Clearly, you don't get it. The Edwardses INVITED the public into their family's life, they made their private life public for political gain; the happy family posed for numerous photo ops, Edwards advertised his wife's sickness to manipulate people's emotions, and now Elizabeth Edwards claims the media should respect their privacy. THEY are the ones who exploited and peddled their privacy in the first place

You can't have it both ways; either you keep your family life private and you don't feed tidbits of it to the media to capture votes, or if you chose to turn it into a political asset, you should have the guts to accept the consequences of your decision when the publicity turns sour.

I supported Edwards, essentially for his ideas of course, but I certainly would not have supported him if I had known he was stupid, selfish and irresponsible enough to have an affair and father an illegitimate child--didn't he know about condoms?-- and still think Republicans would let him get away with it.

This coming after what happened to Gary Hart and Bill Clinton is really unforgivable --this narcissistic moron endangered the Dems presidential campaign, and the best interest of the country for his dick! This is the sort of ''too dumb to live'' stupidity I definitely don't want in a leader.

by francine (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 385 comments) on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 at 5:29:25 AM

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Serving the future is a goal of a life time, maybe you can infer that a lapse of fidelity means that everything he said was a lie.

I can appreciate a person who with wonderful social goals has human weaknesses. Maybe for you, and those who speak of Sen. Hart and President Clinton's sexual liasons. I don't think that exceptionalism is restricted to political leadership. Nor do I think that personal misjudgements totally foreclose political leadership.

America's curious tunnel-vision and "puritanical" insistence on having political leaders who do not make personal mistakes and err on the side of dispassionate, sexless political leaders can lead to equally difficult results.

I refuse to judge Senator Edwards's political agenda because he made the mistake of having a sexual liason outside his marriage. It is the rare marriage that is flawless.

You suggest that he invited this calumny because he "used his family as a prop" and since there were hidden flaws in his marriage - this allows you such a harsh assessment.

Part of the dance of politics today requires politicians to expose their families, as part of their "frame". Unfortunately this lack of restraint or because of the tabloid or purient interests of a significant portion of the press - these human frailties enrich our judgement and add depths to our character.

I do not see political leadership as a gate through which only the perfect may pass. The result in my opinion, wiill be that the the passage will be made only by those who have excelled at hiding their frailties, not dispensing with them

His platform was about the economic disaster (not Marital Fidelity) that by now even McCain has noticed, but not till after, that very well married economic advisor former Senator Phil Gramm suggested that the recession  / depression, housing collapse, mortgage collapse and oil price crisis was deemed an illusion of worry-warts.

Gramm is well married to a former leader of ENRON, and former deregulator of the financial market. So gve me a phlandering lapsed monogamist, with a human frailty of needing love or even sex, rather than a stone hearted oligarch in a limo with windows so dark he can't see the hungry former middle class Americans huddled around the walmarted shuttered downtowns, hoping for work trimming his hedge funds.

And let us hope no more Democrats find IEDs on the road to November... or we may all need to GO-A-Rove'n

solidarity & peace

rick

AveryVoice

 miamiforpeace.net

by Richard Spisak (11 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 17 comments) on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 at 8:44:01 AM

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You are 100 percent right on..I have same concerns about "new media" we are morphing into the old, I am afraid.

I only differ in that I don't think it is a political plot...it only represents the dumbing down of America. 

by Georgianne Nienaber (154 articles, 47 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 350 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 at 10:42:40 AM

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I hope your correct. We're not going to change human character, the spicy story will always get more "play" than the story on the details on policy on the grandular level.  That's why they use models to sell products, not details and facts.

And of course, there is a joy many take, in knocking someone down a peg. These are ancient mammilian circuits that we must understand underlie a variety of social phenomenon.

However, those capable of thinking beyond the "OLD WHITEHAIRED DUDE" box, can hopefully move at least part of the discourse away from "Corporate Welfare State"  talking points, to a political regime, where citizen's health and citizen's education access is not "priced" out of range of the average citizen.

Regarding concerns about the possible schemes of the Lincolns' Grand Old Party ... I only share these concerns because we need to be aware of historic precedent. 

Speaking of which, at a recent county's demo of the new voting technology. They did a test to prove that an overvote was not possible.

The test failed... the county voting director's only reaction was .., oops that shouldn't have happened. GEEZ YA THINK! Now that's an UPGRADE!

solidarity & peace

rick spisak
AveryVoice
miamiforpeace

by Richard Spisak (11 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 17 comments) on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 at 11:02:55 AM

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Just checked out your bio, and you and Coleen Rowley should get your networks synced if you have not done so already. Contact me off comments if you want her info.

by Georgianne Nienaber (154 articles, 47 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 350 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 at 2:57:37 PM

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Just checked out your bio, and you and Coleen Rowley should get your networks synced if you have not done so already. Contact me off comments if you want her info.

by Georgianne Nienaber (154 articles, 47 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 350 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 at 2:57:50 PM

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