I apologize in advance and I know this won’t make me popular, but I have never thought John Edwards was much of an asset to the Democratic Party and his most recent action of appearing on ABC News to announce his affair was a very stupid thing to do.
I confess my discomfort with him goes back a long ways. He was elected once, didn’t win his state for John Kerry, disappeared during the 2004 election, was eaten alive by Dick Cheney in the Vice Presidential debate (I know, reasonable minds may differ on this), and made a dismal showing in the most recent primary. I do think he did surprising well in the Democratic primary debates, but I think his oratorical skills are overrated.
And now he has admitted cheating on a woman who has higher approval ratings than he does, and who hit the hustings for him despite the fact that she has cancer. Shades of Newt Gingrich. Now, as progressives, we could really care less when our politicians have extramarital affairs. For heaven’s sake, the wife of the President of France is an international floozy (a talented one) with nude photos all over the tubes. In France, they could care less. Americans should care less, too, but they don’t.
My complaint is not so much with what Edwards has done. I find it reprehensible, but I don't think should be a subject of public discussion. My complaint is with the way that he handled it from the very start to finish. First, we have the stupidity of his going to a quasi-public place, a hotel, to meet his paramour. Then we have the ignoble spectacle of a man who might have been President cowering in the little boys room when the photographers caught him.
But what really makes me angry is this: He admitted the affair on ABC News! He told ABC news that he didn’t love his girlfriend and denied paternity because the affair ended before the child could have been conceived. And so, he trumpets the matter on a major news outlet, compounds the injury by bragging about his lovelessness for the object of his desires (as if that makes it better somehow) and resists taking a paternity test to clear himself (despite photos of him with the baby) because he has proclaimed himself not to be the father.
But worst of all...worst of all is that John Edwards didn’t handle this like a Republican. Here is what I would have done: I would have gone to the very same hotel in Metairie, Louisiana where David Vitter held his press conference following reports that he had cavorted with prostitutes both in Washington, D.C. and in the French Quarter. I would have called a press conference. I would have walked out with a demeanor that suggested the press was inconveniencing me in some manner. And then I would have said "I am not a perfect person. I did something wrong but that is between me and my God and my wife so screw you". While saying this, I might have looked at my shoes a couple of times. Of course, I would be alone, as Elizabeth Edwards would never accompany me and tear into the press like Wendy Vitter did, as if they had made her husband put on diapers and beg to be spanked. And I would have added: "I am not gay....I never HAVE been gay", just in case someone was thinking that.
After it was over, I would have let my party cohorts take me out to breakfast, applauding my every step.
But sitting under the Klieg Lights for ABC News, admitting to every jot and tittle and disclaiming your love for the girlfriend with whom you rendez-voused in a hotel two weeks ago? Very bad marketing. When will we ever learn?