If John Edwards had been more of a factor in the primaries, or had been leading at any time, would the media have pursued the affair story more diligently? And if he had ever been in the lead and the story had come out, what would have been the result for the Democrats? If it had come out sooner with him never having had the lead, would it have affected the primaries?
The timing of the story going “mainstream” made me think “Wow, I’m glad he didn’t win the primaries. The Dems would be screwed.” But on second thought, I just wonder if the story didn’t get the sort of scrutiny up front because he was a nonfactor already, and that the story would have broken sooner if he had been in the mix.
Word is other candidates knew about the situation - Hillary Clinton surely did. Now, she of course was prevented from bringing it up because of her own personal history, and frankly Edwards didn’t go anywhere anyway.
If he did catch fire, though, it seems to me that the media would have been tipped off - and if Clinton had to do it, she would have tipped off an outlet that would have run with it, like, say, Fox News.
Oh, please. Don’t be so naive. Everyone knew about it, including Fox News - this just isn’t a story that they cover. If they did, no one in Washington would talk to them again. Everyone in the media knew Larry Craig was gay, too. They don’t consider it their business to cover this stuff. It’s off limits.
Word is other candidates knew about the situation - Hillary Clinton surely did. Now, she of course was prevented from bringing it up because of her own personal history, and frankly Edwards didn’t go anywhere anyway.
If he did catch fire, though, it seems to me that the media would have been tipped off - and if Clinton had to do it, she would have tipped off an outlet that would have run with it, like, say, Fox News.
I heard a Mainstream Media type talking about it the other day. His answer was basically (I’m paraphrasing here), “Yes, we knew about the rumors, but she had denied Edwards was the father, and a staffer had claimed to be the father. With no other proof, what we had was a rumor that the people involved had already denied.”