[QUOTE=Zoe]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Very, very true. I’m only technically a Democrat–really I don’t like anyone–but yeah, loyalist Dems should be ready to string him up for this. Elizabeth Edwards can ask for privacy all she likes; they forfeited that when Edwards ran for President on his family-man image.
Actually, I would prefer to see more on Georgia and Russia; that situation has got me scared to death. But sex gossip is a lot easier to discuss over breakfast; I think it’s human nature to go for the little drama over the scary complicated war.
[QUOTE=Don’t fight the hypothetical]
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.
If you eliminate the politicians who have had affairs from office. the senate and house would be an empty place. The difference is the repubs run on family values. That makes them hypocrites too.
[QUOTE=gonzomax]
If you eliminate the politicians who have had affairs from office. the senate and house would be an empty place. The difference is the repubs run on family values. That makes them hypocrites too.
[/QUOTE]
According to the pundits, Edwards had incorporated his family, especially his wife, entirely into his campaign. That’s part of the problem here.
[QUOTE=gonzomax]
If you eliminate the politicians who have had affairs from office. the senate and house would be an empty place. The difference is the repubs run on family values. That makes them hypocrites too.
[/QUOTE]
Fail. Hypocrisy is extremely well represented by members of both parties.
[QUOTE=Weirddave]
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?
[/QUOTE]
Like many others I don’t give a rat’s ass about his personal pecadillos. He can stick his dick in a snake for all I care. What I’m outraged about, and was outraged with Clinton and all of the others about, is the supreme arrogance of these idiots to think that they can do whatever they want and get away with it because, Hey! I’m Keith Hernandez! (pardon the Seinfeld reference). It’s not just sex. It’s not just having your house remodeled by an oil company. It’s about power and entitlement, and it’s unearned, undeserved, and arrogant.
Did this fucking moron really think that his entire personal life wouldn’t be exposed and dragged squealing in to the light of day? That paying off this bimbo wouldn’t be exposed? How many need to be flayed alive in the public spotlight before they all finally realize that they can’t hide their secrets, no matter how well hidden they think they are?
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Why is that a problem?
[/QUOTE]
He sat up there presenting himself as a reliable family man, as evidenced by his strong marriage to a woman whom he was supporting through a bout of cancer. And you have to ask why it’s a problem that this supposed family man was boinking some bimbo on the side? There must be a word for someone who privately does the opposite of what he espouses in public, but I’m not sure “lying hypocrite” is strong enough. Not to mention that he dared to risk shitcanning a nearly certain Democratic win of the presidency in November if he’d actually won the nomination and then been exposed.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
That’s fine. All I ask for is consistency. Either it matters for all of them or for none of them.
I’ll still point out again that Edwards is a private citizen, not a public official or candiadte for office, though. There’s probably 19 guys on my block who have cheated on their SO’s. Hell, I might be the only guy I know who never has.
[/QUOTE]
He’s a famous private citizen. This isn’t really unusual for a celebrity.
Now if you have a problem with how we treat famous people in general, you probably have a point. But don’t act like this is at all similar to invading the privacy of some random guy on your block.
The other 1% relating to, presumably, the times you stuck your dick in that other woman? Exactly how are we waiting the truth value of your previous statements?
Anyway, since it happened now instead of after the convention, it’s really not much a of a story, and in an ideal world I suppose no one would give a shit regardless. That said, I am so not surprised. Edwards has always struck me as a slimy asshole.
[QUOTE=VarlosZ]
The other 1% relating to, presumably, the times you stuck your dick in that other woman? Exactly how are we waiting the truth value of your previous statements?
[/QUOTE]
He lawyered his phrasing. He said something like “I don’t respond to lies in the tabloids,” which, I guess, left (in his mind) some kind of pedanitic wiggle room in that he didn’t specify which “lies” he was talking about.
[QUOTE=RTFirefly]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Lessee, what names can we name?
So, there’s a coupla big wingnuts gloating that the Dems’ second runnerup for the nomination cheated on his wife, while being oblivious to the fact that their side’s nominee was guilty of exactly the same thing.
They’re not cynical; they’re just dumb as shit. You need more brain cells than they’ve apparently got in order to be cynical.
[QUOTE=Ducktail]
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.
[/QUOTE]
I was only going to half-jokingly post the question of when would the Republican’s run a campaign ad either making it a negative that Obama even knows Edwards or insinuating (whether true or not) that Obama was not ready to lead because they were considering picking a man with Edwards’ lack of judgment as a VP selection.
I also think Zoe’s post sums it everything up quite nicely. It should be nobody’s business what you do in your private life. But, in truth, people think it’s important and when you run for office knowing you have such a big, discoverable skeleton in your closet and that it affects your ill wife, had he won the nom, that could have blown the Democrats right out of the water three months before the election.
Dio, Edwards also apparently repeatedly made references during his campaign to Americans having a right to know ‘what kind of man a candidate was’ as he showed his wife and children at his campaign rallies. Don’t get me wrong; Edwards was my first choice during the primaries, and based solely on policy, would probably still be my first choice for president. I like the man both politically and (insofar as I know him, which isn’t much) personally. But he screwed the pooch here.
To me, it means he’s a man like about 50% of the rest of men in this culture; he had an affair and he’s sorry about it, he still loves his wife and his kids, and he wants to stay married. He fucked up. But as a nation, we just eat this kind of thing up for some reason, and he was pretty silly to think he was going to be able to conceal this.
[QUOTE=Oy!]
It was not. I’m a woman and I think she is quite attractive. I haven’t heard any other opinions. Are people saying she’s not pretty? How odd!
[/QUOTE]
She’s pretty , I suppose, but not spectacular. We expect spectacular, trophy quality skank from our national-level politicians. John Kennedy set the bar so high with Marilyn, and Hollywood has of course jaded us too. One would have thought, looking at Clinton’s choices, that this myth would be busted. But Elliot Spitzer came along and re-ignited our fantasies with his $5k an hour dream hooker.
[QUOTE=Oy!]
It was not. I’m a woman and I think she is quite attractive. I haven’t heard any other opinions. Are people saying she’s not pretty? How odd!
[/QUOTE]
I don’t think she’s unattractive either. Most of the comments I’ve seen about her looks here at the Dope have been negative.
