John Edwards cheats on his wife and the only questions and comments that are spewed are questions of apathy and morality. Many people find it to be a complete non-issue, or an issue between Edwards and his wife. Other people and most news outlets have covered it from the angle of what a terrible person he is to cheat on his sick wife. I couldn’t care any less about the feelings of his poor wife, but I think what the guy did was completely rotten for different reasons.
This guy spent the last year running for President of the Unites States and he was sitting on top of a powder keg that was waiting to blow the entire time. If anyone has the right to be angry with this guy it would be Democratic voters, especially anyone who voted for him. He was spinning tales of big change in America and was splitting the primary vote along the way. He collected millions of dollars in donations, received a substantial percentage of votes in each primary, and it was built on fraud.
Had he not lied through his teeth and faced the inevitable we never would have endured that excruciatingly long primary. Hillary Clinton might have been able to spare herself from looking crazed and desperate, and Bill might not have dropped 50% of his respect on the game of politics. But he continued the charade until recently confessing that he did it because of his arrogance, because he thought he could do anything. Just to settle this, all politicians are arrogant. Anyone who feels that they are going to make change in public office, especially the office of the president, is arrogant.
How about he did it because he’s a jerk and he was turned on by the mediocre looking woman with the camera? It doesn’t really matter why he did it. I used to be in the camp that politicians’ sexual indiscretions are their own business, but I don’t feel that way anymore. Going back to Bill Clinton’s definition of what “it” is, had he not done “it” then George W. Bush would not have had the key argument of morality to run on. Isn’t that what he said, that he was going to bring morality back to the White House?
Clinton should never have put the Democratic Party in that position, and Edwards should have dropped out of the race before helping to push the party to the breaking point and committing political suicide.
I’m not saying we should try to elect some kingpin of morality; I don’t think the Pope would make a good leader. However, our political leaders need to be much more conscious of how their actions are diluting the political field. It’s as if there’s some sort of barrier that keeps these arrogant politicians from understanding that no matter how good they are, no matter what they’re accomplishments might be, once they get busted cheating that’s how they’ll be labeled throughout whatever career they might have left.
