Thank You, John Edwards

CHAPEL HILL - Cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, lying to the public about it while running for president, and lying some more while supposedly coming clean on national TV. There are good reasons for the rush to denounce the suddenly toxic John Edwards. But lest we forget, he accomplished a few positive things during his decade on the political stage. On several counts, the nation owes him a debt of gratitude.

During Edwards' meteoric rise in politics, many people thought he could be another Bill Clinton, minus the sex scandals. Turns out he had that part covered, too.

They looked at Edwards and saw an optimistic, folksy, Southern Democrat talking about bread and butter economic issues. Edwards had rhetorical gifts honed by years of appealing to juries as a highly successful trial lawyer. He seemed disciplined enough to stay on message, whether meeting donors, giving stump speeches, or appearing before the TV cameras.

Yet in 2004, Edwards' unrelenting ambition and self-promotion ensured he would be off message as John Kerry's vice presidential nominee. Perhaps fueled by the "increasingly egocentric" narcissism he copped to last week while admitting his affair, Edwards kept the focus on himself. He refused to go on the attack against George W. Bush, reasoning that playing the traditional VP role of hatchet man would blow his image as a sunny, fresh face in politics. And maybe damage his prospects for another presidential run.

He couldn't even agree with Kerry on a slogan, refusing to adopt Kerry's "Help is on the way." Edwards preferred "Hope is on the way," which was more tuned to the themes of his own primary campaign. But Edwards was unable to entirely charm his way out of reality. He was woefully unprepared for his biggest turn in the spotlight, his sole debate with Dick Cheney, who wiped the floor with him. Edwards didn't carry his home state of North Carolina, even losing his home county and hometown of Robbins, N.C. The Democratic ticket lost every Southern state.

Ironically, by helping to bungle the 2004 elections for the Democrats, Edwards may have done us all a favor. As much continued damage as the Bush Administration has caused in the past four years, Bush's second term set the stage for Republican overreach. If the Kerry/Edwards team had been elected, the burden would have been on them to find a graceful exit from the Iraq war disaster. Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans would have happened on their watch, instead of providing the country with the wakeup call we needed to finally see Bush, Cheney & Co. had no clothes.

In 2006, Congress would almost certainly have remained in Republican hands, with Tom DeLay possibly emerging as Speaker. We'd be getting ready to coronate John McCain in '08, or worse. Maybe Jeb Bush would be heading the ticket, about to lead yet another restoration of the Bush family dynasty.

Edwards' tone-deaf political instincts again helped America out when he foolishly decided to push ahead with another presidential bid. Despite carrying on an affair with an unstable, new age nutcase with a shady past like Rielle Hunter in the 24/7 infotainment fishbowl of presidential politics, Edwards honestly thought the public would never find out. He even took her with him on his official announcement tour in the closing days of 2006, allowing her to be photographed sitting next to him on his campaign plane.

Hillary Clinton's former communications director Howard Wolfson was essentially right when he observed that by covering up his affair and staying in the 2008 race, Edwards cleared the field for Barack Obama. That's not a knock on Obama's historic candidacy, it's just the way things happened.

Wolfson's detractors cite a caucus night survey showing Obama was the second choice of 51% of Edwards caucusgoers, versus 32% for Clinton. But if Edwards had decided to quit before Iowa, where he had been practically living for the past few years, Clinton would never have considered writing the state off. It would have been harder for Obama to win the caucuses. As things turned out, Edwards finished second, edging out Clinton by a few tenths of a percentage point in a serious psychological blow to her campaign.

And by staying in the hunt until he limped to third place in South Carolina, the only primary state he won during 2004, Edwards split enough of the white vote with Clinton to give Obama a lopsided 55% victory. Only 2% of African-American voters in South Carolina backed John Edwards, according to exit polls, but he won the white vote, 40% to Clinton's 36%, with 24% for Obama.

Thanks to Edwards, the story that came out of South Carolina was that Obama had scored a bi-racial landslide, which gave him much needed momentum going into the Super Tuesday contests. It was a watershed event in Obama's path to the nomination.

