Tag Archive 'John Edwards'

Reporting for Duty?

My guess is that if I were a liberal, I would find Obama to be an attractive candidate.  Surely the man is well spoken, charismatic – and whatever else you may believe negative about him, Obama is nobody’s fool.  Even if I were liberal, I might be a bit concerned about his inexperience.  But – I imagine he would get my vote anyway.

Thus, I find this bit of news/gossip almost difficult to take seriously.  Some people think that Obama is going to select John Kerry as his running mate?  The same guy who couldn’t beat George W. Bush when his ratings were on the downslide?  The fellow who lost an election you would think that 74% of Democrats could have scooped up with relative ease?

Obama seems to smart to me for this.  Then again – we have all seen much stranger happenings in politics.

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The Dinosaur, The Dodo

And now?  The end of the mainstream media as we know it.

Edwards, 55, now admits that he had an affair with Hunter, now 44,in 2006, but denies that he is the father of the child she had in February. Andrew Young, another former Edwards aide, has said he is the baby’s father. In a statement released Friday, Edwards said he was willing to take a paternity test; doubtless we’ll hear more on that issue.

But what’s really significant here is the cone of silence the nation’s major newspapers — including The Times — and the cable and broadcast networks dropped over this story when it first appeared in the tabloid during the presidential primary campaign. Next, the Enquirer reported that the unmarried Hunter was pregnant. Still no mainstream media interest. Indeed, never in recent journalistic history have so many tough reporters so closely resembled sheep as those members of the campaign press corps who meekly accepted Edwards’ categorical dismissal of the Enquirer’s allegations. Late last month, Edwards came to Los Angeles, and Enquirer reporters trailed him to the Beverly Hilton hotel, where he met Hunter and her daughter in their room.

The Enquirer went with the story, and when no major newspaper or broadcast outlet even reported the existence of the tabloid story, bloggers and online commentators redoubled their demands that the mainstream media explain their silence. The tabloid followed with a story alleging payments of hush money to Hunter and, this week, with a photo of Edwards holding an infant in what appears to be a room at the Beverly Hilton. As pressure mounted on major newspapers to take some aspect of the unfolding scandal into account, editors and ombudsmen issued statements saying it would be unfair to publish anything until the Enquirer’s stories had been “confirmed.”

It’s interesting that what finally forced Edwards into telling the truth was a mainstream media organization. ABC News began investigating the Edwards affair in October, but really began to push after the Beverly Hilton allegations. When ABC confronted Edwards with its story (which confirmed “95% to 96%” of the tabloid’s reporting, according to the network), he admitted his deception.

With that admission, the illusion that traditional print and broadcast news organizations can establish the limits of acceptable political journalism joined the passenger pigeon on the roster of extinct Americana.

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A Special “Energy”

Few of us approve of marital indiscretions.  Personally, however, I hesitate to toss too many stones.  Knowing what occurs in the confines of a marriage is difficult, if not impossible, to know.  Some marriages are marriages of convenience, be it due to sexual orientation, power, money, parenting – or an array of other issues.  Sometimes the other spouse is well aware of what is happening – and actually condones it.  Many of us also know of marriages where, should we be in shoes of a long suffering partner, we, too, might well be tempted to stray.  In any case – it is never easy to judge from the outside looking in.

Of course, all that being said, when high profile celebrities or politicians have affairs, all bets are off.  And when the “wronged” spouse is a woman battling cancer as she treks around the nation supporting her running-for-President husband, sympathy for the philanderer is in shorter supply than center court tickets for Wimbledon finals.

You might wonder:  what could be worse?  Well, I shall tell you.  Read this article about the woman with whom John Edwards risked all as he attempted to earn the candidacy for the most powerful position in the world.

I struck up a conversation with the woman at the next event, as we waited outside. She told me her name and asked me what my astrological sign was, which I thought was a little unusual. I told her. She smiled, and began telling me her life story: how she was working as a documentary-film maker, living with a friend in South Orange, N.J., but how she’d previously had “many lives.” She’d worked, she said, as an actress and as a spiritual adviser. She was fiercely devoted to astrology and New Age spirituality. She’d been a New York party girl, she’d been married and divorced, she’d been a seeker and a teacher and was a firm believer in the power of truth.

She told me that she had met Edwards at a bar, at the Regency Hotel in New York. She thought he was giving off a special “energy.”

Ugh.  It’s enough to make me lose my cookies.  Can you imagine that a man who would be attracted to an airhead like this almost was the Democrat candidate for President?  While I realize that we choose different people with whom to fall in love than we do to be our Secretary of State or our bridge partner – still.

Our nation dodged a bullet.  No matter who gets elected come November, we will have a President infinitely superior to the man who gave off “a special ‘energy’”.

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Did You Know John Edwards Had A Love-Baby?

I’m honestly kind of surprised that people are surprised John Edwards had an affair on his cancer-ridden wife and fathered a baby. I mean, I know that’s something we thought was limited only to Republicans like Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani, but honestly? That’s a big shocker? So I asked my friend Dave, one of those clear-eyed Obamanauts I enjoy asking about current events, what he thought.

Josh: so hey how about that John Edwards
omigod a politician lied about having sex!
that’s so new and we’ve never had to deal with that before!

David: HAHA I KNOW
what the public wants to know is:

Josh: and people are freaking out about it
IS IT CURVED

David: WILL OBAMA DENOUNCE HIM!?!?!

Right, so there you have it.

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Through a Darker Glass

Cernig at Larisa Alexandrovna’s site had me persuaded for two whole paragraphs.

Now, having little taste for the fine art of distractions-from-distractions, I tend to roll my eyes at the transparently partisan diversionary tactics one sees all over the web from Democrats in defense of John Edwards (eg “who cares about a politician’s adultery when there’s potholes in the streets!”). However, Cernig’s complaint that the national media was focusing on that rather tawdry and meaningless scandal to the exclusion of the crisis in Georgia, had some legitimacy. Reading it I paused for a moment, reflected on the non-Olympic television news coverage I’d watched over the past 24 hours, and decided Cernig had a legitimate point.

(more…)

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Two Americas

I am not an Ann Coulter fan.  Sometimes, however, you must give the woman her due.

Evidence is accumulating that John Edwards is right — there really are “two Americas.” There’s one where men cheat on their cancer-stricken wives and one where men do not cheat on their cancer-stricken wives.

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French Haircuts and the Presidency

If we’re going to be crushed by fashionist hegemony, let’s at least get the details right.

- Eric Scheie

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Notes from the Vote

Romney is walking away with Nevada and has declared victory. American Research Group’s last-minute poll in South Carolina picked up an enormous Thompson surge (to 21%). However the exit polls are saying it’s the McCain and Huckabee show. Byron York writes a fine but sad obituary on the late developing FDT campaign that could have been. The Ron Paul campaign is upset about something in Nevada and demanded a delay in voting, which was refused. Surprisingly, Hillary is winning Nevada (and yet Bill Clinton still needs a sedative). Plus Russ Feingold called, he wants his record back from Edwards.

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Reagan and the Democrats

Hillary and Edwards are slamming Obama after he heaped praise on Ronald Reagan –something that may not play well with the leftist base of their party, but was doubtlessly well received by the general electorate. One wonders if Obama shouldn’t have waited to express that opinion until after he had the nomination wrapped up however.

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