This diary is inspired by one that Markos wrote in reaction to Elizabeth Edwards recent diary. In it, he applauded us for our warmth towards Elizabeth. And there was a lot of warmth. But to cleanse myself of this whole affair, I'd like to close my own personal book on EdwardsGate by shining a light on the...less than warmth.
If you're game, to the fold...
Now, I'm not going to single out comments and start a whine fest. To be honest, I don't know a lot of the most hateful and I fear feeding trolls. But I can certainly address the themes that were repeated again and again.
- Elizabeth Edwards has wronged us by supporting John's Presidential candidacy
Excuse me for a minute, I need to bang my head on my desk....that's better.
Give me a break. John Edwards introduced and trumpeted ideas that otherwise may have gotten no attention. His advocacy for the rights of the sick, by itself, outweighs the startling revelation that a married man had sex outside of marriage.
Without John Edwards advocacy, the name Nataline Sarkisyan would have NEVER been spoken on national television.
- John and Elizabeth Edwards have wronged us by making a risky Presidential run
Now, this is wrong on several fronts in my opinion. First off, and I hate to be rude here, but have we Edwards supporters taken on rose colored glasses for our recollection of his Presidential run? Despite the surprise in Iowa...John got about as close to the White House as our beloved Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, and so on. And I don't think we'd be blowing gaskets about any of those gentleman having risked the life and limb of the Democratic Party if they were caught in an affair.
Disappointed? Of course. But being respectfully invited to debates and actually winning the nomination are two different things. Stop wearing blinders, he was never within a mile of the nomination.
Secondly...usually a person does have the choice of keeping an indiscretion like this private. Bill Clinton was putting wood to every woman with a pulse for decades, and it finally took Monica Lewinsky and shady secret tapes to prove anything.
It was a violation of his marriage, but it was between a total of 3 people. All were keeping quiet. It took shameful harassment and dare I say entrapment to force John's hand in coming clean.
My point? John and Elizabeth Edwards were no more risking the life of our party than Bill and Hillary Clinton did. Or JFK did. And so on.
...
Here's the thing. Everyone makes mistakes. John did something stupid that 50% of the married male population wind up doing in their lives. Yes, obviously he shouldn't have ran for President. Our vision of life when its behind us always becomes 20/20.
But he didn't mess up your life. He didn't mess up our party. He didn't torpedo our chances in November. We still have nominated the brilliant "change" guy and we're still facing Grandpa Munster.
So put away the fucking broken bottles and stop taking stabs at a poor cancer stricken woman who is already deep into Public Shame 101. Stop kicking the dog assed husband around. Yes, he was stupid to take the available enthusiastic sex. In the true grand scheme of things that's all he's done. Had an affair that might personally offend you but is really none of your damn business.
If you can magically swap John Edwards and Hillary Clinton's primary finish I might agree that he had risked anything or wronged us. But he didn't. He finished 3rd and was out of the race before most people even noticed it was going on.
So why don't we stop wasting time fighting about John Edwards dick and what he's done with it. You can bet Republicans would like us to stay distracted. They're not stupid enough to think they have one iota of ammo from this scandal, but they'll take us just taking our eyes off the prize.
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To conclude, someone wake me up when it comes out that Barack Obama cheated on Michelle with Kim K and the tape just hit the internet. Because until there's a true earth shattering surprise, I'm going to work on turning Indiana blue instead.