[Update: hadn't seen Meteor Blades' diary when I wrote this. It's spot on.]
I have a very busy day, so just a few words here on the John Edwards affair.
Both sides are wrong. Those who moralize in harsh tones about Edwards' affair are wrong. We frankly have no idea what the circumstances were of the affair. We have no idea how many times he saw the "other woman". We have no idea if the child is his. We have no idea whether or at what point Elizabeth Edwards knew.
Unlike Vitter, Spitzer or Craig, John Edwards broke no laws. And What goes on within a family is their own business. How a human being deals with their own weaknesses is also their own business. And "causing embarrassment to the Party"? Please. What are we--Pravda?
But those who would defend John Edwards are ALSO wrong. What Edwards does now is his own business, and between himself, Elizabeth, his family, the other woman, his children (however many of them there may be), and whatever higher powers he may or may not believe in.
But unlike the John Edwards of today, John Edwards the presidential candidate DID have obligations. He had obligations to every soldier in Iraq; to every mother without healthcare; to every worker struggling to find a job; to the citizens of the globe ravaged by global warming and environmental pressure; to the victims of corporate malfeasance and Republican misrule that he made so much of during his campaign. As a presidential candidate, he had obligations to every person and, if I may say so, to every living being on this planet.
He must have known that the affair would come out--either during his presidency or, more disastrously, during the campaign. And he pursued the affair anyway--knowing full well that had he become the Democratic nominee, the affair would have destroyed his chances of becoming President and more importantly, of reversing the damage caused by the Administration in power. And had he managed to keep the affair secret through November, it would also have crippled his presidency.
Barack Obama has given up smoking in order to serve the world, because he knows full well that a smoker in this day and age cannot be elected President. Quitting smoking takes incredible willpower--but in Obama, we have a candidate who is willing to do whatever it takes to make America great again. All John Edwards had to do was keep his pants zipped up: not, by comparison, an extraordinary challenge. And he couldn't be bothered.
I do feel betrayed by and furious at John Edwards--but not because of what he did to his family or to the Party. That's his business.
My anger stems from what he almost did to the world in handing the presidency to the GOP on a silver platter. And that, more than anything else, is a selfishness too great to bear.