I didn't see this posted anywhere on DailyKos, so I have to be the one to mention this fine new article of Edwards catastrophic demise on the campaign trail in 2006-2008.
I remember his speech in 2004 at the convention - I speak for much of DailyKos in saying that before Dean was our Great Dark Horse, Edwards was the hottest ticket in the party garnered far more passion and faith than Kerry ever did. He was authentic, and I trusted him. We all put our hope in him & it came to nothing. But apparently it was a demise largely of his own making.. From the New York Magazine article.
One early evening in February 2006, John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator then gearing up to launch his second presidential campaign, was hanging out in the bar of the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue with one of his donors and his young traveling aide, Josh Brumberger. A woman sitting at a nearby table with some friends walked over and introduced herself.
"My friends insist you’re John Edwards," Rielle Hunter said. "I tell them no way—you’re way too handsome."
More Below.
Brumberger thought that she was trouble from the get-go. She looked like a hybrid of Stevie Nicks and Lucinda Williams, in an outfit more suitable for a Grateful Dead concert than an evening at the Regency. A few minutes later, after Edwards departed for a dinner around the corner, Hunter came back over to Brumberger and started quizzing him about his job. "I think I can help you guys," she said, and handed him her business card. The inscription read, BEING IS FREE: RIELLE HUNTER—TRUTH SEEKER.
It's hard to just take two paragraphs because the whole article is very well written and quotable. It's an epic story of the Edwards family and campaign as it lurched and struggled with both John and Elizabeth's difficult relationship with eachother, the press and many, many inner demons.
This was a guy who, if he'd played his cards right, might have made history. He could have been a new JFK, in the best sense of the word. Now he's a punchline.. A sad story of poor judgment, human fallibility and disaster on many levels - Keeping his pants on was just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. We can only thank God he never got the nomination, because he would have delivered the presidency to McCain.
By the time Edwards imploded, the momentum here on dailykos had shifted to Obama. Maybe we were the canaries in the coalmine. Let's remember him fondly as he sits in his mansion, unable to work. Well, he lived by the sword & now he may die by it. He enjoyed the benefits of great notoriety, wit, charm and charisma, and now it's all backfired and the tide has turned against him, maybe permanently.. But he's not an evil man...Hopefully he'll get it together.