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.__________________
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.
________________
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...______________________________
The Seattle PI:
...that's what happens when one is caught with his sanctimony hanging out.__________________________
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.__________________________
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._____________________________
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.____________________________
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...
