Maureen Dowd's priceless piece in the NY Times was lethal on John Edwards's admission of being self-centered (but only for the brief time of the affair, mind you):
Even in confessing to preening, Edwards was preening. His diagnosis of narcissism was weirdly narcissistic, or was it self-narcissistic?
The creepiest part of his creepy confession was when he stressed to Woodruff that he cheated on Elizabeth in 2006 when her cancer was in remission. His infidelity was oncologically correct.
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Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post: There is some sincerity and some snake oil in every politician, but John Edwards exudes both in almost freakish measure.
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USA Today: Yet Edwards' transgression — indeed, his excuse — would test the patience of his most ardent supporter: I did it, but only while my wife's cancer was in remission. This suggests that the one-time rising star of the Democratic Party has not yet made contact with human reality...
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The Seattle PI: ...that's what happens when one is caught with his sanctimony hanging out.
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From The Nation: I supported Edwards because he was the only candidate who talked seriously about inequality, but the truth is I never liked him -- the 28,000 square foot house, the canned son-of-a-millworker routine, the endless parading of his family and its perfections, the (as it seemed to me) politically manipulative use of his son's tragic death and his wife's cancer.
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Gail Collins in the New York Times: If Edwards’s political career is toast, it will be because he has always seemed to be less than a sum of his parts: the position papers, the “Two Americas,” the photogenic grin, the supersmart wife. The only piece of the package that consistently disappointed was the man himself. He wasn’t a very good running mate for John Kerry, and as a presidential candidate, he always struck me as being about 2 inches deep.
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And of course, MH's favorite, Kirsten Powers with "He was always a fake.:" If it looks like a phony, walks like a phony, quacks like a phony, it's a phony.
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And we didn't even have to bother with quoting any conservative Republicans.
One thing that has been noted by a few columnists is that Edwards did his confession alone, rather than having his wife sitting gamely by his side holding his hand. There's indeed something to be learned from this observation, but as Henry Adams said about so many things in the account of his own Education, if only we could know what it is...
6 comments:
MH- I’ve noticed the leftie bloggers in Montana have been awfully quiet about John Edwards. Chirp-chirp.
I doubt that they're quiet because of any scruples over whether Edwards was cheating on his cancer-stricken wife. Or even because of his lying (everyone lies about sex, remember?)
I would hazard a guess that a big reason for the quiet is hinted at by the list of quotations in this post: reliably liberal/progressive sources across the political sphere are coming out and saying what they always thought about John Edwards in private.
And it ain't pretty things that they're saying about the darling of the Montana liberal blogosphere.
The way I see it, there aren't enough bad things to say about a man who did what he did. On the other hand, what about the slut? At least Monica was a kid, but this woman was past 40 years old. She knew he was married with children, that his wife was ill, etc. It is obvious that his brain lives behind a zipper, but she must not even have a brain? They are a pair to draw to.
Most of the reasons not to like John Edwards and to be glad that his career as a national politician are over have nothing to do with his sex life.
MH, I agree his sex life is not the only problem. But, in my opinion, if his wife can't trust him, neither should anyone else! And that brings up another subject...his wife did know about this before he started campaining... and she supported him anyway. Sick or not, that doesn't say much for her, again in my opinion. And I would think the same way if they were from the other party.
If I remember right, wasn't Edwards the guy that the folks at Left in the West were rooting for? The one they thought was the best fit not only for Montana progressives, but for Montana voters?
Or maybe they just liked the cut of his jib, or the cut of his hair. I don't know.
John Edwards deserves the grief he's getting, as he has admitted. One feels sorry for his family.
But I would say that his wife did something troubling. She has acknowledged that she knew about the affair many months ago. That means she was part of the effort to portray those who said her husband had been having an affair as liars, just so that her husband had a shot at winning the presidency and all the power that that entails. I'm sorry that she got caught up in such an ugly game, as well having to battle cancer and undergoing the humiliation her husband has put her through.
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