscenities at his boss before throwing open the door to direct his ire at the campaign’s policy director, Neera Tanden, an ally of Solis Doyle. “Fuck you and the whole fucking cabal!” he shouted, according to several Clinton staffers. In the end, he climbed onto a chair and screamed at the entire staff before storming out.

It is foolish and irrational to compare Newt Gingerich with John Edwards.
First of all Newt, as speaker of the House was the third most powerful man in this country when he cheated on his dying wife.
Second, Newt had an important job, trying to impeach the president for cheating on his wife.
Third: Newt had just recieved a four million-dollar check from the owner of Newscorp. Could you expect Fox news to then report on Newt’s adultery?
So feel free to condemn John Edwards: – It may be the only thing that you are permitted to do.

Sorry but my prude is showing. Marriage is a commitment. If a person cannot honor the commitment he makes to a mate how can that person be expected to honor a commitment to the electorate?

And again nobody talks about the woman involved. She was committing adultery. Sorry but she gets no sympathy from me. The woman is the one who can always say “no.” She chose not to and deserves all the scorn she gets.

I don’t care about the affair. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that he engaged in this conduct post-Monica, while he was running for President. In so doing, he recklessly betrayed the trust of millions, who invested their money, energy and hopes in him. For that reason, in my opinion, he should withdraw from public life for the remainder of his life.

That’s a great question to put to St. McCain.

watching the video Jane posted, I’d say the other woman is enjoying all this.

i really don’t care what edwards did or who he did it with. i seriously doubt any of us have a personal life, if it should get to that level of detail, that wouldn’t at times look hilarious and/or inexplicable to outsiders. who cares?

i was going to say different strokes for different folks….

anyway, imo, that ought to be none of our business. but i do care that he decided to run for president as a devoted family man when he ought to have known the damage the truth would do (when it came out as it was sure to do), not just to his campaign but also to his message. in that he showed some serious lack of judgement, or that he really didn’t care.

my 2 cents.

Or McSames fan club

This is what the fourth estate has become.

Interesting question. This is what it may always have been but we didn’t have the tools of the internet to know. It is certainly the way it has been since we could document, monitor, and investigate media on our own. Of course, going back to the coverage of Clinton or the golly gee whiz portrayal of the vacuous Reagan as the Great Communicator, I would guess the shift away from news to propaganda has been going on for decades at the least.

I thought Anne Coulter said John Edwards was gay? So much for the Right Wing Nuts talking points on Edwards.

I was a big Edwards supporter and I am disapponted. Karma has a way of letting things work out. Imagine if he were our presumptive nominee? I will keep the Edwards family in my thoughts and prayers and hope they heal from the betrayal.

The shift away from news to propaganda parallels the rise of Fox News.

I am also not sure how this discredits his policies etc.

in the world i want to live in, his personal life would be completely separate from his political work. but that’s just not the world we live in. and edwards should have known that.

G’morning {snarl}. Got up on the wrong side of the cage this morning.

Here’s the deal. I defended Bill Clinton’s Oval Office bj et al as that which is a private matter. But you know what? It isn’t. It certainly isn’t an impeachable offense, but it is an offense to everyone who voted for him and even to those who didn’t. Ditto John Edwards.

There is a prevailing notion that it’s possible for someone to compartmentalize their boudoir bingo tendencies and that all the rest can remain sparkly clean. I call BS. And it’s taken me a while to get to this place. Everyone makes mistakes. I’ve made some doozies.

But what’s in play here is, for starters, abuse of power. Yes, even when the philanderee is a willing player. And I am absolutely convinced that someone who will bend and break the fidelity rule is capable of bending and breaking others. I am rapidly becoming a zero tolerance citizen wrt pecker-led relationships.

Grrrr.

Dave was on over the weekend, with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.
another good one.

My Mom called the edwards thing a long time ago, said she wouldn’t vote for a ‘little boy’ who couldn’t even check to see if his own shirt was tucked in before speaking publicly. mom radar. other things on his mind i guess.

Who says he isn’t a serious family man? Because it’s been revealed that he’s not monogomous. Sorry, I just have an issue with judging whether or not someone cares about their family, based on this boxed-in definition of human behavior.
And do we really know what Elizabeth Edwards, knows or doesn’t know, or feels, or are we presuming?

“boudoir bingo” is a great line!

Her BFF “Pigeon” just told us, on TV!, that the woman is full of honesty and integrity, and having an affair with a married man is a very sincere and honest thing to do.

