John Edwards: All I have to say

August 8, 2008 · Posted in Election 2008 

This will be the only post I write about John and Elizabeth Edwards. I am writing it in response to the frenzy in the press, the judgment I see pouring forth everywhere (including my own earlier on Twitter), and to express what I see as the point of view less expressed but which is still part of the dialogue. Or should be.

Not one of us knows what goes on in anyone else’s marriage, much less in their head. But this whole sordid story is not as simple as the narrative being played around the blogs and broadcasts. Like everything else, there are complexities, nuances, backstories we can only guess at but not know.

It’s easy to say that he was an idiot who risked much - too much, perhaps -for some whispers in the dark and a roll in the hay, even a few rolls. Easy and yet maybe unfair.

The argument against Edwards goes something like this: he lied, therefore he can be expected to be corrupt, indeed he is corrupt simply because of the fact of the lie. That’s a myth of the righteous and the naive. Fact: politicians screw around all the time and still remain passionate about their causes (and are effective,too).

My initial sympathies were with Elizabeth, but as the story has emerged, I have sympathy mingled with disappointment for both of them.

At the time this all happened, Edwards had just come through a whole maelstrom of turmoil. It wasn’t that far off from the 2004 election, Elizabeth emerging from her cancer diagnosis and treatment, he had left the Senate, and still had a real desire to accomplish something lasting in areas he cared about.

Look, take some pol-sized ego, a bunch of adoring fans, and mix that with pressure, the need to always have one’s life under glass, a family looking to you for strength and support and it’s a sure-fire mixture for the need to escape somewhere - into a bottle, willing arms, pills…whatever the vehicle, it’s still about escaping for just awhile.

We might wish he’d found another way to escape, we might wish he’d jumped into a bottle rather than a bed, but until we have walked in his shoes it might be best to withhold judgment. On all parties, because we are as much at fault for our disappointment as he is for his affair.

We’re responsible because we expect infallibility from them. John McCain may be the only pol I’ve seen that has gotten a pass on the infidelity indictment from the voting and reporting public. Otherwise our elected officials start on a pedestal and wait to be knocked off.

Edwards didn’t hold himself out to be perfect, just passionate about health care and poverty. We somehow take these people and try to deify them as if there is some magical connection between being perfect and passionate despite the likelihood that passion is most often connected with flaws and humanity, messy as it is.

All those words to say this: Edwards’ choice is destructive to his cause because we, the people, expected more from him than we do ourselves. We may not commit adultery, but all of us slouch through life with our own flaws, secret escape hatches, and failings. Quite often those flaws are far more destructive to the fiber of our society than the urge of a man to steal a few minutes away from being under the beam of finely-tuned superhuman expectations.

It takes a certain type of person to stand in front of a group and argue his or her fitness to make policy, to lead, and to take on the business of trying to make the world a better place through the political process. The sooner we understand that those people will prove themselves as human as the next guy, the better.

What frustrates me most about this so-called scandal is the distraction it creates from the real immorality rampant in our government today.

Did you know that so-called violent detainees were put into casket-like crates as part of their interrogation? Did you know that DOJ documents released last year and augmented recently prove that the Bush Administration intentionally corrupted and politicized our justice system?

No, you heard that John Edwards got in bed with someone who wasn’t Elizabeth and screwed himself silly and then dared to try not to have that news be public. How downright rude of him. How immoral. Really?

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Comments

  • Elaine N. Ramey
    What a STUPID ARTICLE ! The character who wrote this must really be a slovenally slouch. "A THIEF THINKS EVERYBODY STEALS!" THE SIMPLE ANALYSIS IS: JOHN EDWARDS CLAIMED TO BE WHAT HE WASN'T, NEVER WAS, AND NEVER WILL BE. THE PICTURE HE TRIED TO PAINT IN EVERYONE'S EYES IS THAT HE WAS MR. WONDERFUL WHO REALLY CARED ABOUT THE 37,000,000 LIVING IN POVERTY AND HE WAS GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! ELIZABETH EDWARDS "WANTED" THIS CREEP TO BE WHAT HE WASN'T AND ENCOURAGED HIM TO WORK TOWARD THAT GOAL. BUT THIS WEAK-MINDED IDIOT DID HIMSELF IN. HE CARES FOR NO ONE BUT HIMSELF BUT THERE ISN'T TOO MUCH TO LOVE ,"IS THERE, JOHN?"
  • my god, woman, this is well said.
  • Thank you, ma'am!
  • Well said, Karoli! Thanks for hopping over to my space to comment. As I replied back to what you said, my post would have been quite different if he were the presumptive nominee. But since he isn't, and I want the distraction to end so we can focus on REAL problems, I'm with you here.
    Great blog. Nice to "meet" you. :)
  • Thanks, Lara! Nice to meet you too. :)
  • Bill Clinton survived a similar scandal and was re-elected. But Edwards isn't the politician Clinton is. We see, or think we do, that the Clinton's marriage has survived. It looks like the Edwards Marriage will survive. Had Edwards been the nominee, he would have lost the election. It's that simple. It has nothing to do with his skills as a manager or policy maker.

