urbanmennonite.com

What is there to say about John Edwards?

That he’s a dog? Well, obviously.

That he’s a liar? Well, kind of.  If what he says is true — that the affair ended in 2006 and he isn’t the father of her baby — then the story is done.  The fact that he is willing to stand for a paternity test and she’s not all that into it says something about his willingness to put what’s left of his reputation on the line. Now, if his campaign paid her some hush money to get the hell out of town, that’s a different story.

That he isn’t fit to be President? Well, come on.  We’ve had a long, long, long line of Presidents who schlupped any number of women.  Starting with Thomas Jefferson and continuing clear into my own early lifetime.  There was that brief Carter (”I have lusted in my heart”)-Reagan (”Nancy would stab me in the heart with a tiny pointed heel”) interlude.  Kennedy and Johnson turned presidential sleeping around into an art form.  In fact, with the exception of Carter, how long has it been since we’ve had a Democratic non-dog president?

That he’s lost the respect of America? Well, please.  Somehow we’re supposed to be shocked and appalled that this man is somehow different than 30% of the rest of America.  It wasn’t like he was caught toe-tapping in a bathroom or wearing diapers in a brothel.  He wasn’t prosecuting prostitutes while thinking somehow the law didn’t apply to him. He didn’t get serviced while on the phone with a foreign leader. He didn’t preach sermons against “lifestyles” that he then actively participated in on the down-low.  I mean, just because I think he’s a shit for cheating on the ultra-cool Elizabeth doesn’t mean that he no longer has good things to say about poverty and health care.  When it comes to sex, he’s a dog, not a hypocrite.

That this hurts Obama? Well, duh.  He isn’t the presidential candidate that left his wife who stayed loyal to him through several children and a long internment in a POW camp.  He isn’t the candidate that separated from his wife after a severe accident left her seriously injured.  He isn’t the candidate that “dated” his next wife — an incredibly wealthy woman — while still living with his first wife and got married about a month after his divorce became final.

That Hillary would have won Iowa if only we had known? Well, this is just dumb.  She was out-played, out-organized and out-strategized in Iowa and not by Edwards (remember, he lost too).  In fact, if the Edward’s story had come out, it would have just reminded people of the embarrassing part of the Clinton years, dredging up the old memories and reminding people — yet again — why the Obama message of “Change” was so appealing.

That he has betrayed his family? Well, I don’t know.  Every marriage is so … private.  Who knows what sort of agreements people come to in a relationship, what sort of understandings they reach either before or after something like this.  Doesn’t every couple decide for themselves what betrayal — emotional or physical — is?

So, in conclusion: he’s a dog whose broken no laws and caused harm to no one other than possibly his family.  Now, can we all just forget about this and concentrate on almost-naked Australian divers.  Or water polo players.  I’m not picky.