Freak show is right.

What I wonder is why the ‘pubs have pulled the trigger on this story NOW. What use does it have? Was Obama considering Edwards for VP? I don’t think so. Or was it the insurance companies, starting to get worried about both Obama and McSame turning closer to single-payer health care?

Craig Crawford said something to the same effect on the Imus show this morning, if the hypocrisy on this were a virus, DeeCee would be empty [my paraphrase]

You’re welcome to use it! Just be careful where . . . *g*

Isn’t it about time for Larry Flynt to rear his head?

That’s not the world we live in Selise, that is the frame that is being forced on all of us. Persons of various sexual persuasions according to this frame, can’t be good people, because we all know the definition of a good person is straight, monogomous and “devoted to the family.” that is what all Republikans pretend to be, even while they’re wearing diapers for Madame whoever.And men and women who don’t marry, well you gotta wonder about them.There must be something wrong /snark.

It also exposes a very strong weakness for him—his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values.

Boy, that is some incredible bigotry there. Penn even throws in the “during a time of war.” Joe McCarthy and John Yoo would be so proud. It’s more Republican than the Republicans.

If I use it here, I will always credit you ;-)

This whole voyeur thing is totally predicktable.

More Family Values

Cheney to attend fundraiser for congressman caught with prostitute.

Channel 10 News in San Diego reports that Vice President Dick Cheney attend a fundraiser for Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) tomorrow and “will also deliver an address at a reception for Rep. Calvert at a private residence in San Clemente.” CREW named Calvert one of the “22 most corrupt members of Congress,” as he has a number of ethical improprieties:
[…among other things…]
In 1993, Calvert was caught by police with a prostitute in a parked car in California and tried to drive away from the scene. “We’re just talking, that’s all,” he told police as he “continued to cover his unzipped pants with his hand,” according to a police report.

When have I heard all of these arguments before?

Would any of us fire the world’s best brain surgeon because he had an affair and therefore couldn’t be trusted to stick by his Hippocritic oath? .

I don’t like it that Edward’s took a chance that all of us would end up with another Republican administration because of his situation. Beyond that, I don’t care except that I’m always amazed that people like he and Bill Clinton, with obviously very high IQ’s, can’t have more self discipline. As Jon Stuart said last night about Bush’s packhanded pat on the small of the back of the bikini clad volleyball player, “That is arguablly the best decision he has made during his administration.|”

BT’s wondering
Why Are Republicans Bailing On Their Own Convention? “Nobody Likes A Funeral.”
upstairs

and really rather boring.

Who says he isn’t a serious family man? Because it’s been revealed that he’s not monogomous. Sorry, I just have an issue with judging whether or not someone cares about their family, based on this boxed-in definition of human behavior.

you are completely right and i should have put “family man” in quotes to indicate that i was using someone else’s definition – when i do think that each family ought to define what that means for them

And do we really know what Elizabeth Edwards, knows or doesn’t know, or feels, or are we presuming?

i was just taking her at her word. maybe i shouldn’t do that.

Blue Texan has a brand new post up about why the Rethugs are bailing on their convention.

continuing…

i’m trying to say (not very well) that he ran a campaign that didn’t address the issue – instead he ran on the premise of the right wing understanding what “devoted family man” means. how does that not make him a hypocrite? if he had been honest (which doesn’t have to mean divulging anything), that would have been a different story.

FDR JFK

I’m not sure you know what commitment any two people have and what their marriage represents

I have at least half a dozen friends who have completely open relationships and I have to tell you, theirs are the most loving secure marriages among my friends

they do not go public with their beliefs or activities

it’s what you personally believe, not what others think you should believe

The shift away from news to propaganda parallels the rise of Fox News.

i got this from chomsky and herman’s “manufacturing consent”

The creation of consent is not a new art. It is a very old one which was supposed to have died out with the appearance of democracy. But it has not died out. It has, in fact, improved enormously in technic, because it is now based on analysis rather than on rule of thumb. And so, as a result of psychological research, coupled with the modern means of communication, the practice of democracy has turned a corner. A revolution is taking place, infinitely more significant than any shifting of economic power.

Within the life of the generation now in control of affairs, persuasion has become a self-conscious art and a regular organ of popular government. None of us begins to understand the consequences, but it is no daring prophecy to say that the knowledge of how to create consent will alter every political calculation and modify every political premise…It has been demonstrated that we cannot rely upon intuition, conscience, or the accidents of casual opinion if we are to deal with the world beyond our reach.

