APRIL 26 "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.
Comments
Post a Comment