As opposed to my more distant intimates.
It’s not a fallacy for two reasons, one, because I’m not trying to argue that there’s anything important about McCain’s adultery and two, because it’s not a reference to something past but to a current political candidate. You guys are outraged by somebody who’s out of the race and ignoring the same behavior in a guy that is in the race. Either it matters or it doesn’t. You can’t have it both ways. If Edwards’ affair offends you so much then you can’t vote for McCain. if you can overlook it in McCain, then you aren’t really bothered by Edwards. I am consistent in not caring about either.
I’m not outraged at anything. I’m not even surprised, Edwards has always seemed to me to be someone covered with a thin sheen of oily slime. The only comment I made was on his contending “I fucked her but I didn’t knock her up” like it makes any differnce. Big deal, is he angling for the safe sex vote?
If he didn’t clarify whether he fathered the child, the press was going to hound him about it until he answered anyway. He might as well answer it now and get it over with. Not that I care either way. I don’t even care if he’s still lying. None of my business.
A. I don’t believe the group of “people elected to office” are a representative group of the general public (yea, I know, they’re elected to be representative, but that’s not what I’m talking about. if you have demographics of the 'average American", they would not, I believe, be the same demographics of the ‘average elected official’)
B. that said, the group of ‘elected females’ is definately underrepresented to the general public, therefore, it’s not at all surprising there’s a lack of public knowledge of affairs of female pol’s.
C. I’m really pissed at Edwards -what an asshole. (prior supporter).
But that’s just it. We “republicans” or whomever “we” are, find it equally despicable no matter whom does it. The fact that “political hay” is made out of it is par for the course no matter the side of the aisle. Make your bed, so to speak, now lie in it, or lie around it, or lie about whatever makes you sleep better at night and doesn’t tarnish your fucking pristine public image.
Fuck them all and their philandering.
Now that that is out of the way, how does this adulterous behavior make one less or more qualified for office again?
Right, it doesn’t and never did since time immemorial.
We should have a cadre of “pussy providers” for men in office, where it’s just understood that “so and so is available, and highly pnuematic” or “if you want to be prez, she HAS to give you a BJ”…or something.
I tire of this. It can be said that if you are a cheater then it says something about your ability to make sound decisions while in office.
Well, was Clinton a good President?
Was he?
Or Jefferson?
C’mon.
For more information, see the internet. That thing with those tubes and whatnot.
The fact of Edwards’ adultery overwhelms me with indifference; it is, as has been said, a matter between his wife and himself. Given the specificity of his dates wrt the beginning and ending of the relationship, I’m inclined to believe him, and that since another man has in fact claimed fatherhood of the child is a good reason to believe that Edwards isn’t the father. It’s not so hard to believe that Edwards wanted to follow up with a mutual friend just to ensure that all was ok and that his former fuck-buddy was still maintaing silence. So I don’t really have much problem with any of that.
My problem, insofar as I have one, which isn’t a whole hell of a lot, is that he has been very vehemently denying this, not only to the press, but to his advisors and supporters, until at least two weeks ago. Granted, the source was the National Enquirer, and the reflex is almost irresistable to deny anything whatsoever those people claim. But his response should have been “This is not an issue relevant to my qualifications as a public figure, and as such I refuse to answer it.” The same answer, btw, should also be given to questions of religion or sexual orientation. Instead, he looked them right in the eyes, and ‘sincerely’ denied any allegations. Sine the original source of the story was the National Enquirer, and Edwards himself comes across as an honest and sincere sort of guy, so the press had a tendency to believe him.
Well, since his wife doesn’t seem ready to string him up, I don’t think the opinion of a bunch of armchair quarterbacks on the internet means a fart in a whirlwind. She’s the wronged party, she’s asking the world to leave their private lives private and I for one am perfectly willing to respect that.
Edwards knew how tired the country was of the sleaze factor that Clinton brought with him. Yes, he was a good president. But we tired of thinking of the cigar and the dress with the stain. And knowing that the reputation of the Democratic Party needed restoring, he portrays himself as the ultimate family man, tells us to judge him by his character and then runs for office.
He knew that if he won the nomination and then his secret came out, he could sink the election. Yet he ran anyway. He put his personal ambition above the whole thing – including solutions to the war in the Middle East.
What goes on in his marriage is not for me to judge on a moral basis. The shabby way he treated his Party’s expectations of him is reprehensible.
