Jane Smiley: My Edwards Diary, Day Two

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/my-edwards-diary-day-two_b_118254.html


My Edwards Diary, Day Two
Posted August 11, 2008 | 04:34 PM (EST)


Well, I thought I would bang on about this for a while, let's say as long as it remains a news story. Every time I read the words "Rielle Hunter", I am going to say the words "Vicki Iseman" and "Cindy McCain". There you go. Rielle Hunter Vicki Iseman Cindy McCain Rielle Hunter Vicki Iseman Cindy McCain Rielle Hunter Vicki Iseman Cindy McCain. Fun! And WHAT if Edwards had won the nomination?

Actually, pondering Edwards' futile quest for the nomination gives me more respect for the guy. The fact is, Edwards was the only explicitly progressive candidate, and he knew he wasn't going to win, but he kept at it, spending lots of money (including a bit of mine) because he wanted to get those pesky issues about working class people out there on the table, and no one else did (or at least, only Hillary did, and only after Edwards forced her hand). Every Edwards supporter knew that in the Capitalist Golden Age, where our "leaders" are prized for their Midas touch (remember King Midas? He turned his favorite daughter into a golden statue -- whoops!), someone had to speak up for plain old social and economic decency. So he did.

But don't come crying to me about what if he'd won. He wasn't going to win and everyone knew it. He was the stalking horse for Hillary and Obama and he stayed in the race long enough to to put his issues on the table. Edwards has called himself a narcissist. My guess is, with regard to sex, he's just a guy. I've know a lot of guys who reacted to misfortune by going out and getting stupidly laid, haven't you?

But going out and getting stupidly laid and then coming home and reconciling with the wife is not the same as going out, getting stupidly laid, then divorcing the crippled wife and marrying the pretty young thing (and taking out your marriage license before the divorce is final). One is stupid. The other is cruel. Brutal. Heinous. And well within the moral capacities of our Republican presidential candidate

is that of a very non-progressive Blue Dog.

He was consistantly pro choice and had a great many good votes.He co sponsored hundreds of great pieces of legislation.

among other horrid things... like invading Iraq.

http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=21107

I hate the bankruptcy vote too. But he also voted to ensure peoples rights to sue corporations and created the Patient's Bill of Rights among other things.

That is such a crock. He could have won. And this could have been the October surprise. THIS is the point - not whether or not he had a girlfriend. He put the whole Democratic party at risk - with, apparently, the support of Elizabeth.

But most people who paid attention to how he used to vote saw through his fakery.

had a chance of winning.

she's a wonderful writer. buy and read her novels, you'll be glad you did.

that both men were in the world spotlight, the family -real women and children who were innocent in this matter - were both horribly harmed by the callous disregard of these men. Where is a hole deep enough to hide in? What is it to live a life where people talk about you behind your back? What of the children who have to go to school and know everyone knows your father is a dickhead? Leaving or staying is irrelevent, these are equally horrendous because there is no place for the INNOCENT PEOPLE -the wife and kids- to hide. Minimizing or finding even the smallest point of divergence between our 'good guys' and their 'bad guys' is bullshit. Its sad to me that there seems to be gradations of dickheadery and that somehow guys are our side are merely bad and somehow less callous and self-serving than the other side. I don't think so.

The innocent were harmed.

with the antics that Edwards did...trashing his Wife, daughter whose 25 years old and those two other little kids that Elizbeth took hormones to produce which might have contributed to her breast cancer?

John Edwards "donors" are the only ones who lost out over this fiasco he brought on himself...but the possiblity that the "child in question is his" and what he did to his other family of "three kids and wife" that should be considered in all this.

LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE.