I have been avoiding the MSN like the plague since the Edward's affair has hit the airwaves. I knew it would be alot of handwringing, and sanctimonious blather about something that will have no long-lasting affect on the political process, the Democratic party, nor anyone except the Edwards' family and their close friends.
I unfortunately had some time to kill whilst waiting for my daughter who was finishing band camp for the week I say unfortunately because I was flicking through radio channels (yea, I'm one of the few people in the world with only an am/fm radioin my car!) trying to find something that was not a commercial. So I go to am (NOT recommended) and I hear a program called the Mark Levin Show, only there was a guest host, not actually Levin. In my defense, I had never heard of him before. I have been desperately trying to wash out my ears and purge my brain of the remarkably ignorant rantings of an ill informed and vaguely sinister man, spewing a list of the most menacing talking points of the Repugs that he could find. So he was speaking of the Edwards revelation; how he would have loved it if Edwards was our actual candidate just so he (and others like him, I'm sure) could point out how base and corrupt Edwards was, which would vicariously implicate all Democrats, of course. He didn't find it at all ironic, nor did he ever mention, that his own candidate not only had an affair, but actively sought a replacement for a wife who was disfigured in a horrific accident, just to settle on a (young and beautiful) doormat who would give him the lifestyle he thought he deserved, as well as put up with the mysoginistic attitude he has. Talk about family values!
Anyhow, this got me thinking (after I cleansed my brain, of course), perhaps Edwards is more selfless than we thought. One of the favored memes of the right is how their "family values" is what makes them so superior to those of us on the left (or left of far right if we are considering people like Levin's surrogate). Perhaps Edwards was just giving the MSN a venue to start talking about McCain's infidelity, something they have been reluctant to do. Its only one part of McC's character that shows how narcissistic and shallow he is. And doesn't it point out the poor judgement he has? The lack of committment he has? His lack of "moral fiber"? It also shines a light on the excellent reputation of O'bama and his family values. I could be way off on this, but it is another way to look at this confession at this time.
I am just now reading some of the blogs, and looking at some of the webcasts to get a sense of what the general public is saying. I can't say I have read it all, and I did find a comment in a DKos diary (which I responded to) that is similar to my diary. But I wanted to spotlight this idea, and I didn't think a comment was enough.
I also wanted to put my two cents on several issues.
- Why did he lie? Because he's human he has the same self-preservation motivations as anyone over something embarassing. He didn't want the public to know becuase it would create the media circus it has, it would make something already painful for his wife more painful, and it would have diverted attention from a very good platform on which he was running.
- Why did he recently meet with the other woman? Perhaps he was giving her a heads up on his soon to be revelation. Perhaps he needed to give her the political savvy to deal with the onslaught of media curiosity.
- Why did he jeopardize his own party's chance to topple the GOP machine? This I found the most puzzling argument against Edwards. To believe this would be the deal breaker in a campaign makes me even more afraid of the electorate in general than I already am after seeing them vote for Bush not once, but twice! And wouldn't it be an even playing field given McCain's history? Wouldn't the "horror" of one affair wash out the other? You can't condemn Edwards and consider him unfit for offie without doing the same to McCain.
I am not condoning Edwards' behavior in any way. But in the large scheme of things, I can't believe it will be the end of his career, nor the taint on the democratic party that everyone feels. And I do believe that it focuses attention on McCain's sordid past, which in my opinion, has been off the table for some inexplicable reason. It may also highlight McCain's total lack of respect for women at the same time. Which leads me down a whole other path, one which leaves me baffled as to what self-respecting woman could possibly support a cadidate such as McCain!