Am I the only one who thinks it’s freaking nuts for the talking heads on cable news to spend hours talking about the infidelity of a former candidate and ex-politician when there is a new war breaking out between Russia and Georgia?
If you, personally, find it equally despicable no matter who does it, that’s good. I may agree or disagree with your principles, but at least you’re sticking with them.
However, the same cannot be said about the GOP and its partisans generally. Sen. Vitter, he of the prostitutes and diapers, is still in the GOP caucus. Nobody in the party hierarchy is trying to expel or shame him out, and the GOP grassroots’ outrage has been notable for its near-silence, despite the presence of legions of defenders of traditional sexual morality in its ranks.
Like Dio, I don’t think this sort of stuff should make a difference. I’m pissed at Edwards because we live in a world where it still does, and, though he was fully aware of that, he chose to take both that risk and my money.
But I will give no quarter to those who claim that sexual morality is important, but for whom it only seems to be important in the case of Democrats. They’re immoral, unprincipled scum, a bunch of Elmer Gantry types wrapping themselves up in sanctimonious robes while believing in nothing.
Yes. It’s not like we’re in a slow news period, but all this week–between the Callie is Missing! Drama and this John Edwards thing–you’d think we were.
Imagine if John Edwards were actually still in the running. Then all the channels would be running endless commentary.
That said, I’m confused by the baby daddy thing. I think Andrew Young and John Edwards should go on Maury and get this thing straightened out. I mean, the situation is tailor-made for that show. You’ve got the gold-digging ho, the pretty boy who’s already been caught lying, and the black guy who wants everyone to know he hit “that” too, sloppy seconds or not. I say put the baby’s picture up on the big screen side-by-side with the father’s pictures and let the audience decide. The DNA results can just be the icing on the top.
I was almost ready to turn off MSNBC for good last night, when both Hard Ball and Race for the White House spent almost their entire shows talking about this. Neither of them mentioned the Georgia/Russia situation. Thank heavens for the Jm Lehrer News Hour, or I never would have known that Russia may be on the verge of turning into something resembling the USSR (now without Communism, coming to a town near you!) and they may have begun a new Cold War, and I hadn’t even noticed. Olbermann on Countdown, to give him credit, “only” devoted about 15 minutes to this idiocy.
This.
I think we all know why the Russian situation hasn’t gotten any news coverage. Do you honestly think most Americans know the difference between the state of Georgia and the nation of Georgia? You’d have militia types getting their shotguns in the middle of Macon!
Thing is, though, I never thought that he would have been considered for a VP. His name gets tossed around a lot, but I think Obama needs to appeal to a demographic that Edwards might not fill. While your point that it’s better now than before the convention, the right thing for him to have done (in terms of party politics) is to have quietly admitted to it a long time ago. In terms of weeks and days, the timing isn’t as good as it could be, but in terms of months and years? Geez.
Also, I do believe that “a big hairy thing” (my god, the puns keep coming) will be made of Edwards by someone or another. In a year when Republicans don’t have much to go on beyond “Obama is a celebrity,” they–or rather, their surrogates in the media–could very well bring this up again…and again…and again. The longer they can keep Edwards’ affair in the news, the longer they can keep in in the back of peoples’ minds.
I suppose especially it wouldn’t be improved if they started talking about the Georgian Caucuses, and people said “Well, gol-damn, the primaries are over!”
Right. Clinton was totally unlike loyal family man George H. W. Bush.
The link is to the Wikipedia article on Bush’s squeeze Jennifer Fitzgerald. She went with him to China and was on the government payroll during his vice-Presidency and Presidency. Joe Conason’s July 1992 Spy magazine article listed this fact as #1 of their 101 “Reasons Not To Vote For George Bush”.
Can we take as read that men who are attracted to power are unlikely to be completely loyal to their wives? I’m loyal to mine, but then I don’t have the ego to want to be the “most powerful man in the world”. The only positive thing I have to say about Bush 42 is that, as far as I know, he doesn’t cheat on his wife. Whoop-de-fucking-do! What is that compared to billions of tax-payer dollars flushed down the toilet, thousands of American live, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and the motherfucking US Constitution! All that is forgiven because “at least he’s loyal to his wife”? How fucked up is that?
I have no stats or cites but my experience is that women are just as bad or worse, they are just better at not getting caught.
To make this post relevant to the OP…*
[sup]*Well, sort of. I imagine Edwards thinking not fathering the child makes it OK.[/sup]