Win or lose in November, Barack Obama's turn at bat is giving the Democratic party a huge boost for the future. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, younger voters' party affiliations basically tracked those of their parents and grandparents. But because of Obama's ascendancy (and the country souring on the GOP brand after eight rotten years of Bush), the generation gap is back.

In late June polls, voters under thirty-five backed Obama over McCain by an astonishing 27-point margin. And 58% now self-identify with the Democratic party versus 33% with the Republicans, as shown by a recent Pew Research Center report.

Finally, by falling short in his bids for the Democratic nomination, let alone the presidency, Edwards ensured Democrats would not be seriously tarnished again by a national sex scandal. He would have truly been the second coming of Bill Clinton if Edwards had advanced further and then gotten caught with his pants down.

He even chose as good a time as any to go public with his ludicrously half-truthful televised mea culpa. If he had waited another two weeks, coverage of the Democratic National Convention would have been drowned out by the media fury. It would have been a replay of when Dick Morris was busted at the '96 convention for consorting and toe-sucking with call girls, only a lot noisier.

The Edwards affair story has been a big distraction from real news, like Wal-Mart coercing its employees to vote Republican in November, oil companies funding a massive propaganda campaign designed to open up our coasts to off-shore drilling, and a GAO report just released that reveals two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no annual taxes from 1998-2005.

But because Edwards is out of office, not on the ballot, and now out of the running for a convention speech, VP slot or cabinet post, it will have little effect on Democrats' chances this fall.

So thank you, John Edwards. You can go now.

Erik Ose is a veteran of Democratic campaigns in North Carolina and blogs at The Latest Outrage.

Comments

[Bulbul]

Yes you are right , this delayed timing of Edwards affair, cleared the path for Obama. Before anyone gets on my case, I am a Hillary supporter , yes. but almost sure, would vote for Senetor Obama.
But you are wrong , sir, on the aspect of the similarities of Edwards with Bill Clinton , actually this is the first time I heard someone saying that. Edwards is a cad, and just that...did not have the finess ,charisma and the smarts of Bill Clinton.
Edwards with other candidates on the podium, is only one of them . Obama actually in many ways reminds one of Bill Clinton . He can make the watchers focus only on him and no one else...

[EngineerBill]

This post makes some good points. It looks likely that this country will survive the second term of of Bush and Cheney. In November of '04 I wasn't so sure. So yeah, in hindsight it was good that Kerry-Edwards lost. Good post!

[w8aminute]

That last sentence summed it up perfectly, didn't it? Good job.

[rfannan]

Hate to say I told you so but I felt he was a phony from day one. Never bought the help the poor rhetoric - just some words that he thought would let him climb to the top. And he got decimated by Cheny (almost as bad as Lieberman did four years before). Gutless performance where he thought his smile could charm everyone.

[bogues]

Hillary Clinton is the last person in the world who should criticize any candidate for with-holding an extra-marital affair from the public. When her husband ran for President, she was fully aware that he had a problem with being faithful to her and it did not stop them from campaigning and lying about it all the while. Bill Clinton re-paid the voters who put their trust in him, by proceeding to carry on the most dispicable affair possible in the Nations White House, then again lied to us before finally coming clean, only after the Blue Dress turned up. Howard Wolfson makes a very big mistake by trying to garner sympathy for Hillary on this subject.

[Bulbul]

Huh ?

[Bompa]

To say that I was disappointed to hear this story unfold would be to put it lightly.
I was a BIG Edwards supporter that gave, for me, a lot of funds to his run. My first reaction was... "I want my money back!" My second thought was, well there goes, what should have been, our next Atty. General to go after the robber corps that have destroyed our country these last 8 years!

Now I just wish the press would just stop and let the Edwards family deal wit it themselves. As Elizabeth has said.... "Stop being voyuers and leave us alone!"

Great Idea!

[LittleTart]

I think this is a bunch of hoopla - jeez. What on earth does his cheating have to with his issues of caring for the poor, offering a hand up, and including all American of all socio-economic levels in the political discourse.

This issue is a private issue, it has nothing at all to do with what made Edwards an important candidate.

[Erik Ose - Huffpost Blogger]

News flash - Edwards suckered the public and his supporters who believed in him. He hitched a ride on the important issues you mentioned to further his own political career.

