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“This sounds odd, but except for this very big thing that he had done that was bad, I thought I was married — I believe [I am] now — to a magnificent man, someone who truly cared about other people,” says Elizabeth Edwards about her husband, ex-Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards.
No. If you wish to forgive him and spend the remaining year of your life with him, that is entirely your business. But John Edwards doesn't truly care about anything but himself. It's not even fair to talk about "this very big thing" as if it were one thing. He cheats on his wife, lies to her by denying it, then lies to her by telling her that it was a one-night stand instead of a long-term relationship. This would be damning enough if it stopped there, but he is also doing all of this while running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, a goal that he must know that he is incapable of achieving given his life choices. When your mistress gets pregnant and decides to keep the child but never reveal who the father is, it's time to end the campaign. You've got your beloved wife with Stage 4 cancer, so you'd look like a winner and you'd become such a historical after-thought that not even the National Enquirer would waste ink on your infidelity. Instead you keep going, ensuring that you will be newsworthy when the fatherless baby of a woman in your inner circle is born which will be a roadbump for both you and all of the Democratic candidates. Because you're not thinking about anybody else.
Rawr. I used to be on the "personal indiscretion between a man and his wife" bandwagon who would accept her forgiveness as my own, but not any more. In politics, a healthy long-distance marriage is used a symbol of trust and stability. Conversely, breaking it is really a part of violating the public's confidence. You make campaign promises and swear an oath to defend the Constitution if elected, so I have a passing interest in how you uphold your promises and oaths to your wife. And it seems pretty unforgivable that you would accept campaign contributions and enjoin volunteers on a quest that was so far beyond quixotic that your own senior staffers were planning on sabotaging it for the sake of the party if you came too close to success.
Seriously, new rule. Gentlemen, if you can't keep it in your pants, stay in (or return to) the private sector. The money is better, the scandal is reduced when (when!) you are discovered, and you don't kneecap your political ideals by putting your colleagues on the defensive or your opponents into office. You are not so irreplaceable that it is worth the shitstorm that you bring onto yourself and your agenda.
No. If you wish to forgive him and spend the remaining year of your life with him, that is entirely your business. But John Edwards doesn't truly care about anything but himself. It's not even fair to talk about "this very big thing" as if it were one thing. He cheats on his wife, lies to her by denying it, then lies to her by telling her that it was a one-night stand instead of a long-term relationship. This would be damning enough if it stopped there, but he is also doing all of this while running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, a goal that he must know that he is incapable of achieving given his life choices. When your mistress gets pregnant and decides to keep the child but never reveal who the father is, it's time to end the campaign. You've got your beloved wife with Stage 4 cancer, so you'd look like a winner and you'd become such a historical after-thought that not even the National Enquirer would waste ink on your infidelity. Instead you keep going, ensuring that you will be newsworthy when the fatherless baby of a woman in your inner circle is born which will be a roadbump for both you and all of the Democratic candidates. Because you're not thinking about anybody else.
Rawr. I used to be on the "personal indiscretion between a man and his wife" bandwagon who would accept her forgiveness as my own, but not any more. In politics, a healthy long-distance marriage is used a symbol of trust and stability. Conversely, breaking it is really a part of violating the public's confidence. You make campaign promises and swear an oath to defend the Constitution if elected, so I have a passing interest in how you uphold your promises and oaths to your wife. And it seems pretty unforgivable that you would accept campaign contributions and enjoin volunteers on a quest that was so far beyond quixotic that your own senior staffers were planning on sabotaging it for the sake of the party if you came too close to success.
Seriously, new rule. Gentlemen, if you can't keep it in your pants, stay in (or return to) the private sector. The money is better, the scandal is reduced when (when!) you are discovered, and you don't kneecap your political ideals by putting your colleagues on the defensive or your opponents into office. You are not so irreplaceable that it is worth the shitstorm that you bring onto yourself and your agenda.