    The simple truth is that if you don't win, you don't get to govern. My problem with Edwards, and I voted for him two times, is that he didn't take care of this at the beginning of his run for the white house. As our friend Steve is fond of saying, it's always the cover up that kills you.
  • Cliff, I would be far more outraged if he had gotten the nomination and this news came out. The hubris that roadkillrefugee refers to is clearly out in front of his decisionmaking process when it comes to how he handled his run for the White House.

    On the other hand, this is now. He didn't win the nomination. He isn't in contention for the VP slot. I doubt he would have been able to keep this news quiet as long as it was kept if he had been a serious contender. (I'm thinking Hillary would have castrated him publicly if he had been a serious threat to her candidacy, right?)

    The only reason to make this a "scandal" at this point is to neutralize him completely and forever, because there is such a damn puritanical streak running down the center of this country.

    I do agree that it's the coverup that kills you. And it lands many between that rock and hard place of wondering if they can actually keep anything private (they can't) while living in the public eye.
  • ursulas
    good post.
  • Hey UrsulaS,

    I hope you're on the mend. Thanks for the comment and the tweeted link earlier. I haven't read it yet but I will soon. :)
  • WebPixie
    It IS frustrating to have this "scandal" distract us fro the real immorality in government today, just as you have described it here. The atrocities committed in the name of the U.S. in recent years violate everything we've believed to define us as people.

    So why is this such a topic right now? It makes me wonder what a Bill Clinton, or one of his political operatives, would do if he was denied a spot to speak at the Democratic Convention in favor of John Edwards.

    There certainly ARE greater evils more deserving of our attention, as you say. Perhaps we can only hope they will get the attention they deserve and the days of politics as usual will soon be behind us.
  • WebPixie,

    I tend to doubt the days of politics as usual will be behind us. This is the shot across the bow. What I hope beyond hope for is that Obama doesn't have any skeletons hanging in his closet like this. Because if he does, it will undo the Democratic party and any hope for progressive politics for 20 years.
  • Your point of view is one commonly taken. Shoot, I was ready to castrate him earlier today, I'm not exempt. But what bothers me about the frenzy is the distraction. I guess I'd rather accept that politicians screw around, male and female alike, and it doesn't necessarily make them less effective at getting the job done.

    I initially shied away from Edwards because there was something a little too plastic about him. Too perfect. During one of the debates he said something that really bothered me, where he seemed to suggest agreement or sympathy with AT&T, a company I view as nothing more than a tool of empire in today's USA.

    At the same time, I have personally found myself wanting to not be the rock in certain situations, wanting to run somewhere else where I don't have to carry around whatever responsibility is weighing at that moment. I can't honestly say that in those moments, I wouldn't have acted if I had the opportunity, and it would have been selfish, but not nearly as destructive as the torture of detainees, wiretaps, and general corruption of our government has been.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are greater evils that deserve our attention.

    As to the money thing, that may indeed be something that I condemn outright (I'll have to edit this post since I've vowed not to spend any additional bandwidth on this.) I'm still waiting for more details on it.
  • I don't feel responsible for John Edwards' hubris and narcissism. I don't feel responsible for Elizabeth Edwards collusive defrauding of voters, staff, donors, other supporters and the press. I never put him on a pedestal, but I did observe him tout himself as uniquely qualified to serve in a position of trust. He touted his marriage and family as a character validation. He could have done what Gov. David Paterson did and simply disclosed the affair in 2006 before he ran. It actually wouldn't have been a huge story then because he wasn't a candidate yet. He could have dropped out after Elizabeth announced her cancer. But he chose to stay in the race and suck money and votes from the other candidates, knowing he was sitting on a time bomb. Bill survived. Newt survived. McCain survived. He could have survived. But no, he decided to lie to his staff, supporters, the press and the American people generally. Like Bill, really dumb judgment. It's not a moral issue, it's simply a judgment issue. Like yelling at your boss over something petty when your spouse has a serious health condition and you have young kids that still need to go to college - it's not about the ethics, it's about the obviously risky conduct that puts your career in jeopardy and hurts others by extension. Narcissistic. Selfish. Dumb.
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