Anyone who paid attention to Edwards' rise can see that his tabloid downfall reveals the astoundingly bad judgment he's been accused of by his critics all along. In hindsight, during the '08 campaign he made similarly foolish moves with one political misstep after another:

http://thelatestoutrage.blogspot.com/2007/08/john-edwards-is-out-to-get-himself.html

Like most people, I feel badly for Elizabeth and the rest of the Edwards family. The public exposure of what should have remained a private matter is an unfortunate situation all around. But if you want to cheat on your cancer-stricken wife, don't do it while you're running for president and holding up your storybook marriage as testament to your fitness for office, or promising to "provide moral leadership in the world" as one of your campaign themes.

[Lion24]

As a former strong Edwards supporter, it is hard not to feel completely betrayed. He should be ashamed of himself. But he did not show that in the ABC interview. I suspect he was too busy concentrating on getting his "story" straight under fire.

[susan2589]

A shout out to the media too!
Good read below-
http://townhall.com/Columnists/BrentBozellIII/2008/08/13/our_sick_edwards-excusing_media

[HopeandChange]

When will the congress launch an investigation into his illegal use of campaign funds?

[Triciann]

I'm sure I'm going to offend many by this because it covers a lot of you, men and women too because when a heterosexual man is unfaithful to his wife more often than not the "other woman" is aware she's intruding into a marriage. So, it seems these days that it's OK for a man to be unfaithful as long as he does indeed end up dumping his wife (eg John McCain). However, if he ends the affair and stays with his wife then he's torn apart by the media (eg John Edwards).

[S1m0n]

Hillary Clinton was everyone who wasn't already voting for her's last choice, not their next choice. If Edwards had dropped out earlier, he'd have cleared the way for Biden or Kucinich, not Hillary Clinton. Her negatives were still too high, and her campaign too much the front runner. Everyone who opted for another candidate had already first considered--and rejected--Hillary's candidacy.

[Triciann]

Good point.

[isis]

Why does lying and cheating end the career of democrats but launch the career of republicans?

[1028jenn]

Thank you, Isis. I don't get how John Edwards cheats on his ill (first wife) with a much younger mistress, and he's considered through in politics, whereas McSame does the exact same thing, and people refer to him as the "maverick" Such a double standard. Both men, McBush and Edwards, are deceitful scum. Period.

[Michale32086]

There are several factors in play..

1. What occurred with McCain happened 30 years ago. It has been discussed and vetted by McCain himself... Ergo, it's simply not news..

2. There is more to the Edwards scandal than cheating. Even ignoring the lies WHILE he was running for Pres and WHILE he was in contention for VP, there is a real possibility that there was some embezzlement or misappropriation of campaign funds to pay off his mistress and his co-conspirators.. To the tune of nearly a million dollars..

This is why there really isn't any comparison between Edwards and McCain being made by the MSM...

Michale.....

[DesertDivine]

It's the Republican Slime Machine. It is incredible to me how they can pull BS out of their butts and the 'stupid-read-nothing-listen-only-to-Rush/O'rightly-john-q-public' eat it up and think it all true. They portray Obama as elitist when McCain had 8 homes, his wife (with their private jet!!) pulls in over 300M in her company per year, and Obama just recently paid off his college loans. It is reminiscent of the book, "What's The Matter With Kansas?", depicting people voting against their own best interest. IMHO, it has alot to do with the dumbing down of America in our school systems in the last forty years. This would never have been tolerated in the 60's and 70's. People were smarter than that.

These Bushies should have been impeached years ago yet they continue to get away with stealing our government, subverting our Constitution, and , oh, well, I will let you fill up the other 3 pages of egregious acts that they have totally gotten away with, the foremost being forging documents and complete and total lies to attack a sovereign nation. Now they are hollering about Russia attacking a sovereign nation???? Laughable.

[SkimaskBob]

great post. and thanks for all the links.

[Hufferton]

Thank you, Erik Ose

(for a good article with a different perspective)

[GuidedByEwoks]

Please stop parroting the Wolfson line that Obama would have been hurt by Edwards dropping out. More Iowa Edwards supporters had Obama as their second choice than Clinton. If anything, it would have ended her campaign sooner not later. Obama didn't start taking off until Edwards left the race anyway.