Very sad news, this may indeed be something that will haunt Edwards as long as he lives. Prayers be with him.

Okay, looks like the NE was right after all.

Looks like it was a good thing that he didn't get the nomination this time!

I cannot see any chance for him being VP, or having much of a role at the convention. But unless something else comes out he may just luck out and get into any Obama Administration, as now that he has admitted this people may be willing to forgive by the time January rolls around. We will see.

Not that any of this is going to keep me up at nights.

Didn't Edwards repeatedly refer to his wife Elizabeth as "the love of my life"? Oh, but it doesn't matter because he doesn't "love" the woman he had an affair with. Notice Edwards is trying to salvage some part of his reputation by saying that the affair started when Elizabeth's cancer was in remission. What a disappointment he is. Poor Elizabeth....

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5441195&page=1

According to friends of Hunter, Edwards met her at a New York city bar in 2006. His political action committee later paid her $114,000 to produce campaign website documentaries despite her lack of experience.

Edwards said the affair began during the campaign after she was hired. Hunter traveled with Edwards around the country and to Africa.

Edwards said his wife, Elizabeth, and others in his family became aware of the affair in 2006.


Edwards made a point of telling Woodruff that his wife's cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards has since been diagnosed with an incurable form of the disease.

That has been my concern all along with this thing. Elizabeth.

I can see where the stress of living with the reality of a terminal illness can do strange things to us at times but nothing excuses this , Elizabeth is a strong woman but she has more than enough to deal with as it is. My heart also goes out to her.

Why would Obama offer Edwards anything in his administration when he can find someone else without this baggage....? I think Obama should offer Elizabeth a position in his adminstration....

So, an apology is in order to me for all the nasty comments made because of my thread


and one also owes an apology to the National Enquirer too

If he didn't prattle on and on about his storybook romance with Elizabeth, I wouldn't care

He is a liar and a cheat, and once again WE the PEOPLE are disillusioned.

BTW-I still would be either Hillary or Elizabeth furthered this story.

And now is it too late for Edwards?

Is there a future for him as VP? as AG? as some other position?

Tune in tommorrow...same bat time...same bat channel...because ENQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW

(now, if only the Globe is righton the money with that thingydingy they said about Bill Clinton).

Good point, Amy. I am just saying what might happen. I am not advocating it.

And btw, I certainly agree that he has no excuse for this. I would wager that he really does love Elizabeth, but there is no question that he failed and betrayed her in a significant way.

And he is not doing a good job in trying to make this look better. If he did not love this other woman that somehow makes it better?

Hmmm... the story breaks a few short hours before people begin to settle in for a weekend of the 2008 Olympics. This story won't make it through the weekend.

As far as JE is concerned it is very disappointing. This is a tragedy under normal circumstances but, under his and Elizabeth's circumstances it is just totally inexcusable.

well, of course

more manipulation of the media

At least this will get that other stuff out of the papers

I would not bet this story dies though...the media will run with this for a while...

HOWEVER- we must also remember that some heavy stuff against McCain went down yesterday on his money he got from "regular people" and he had to return 50grand...that will be buried
now too

Well I will not apologize to you. I will acknowledge that you were right. I never denied the possibility that he had this affair, I did raise the possibility that it might not be true after all.



Why?



No question now that he is a disappointment.



I still think that is ridiculous. It was the NE that furthered this story, and they apparently got it right.



I think that VP is an impossibility, and as Amy has pointed out he will have a significant difficulty others will not have in terms of the Cabinet.



I don't know, the NE tends to be the more reliable tabloid.

IMO, Edwards is through, politically speaking...if he weren't such a hypocrite with his "Elizabeth love of my life" line that he routinely pulled out during his campaigning maybe I wouldn't be quite so harsh. Ugh...just like BC....huge insecure egos....can't keep their zippers closed....human maybe, but a hypocrite, nonetheless.

He is WORSE than Bill Clinton or even Spitzer.

Edwards' whole life story put out to the public was his romance with Elizabeth. He is a fraud.
Bill Clinton was IMHO a crook, but nobody (least of all me), cared about his sex life, just his crimes.Spitzer was it seems a crook too.

But as a romantic, Edwards is a major fraud. (don't say I didn't tell you so back when I said there were 1364 reasons...
And no apology can bring back his only selling point.

I don't know that I doubt his devotion to Elizabeth, that he really feels that way. The problem is that he was not man enough to control other feelings that got in the way, that led him to betray that devotion. Anyway, that is a problem for those two. But this certainly leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. And it does not even look like he is coming completely clean about this.

And I cannot say that I am hoping for a comeback for him, and I voted for him in the 2004 primary.

Just speaking in cynical political terms, isn't it just dumb for a major Democratic politician to risk this kind of thing, in this age of YouTube, the Internet, the tabloids and an absolutely unrestrained Right-Wing attack machine?

