MARCH 5 "CHARACTER - LACK OF IT"
John Edwards found an enthusiastic
following for his 2008 presidential bid, espousing a populist call for economic
justice and the restoration of “America ’s
moral leadership.” To loyalists, it was more than political angle; Edwards
campaigned at great personal sacrifice, traveling the country while his wife
battled cancer. But scoops by a supermarket tabloid contrasted his high-mind
rhetoric with base private behavior, the National Enquirer reported Edwards was
having an affair with Rielle Hunter, (while his wife was struggling with
cancer). Rielle Hunter was a former campaign worker, who was then pregnant.
Sources told us Edwards was the father of the baby. Confronted with the report,
Edwards lied, emphatically. He called the story “lies” and “tabloid trash.” He
then engineered a cover-up, convincing an aide to publicly claim paternity of
the baby. Six months later, the~Enquirer~caught Edwards in a Los Angeles area
hotel visiting Hunter and the baby. Up to that point, political insiders said
Edwards was a shoe-in for a key position, likely attorney general, in the new
administration. America has judged
him on his transgressions, banishing him from any significant role in politics
and serving notice to other politicians that character counts.
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