Upgrading my comment on Elizabeth Edwards' message to a diary. I hope she sees this, I hope he sees it, I hope Barack sees it. I think John Edwards should speak at the convention. It's not about him. It's about us.
If there was one thing Bill Clinton showed, it was that the American people CAN separate public service from private morality, even if we are curious to know the truth. We can and want to keep things in proportion.
It seems to me that with all this government wiretapping and tabloid snooping, no one can depend on privacy anymore, which is constitutionally too bad and worth talking about. Rove's going to know and blackmail you or play you, or the press will out you. So you have a choice of incomprehensible errors made by John Edwards here, for having strayed in the first place, or for having a glass jaw in the face of the truth being exposed. He depended on a coverup and had no defense to the truth, and still he ran. That's selling the American people short and fatally flawing his candidacy.
Me, I wish he would just take the bullshit by the horns and lead on this issue. Say something about the sadness of private failings but the goodness of public service, what he AND ELIZABETH stood for that was not hypocrisy, what he/they could still do, what still needs to be done publicly. Say something about the peril of a nation where one person's private marriage secrets can be used to throw a nation's public policy off course. I wish he would go to the convention and give THAT speech. I am sick of the media talking head pronouncements that Edwards is finished, that going to the convention ("well I guess he still could, he's a delegate") or serving in the cabinet or as AG is out of the question. Who died and made them God? Did they ask the American people? Maybe we WANT to be asked. Maybe we WANT to forgive and move on down the path John wanted to take us, or that we wanted him to take us. Maybe we WANT to not be used as a weapon against a guy many wanted to lead us.
Of the two Edwardses, I always found Elizabeth the more interesting. They come as a team, and I appreciate that, but she's the heart and soul and spine I really wanted connected in government. If John is out, then so is Elizabeth. That's a shame and a crime. Get past the I-I-I-I, John! You were never an I, you were WE.
Speak at the convention, John. Elizabeth is worth saving and so are you. And so are we.
John and Barack, the ball is in your court.