I disagree Arne....true devotion to a spouse does not include sexual infidelity. Yes, it is between the two of them.....and I'm sure glad he didn't win the nomination...I never was impressed with him too much even when he was Kerry's running mate.... a bit too slick for me.

I agree with you 100%.

Careful who y'all damn...the Rev. King, John Kennedy,
and Bill Clinton all fell to the Alpha-Male drive.

Before you write people off...imagine the offers to
the world's biggest celebrity...and Paul Simon's lyrics
in The Boxer..."...just a come-on from the whores on
Seventh Avenue. There were times I was so lonesome
that I took some comfort there."

I extend the same understanding to women.
While we strive for perfection, we should understand we are not perfect.
And, let him without sin cast the first stone. I'll pass...I don't qualify.

As a woman, I put myself in Elizabeth's shoes...she's lost a child, she's losing the battle with cancer (although she's doing well!) and she lost her husband's fidelity when, in fact, she should be relying on him for complete emotional support. What a jerk he is.

Well let's just agree that his devotion was hardly pure. Look at this way, are all women who end up staying with their husbands after they discover that they have had affairs wrong?

But all I can really say with any assurance in this case is that I really don't know, that Edwards betrayed Elizabeth big time, and that he is even now hardly doing a perfect job in handling things. But all sorts of things could be going on here.

you don't get it, do you

IT'S NOT THE SEX

it's the person in John Edwards case.

Just because you want to smear 1000s of others JOHN EDWARDS WHOLE STORY WAS HIS DREAM LIFE WITH ELIZABETH.

How dare you now smear the others and say this is the same

Don't you have any romance left?

John and Elizabeth had a fairy tale romance.
it was John's #1 SELLING POINT to the world
(and no I was never a fan but that is not the point).

There is no one else in politics who used his relationship of storybook romance that John did.

It's not the sex. It's the FRAUD AND LIES.

I have to agree with you here. King, Kennedy and Clinton were all wrong, but were they all without redeeming qualities? And their wives all stayed with them. Were they all wrong?

But I am not going to stand up for Edwards here, so much as to try to put things into perspective.

And not that this makes anything right, but where my wife comes from a male politician who fools around is like a politician who gives a lot of speeches.

I'm not implying that women who remain with their husbands who have had an affair(s) are wrong. That's their decision to make. I'm just reacting to Edwards as he portrayed himself and the "real" Edwards. Not a pretty picture at least in my mind.

Graham, you are being ridiculous.

Not every marriage is a fairy tale romance. Does that make infidelity okay in any marriage?

And IH was not smearing anyone. He was telling the truth.

Don't hold your breath waiting for an apology from me Graham. What Edwards does is fair game I suppose given how you so love scandal and crucifying those who don't live up to your yardstick but Elizabeth deserved privacy and respect.

He may be the one who created the situation, and its inexcusable, but its still none of our business. Its between he and Elizabeth and should have stayed that way.

BULLCRAP

If you love as he was suppose to love, you just do NOT do this. End of story

BTW- remember people (like myself) questioned how someone with a dying wife who was the storybook fairytale romance would
bother to run for President while his wife was ill when they would want to spend every last minute together
NOW WE KNOW WHY

barf.

Well that is a big reason why it leaves such a bad taste in one's mouth.

I have no respect for Kennedy's serial infidelities either. He would never have made it to the presidency in today's day of media exposure. MLK...he didn't run for the presidency and use a "love of my life" routine to create a false image of himself. Bill Clinton.....a marital relationship "sleaze" as far as I'm concerned. Remaining faithful within a marriage is not "striving for perfection" in my book...just mature and the right thing to do.

Are you making a confession in light of some silly things that you have just said, that you apparently feel entitled to say?



So if your neighbor fools around on his wife it is somehow better? I'll bet his wife would differ on that!



This is one of the most bizarre lines of reasoning that I have ever seen here. The guy let his lower regions decide his morality for him. That has nothing to do with his running for President. If it did then he would not have done something so dumb (as well as immoral).

Cute.
Well, at least this is new media fodder other than Paris.

Well the thought that comes to mind is...

what if he were the nominee ?



What a moronic thing to do when running for POTUS. Did he really believe he could get elected with this whole charade remaining under the radar ? What on earth was he thinking when he decided to run ? Apparently he didn't think.

He must have thought he could "get by with it". It seems most do.

Barf is right. And Edwards leaves his children with this legacy.

And, it taste like? Sorry...but it was an opening that was begging...
reminds me of The Sopranos episode...on the golf course where Tony is hasseling
Junior...singing "South of the border, down Mexico way...where the tuna fish play."

Forget about it.