— Walter Lippmann (1922)

Media Logic:

John Edwards cheated on his wife after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

John McCain cheated on his first wife after she was disabled and confined to a wheelchair.

Ergo, Barack Obama is in trouble.

Let’s symbolize this argument:
E = John Edwards
M = John McCain
I = incapacitated wife
H = Barack Obama
A = Has extramarital affair
T = Is in trouble.

So, we have [enthymemes in brackets]

P1. E & I
P2. E & A
P3. M & E
P4. M & I
P5. M & A
P6. [M & ~T]
P7. [H & ~I]
P8. [H & ~A]
P9. [A -> T]

Conclusion:
C. H & T

I can’t get there from the premises. I can get to interesting places like “McCain didn’t have an affair”, (From the M & ~T premise and A -> T), which says that our premises are f***ed up (probably the If A then T premise [because it implies If ~T then ~A], so maybe it’s really “If A and Democrat then T”). Another interesting place if “If I then A” (if you have an incapacitated wife you cheat on her, dunno if I like that part at all.) I can also get to “Edwards is in trouble.” But I can’t get to Barack Obama is in trouble.

Maybe it’s a non-sequiter? No, not the cartoon, the logical phallusy [sic].

BC

Back from breakfast prep. The issue here is one of trust. John Edwards positioned himself as a trustworthy man. Not just a trustworthy politician or policy maker. As a trustworthy man. Turns out he’s not. Which calls everything else into question. And unlike the skill of brain surgery, politics is based at least in part on public trust. Which explains why GWB’s overall trustworthiness is in the loo.

LOL. that is too fucking funny.

Glad you liked it. But do you know why Obama’s symbol is H?

Yes well the whole political tradition, Democrat and Republikan, is to trot out the wife and the brood in fine patriarchal form. Some politicians come across as Stepford-ish in that manner. In fact, I’ve seen very few politicians on the national stage, from either major party, not run in fine patriarchal form.
But does this really, really reflect the reality of American lives? Tons of us are single, divorced, serially non-monogomous but not by choice, and of different sexual persuasions. I don’t look up to the patriarchal crap (must be the fem-texts studies), so I couldn’t give a sh*t when it’s revealed that Mr. Stepford is not all that. It is however funny in an absurd fashion to see “the truth revealed” with Republikans, since they tned to take this “Family man” image to the limit.
I still don’t see how this affair affects Edwards ideas on Univeral healthcare. Maybe someone can explain that to me. I am banging my head over that one.

As did Mr. Overheated Rhetoric on Nafta.

I almost always agree very strongly with everything you say, but if you don’t think submitting yourself to a surgeon involves trust, you must have never been operated on. I don’t like these kind of betrayal’s and character weaknesses, but I don’t think I would have voted against FDR at any point, regardless of his infidelity.

It’s the same media logic that has Obama in trouble because Edwards had an affair.

Which is to say that it doesn’t affect those ideas at all.

BC

Edwards positioned himself as a trustworthy man

Of course he did. He’s a politician, after all. But he’s also human, and none of us are completely trustworthy. I’m disappointed, even a little surprised (because Edwards is a smart guy.) But I don’t think that it negates any of Edwards’ policy stances.

Bullseye.

Thank you.

Good comment, but no he can’t. He had an affair with a woman.

But does this really, really reflect the reality of American lives?

hell no. and i’m glad it doesn’t.

I still don’t see how this affair affects Edwards ideas on Univeral healthcare.

it affects, i think, how a lot of people view universal healthcare. is it some wacked out dfh socialism or is it something that every “decent” (remembered to use the quotes this time! *g*) american is for?

or some such nonsense.

i wish perceptions didn’t matter so much. but i think they do. one of the things i’ve learned to like about the blogs and not using real names is that we first have to judge a comment on what it says and not on the age, gender, wealth, education, etc, etc, of the writer.

…. but to get back to my point. what if edwards had run the same campaign he did, but he was gay or could only get it up with tall women or, or… whatever? bfd – but i’d still be thinking that he showed a lack of good judgement by running run for president as a heterosexual in a conventional marriage – and attempting to appeal to voters based on that.

it’s not a big thing is the grand scheme of things, but i can’t just say it didn’t matter at all either. too much dishonesty in politics already and i hate it when our candidates do it too.

Well said, thank you.