Oh, I know!!!! He would be "toast" if he were the nominee...just like BC...no thought beyond pleasing their male appendages and insecure egos....I belive Clinton's "Monica" thing lost Gore the election (if he did indeed lose).

It's water under the bridge!

A politician has an affair------hardly news.

This could very well be why Edwards declined to be considered as a VP nominee.

He was lucky to have dodged this bullet during the primary campaign.

It was an astounding lapse in judgment to get into an affair in 2006 as he entered the primary campaign.

a sham is a sham is a sham

WHAT OTHER THINGS WILL BE FOUND OUT TO HAVE BEEN LIES BY JOHN EDWARDS???

This was his sole #1 reason to running for president

He based his entire political public life and it is just a story, a lie.

You know what there is NO excuse possible...he is an opportunist and a liar.
Whether Elizabeth was knowledgable of this, whether there were others, whether she liked power like he did, this shows him to be a liar
and a fraud.

I can't think of anyone else who this would apply to either. Because this is worse.
And it puts him even behind Trent Lott and Newt Gingrich who cheated on a dying wife. They never based their careers on a storybook fairytale
romance

true love my a$$

no
it is not a tv show

This is real life. NOT A GAME.

Thank God he was not the nominee...it would have been worse than Eagleton.

Graham:

Ever had a woman come on to you in a bar?
...or a man...I've experienced both...it's life...get a grip.

Graham, I am not a politician basing my campaign on my fairy tale romance with my wife.

Does that make it okay for me to cheat on her? I always kind of thought that the vows we exchanged over ten years ago meant that it wouldn't be, regardless of whether I was a politician or not.

You are all missing a very relevant fact. Elizabeth has known about this since 2006. She obviously forgave him and their marriage survived.

Its as IH says. He who is without sin, cast the first stone. There are other sins in a marriage other than fidelity , marriage is hard work at times. For anyone.

I'm not defending Edwards. I am saying it is not our place to judge him. Its his wife's and she has obviously come to terms with it.

Respect that woman and let this story die.

If this is the case, I would have to wholeheartedly agree.
I don't see this as much of my business now.

I agree CO... at present it is their business alone.

However if JE had become the Democratic nominee... well, not so much only their business.

The stupidity of it all baffles me... just unbelievable.

I am not missing it. I think it is the most relevant thing about this. Edwards owes me nothing about this. I don't like this, I see that this damages him politically, but ultimately this is not my problem.

It is their problem, and Elizabeth and the kids are the only victims here. I know that I'm not.

This qualifies her for a cabinet post? Those positions require expertise and skills.

Agreed.

I'm reacting to the man who was running for POTUS. He's a politician who's been "out there" trying to sell an image of himself that was false and he also lied about his affair. So, I will judge him on the merits of his character and this a huge character flaw, in my book. But, thank god he didn't win the nomination and once this news winds down, most certainly it remains within the private lives of the Edwards.

that would be between you and your conscience and not have a place on a political board

The sole point is

He based his life and his running for president on a fraud and a lie

And as of the moment, he had said he would accept the VP if offered, so we discuss him. (He still has not said he wouldn't).
As we have 3 separate VP threads going, 4 if you include the one on McCain.

So it is more than relevant.

If you think he should not be discussed, then he should not have ran for president OR want to be VP
(and he certainly can't openingly discuss any other position now til after the election...though there are plenty of others who are more qualified

I asked a long time ago, what if he got the job, and his wife died? He would be out of commission for 3-6 months...that is very, very dangerous in this day and age, to keep one's eye off the
big picture for so long.

by the way-

Once again I have to ask

What type of woman who supposedly is for woman's rights, keeps quiet about this sort of thing? Elizabeth is just as bad as Hillary on that front.
Just let the man walk all over you type of thing?

This indeed makes people question the entire story, not just this-

and, why believe the timeline? Just because he says so? ah, excuse me, but, the guy lied and cheated, we are now suppose to believe him?

This has as much credibility as the goverment's case against the thraxx doctor who, ah, supposedly killed himself...yeah, right...I got a bridge for sale...

IF he ended the affair prior to those statements it could be that he had gone through a period of weakness, whether one chooses to excuse him or not doesn't preclude the fact that people are capable of betraying people they love. What his thinking he could keep it hidden says about his judgment is another matter, idiotic and hubris are terms that come to mind.

Running for POTUS requires a huge ego, the question is how it manifests.

I've never been an Edwards supporter, just someone who believes that until we accept that people (including politicians) are human we'll mostly get ones who are just good at hiding their motives and misdeeds.

The Department of Health and Human Services would be within range for Elizabeth...why not? I'm not saying she should be offered a position if Obama wins...I was saying why not her when it was mentioned that John could still be offered a position in an Obama adminstration.

Graham, attacking Elizabeth on this point is really low.

Look, he betrayed her. He didn't betray you. Get that through your head.