If I was JE, I would be watching over my shoulder for David Bonior. Bonior is pissed, and he has a wicked temper. Personally, I don’t care that much and wish him well. I hope he fades into anonymity and goes back to representing the disenfranchised in the courts. If he can do that, then he will do more for people then all of the disillusioned progressives pounding out their frustrations on the keyboard. I especially wish Elizabeth well, and I pray that her words and passion do not disappear from the public discourse. Cancer is hell. The Edwards family have been living through hell. C’est la vie.

Another great quote

I haven’t, but David has been “surgeried,” radiated, chemotherapied, scanned repeatedly over the past year. Paramount considerations: skill and ability to trust those docs. So I understand your point about this.

We recently switched oncologists because there was some diminisghing trust in the original one, who came highly recommended and whose colleagues seem to hold him in high esteem. We weighed our trust issue heavily against his skill set. Finally decided they are inseparable to some extent. Have to trust him totally since it’s David’s life that’s at stake.

My point (badly stated) was that while skill may be paramount, the trust factor weighs heavily. Very Big Deal in politics as well. I’m weary of being asked to turn a blind eye to the pecadillos of the pols. That ramped up big time with Clinton.

Presumably, Edwards knew better than to engage in this kind of dalliance. And if he didn’t, he had no right to ask us to consider him as our standard bearer. The burden is on him. And having had the whistle blown so very publicly on his behavior, it follows as the night the day, he hath been false to every man and woman and is paying a harsh but probably deserved price for lying, lying some more, and then lying about lying.

BTW, Edwards was my number one choice from the get-go.

diminisghing d-i-m-i-n-i-s-h-i-n-g (urgh)

Americans have odd views about sex,

Really? Like that married people should be faithful to each other?

but I don’t think he ever really had a chance so this bothers me less than it bothers some.

I kind of agree with this….I always thought Edwards was a lightweight, bordering on phony (shut up about your boyhood in the MILL TOWN already), and his explanation for the affair just reinforced his smarminess for me. I don’t think the issue here is Rielle Hunter’s freakiness. I just think it’s the affair itself and the betrayal of a spouse with cancer. (Even though she forgives him, whatever.) Whether he had the affair with Angelina Jolie, Mary Kate Olsen, or Bea Arthur, wouldn’t really matter to me. It’s still betrayal.

But, it doesn’t bother me to see Edwards belly flopping because I don’t care all that much about him. Frankly, the Spitzer business bothered me a thousand times more.

Bea Arthur. Booyah!

What I can’t forgive him for is the fact that when he decided to step out on his wife, he took a swan dive into a fucking freak show.

I can always count on you to get a laugh out of me Jane.

Frankly, I’m just so tired of the “family” meme that seems to be de rigeur for every politician. The older I get, the less judgmental I am about peoples’ inevitable errors in judgment on so many things. It does not follow that not being monogamous=untrustworthy politician. I mean name me one US President who was completely monogamous…and yes I’ll take FDR over, say, Nixon who was probably not that into sex. I feel sad for Elizabeth because this media sleaze fest must be so painful for her in light of everything she’s been through and the important things she’s trying to achieve for all of us.

Americans have odd views about sex,

Really? Like that married people should be faithful to each other?

Well, yes, when so many Americans, in fact, aren’t and when they react to infidelity in some with a laugh and in others with condemnation.

possible correction – i goggled for that lippman quote based on my memory of it from, i thought, Manufacturing Consent. but now i’m not so sure, because i can’t find it in the book. maybe it’s there and i can’t find it, or maybe i read it somewhere else….

In Europe, as has been said above, we’re not so concerned with the private sex lives of public figures.

1. Most Americans are in fact more concerned about Mark Phelps.
2. What does it tell us about the fix we’re in that one presidential candidate has just left stains on an imaginary Iron Curtain, using Wikipedia as his porn site, while the other can only say–listen here, you’ve kicked butt and stomped skull, please chill.
3. Not just politicians are horny, lonely, flattered by comeons of attractive people, and suckers for good moves in bed.
4. The reason John Edwards was not a more viable candidate to begin with despite his admirable politics is the hinkey feeling you got watching him that even the poverty stricken were actually about him, his dad, and how he, John Edwards, grew up. Fella saw his reflection in the stream and fell in love with it.
5. What would you have felt if it was Elizabeth Edwards?

Barack Obama is running for president as a heterosexual male in a conventional marriage. It works for him (so far), but it couldn’t have worked for Edwards?

There’s something about the Edwards/Hunter affair timeline that doesn’t make sense to me. The affair ended in 2006, but Hunter is on the campaign trail with him in 2007?