How is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'? | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
Disagree (none / 0)

Cenk,

I'm gonna have to disagree with you here. I've not been following the story in the MSM, only in the bloggosphere, so perhaps you're hitting at things that the blowhards are saying. I think the larger issue you're getting at is the typical IOKIYAR.

Edwards was running as a viable presidential nominee (and he could easily have been a vice president!), and McCain's affair was before he was ever elected for any office. I think that's a big and obvious difference.

by vudicarus on 08/08/2008 06:34:47 PM EST

No, McCain was no better the Edwards, maybe worse (none / 0)
McCain was an officer in the USN in at the time he started screwing around with Cindy, while still living with his wife & kids. 

In the services, adultery is a court martialable offense.  McCain was USN liason to the US Congress, a high profile position where he represented the Navy. His behavior was not to his credit and showed seriously poor judgement.

After plunging into this affair (and others), rather than trying to patch things up like Edwards is, he dumped his wife.  She had been seriuosly ill for years, raising his kids while he was a POW.  He started a new life by marrying  Cindy, a rich young thing. A few years later, he used her money to run for the Senate.  So it's no stretch to say his adultery paid for his senate seat.

Under these circumstances how McCain's philandering is any more or less a disqualification, in quality or quantity, for high office than Edward's, I do not see. Edwards lied to the press about his affair.  McCain didn't have to, he only lied to his wife.

by Chowfun on 08/08/2008 07:30:27 PM EST

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agree, with caveat (none / 0)

yes the nature of mccain's affair is worse i'd say. bloviators going on and on about edwards lying is irritating to say the least.

but, from a political stand point, a democratic point of view, edward's was kind of bad.

 if edwards had revealed the affair before the primary then the blowhards can't say shit. cos edwards would be in good company with gilluanni and mccain.

by vudicarus on 08/08/2008 07:49:39 PM EST

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Cenk, I'll have to depart from you on this one (none / 0)
I agree with the above writer.  Yeah, I'm pissed.  Edwards does deserve to get fired from his "career" as pol.  Cenk, I rarely depart from your nearly unerring, continually quotable wisdom, but in this case I do.  And it's not because I'm a woman.  I don't  feel personally betrayed because that might have been my husband and I might be dying of cancer.  I don't know those people and I don't care about their private tradegies and passions; I've got my own and that's what interests me. 

Here's why I'm mad as fuck:  I believed Edwards was a general - a boots-on-the-ground leader, but turns out, he's just a spoiled pretty boy pansy who is supposed to be fighting a war for the future of this country and instead, tossed it away for a little flattery from a 42-year-old loser?  Really?  That's all it took? 

Until Edwards bowed out (as a true statesman, I'd thought, at the time), I put a hand-designed bumper-sticker on my car, "Edwards/Clark - 2008"  This is the ticket I thought could change the course of our history, not just as a nation but as a planet.  What a fool I was.  I never believed that much in Obama. I do feel betrayed.  There was way too much on the line for him to behave that recklessly and stupidly.  It's like a commanding officer in the thick of battle saying, "Excuse me guys, I just really have to have a beer and get laid.  I'll be right back."  We all want to get laid.  We all want people to fawn over us and fall in love with us and suck our privates, whatever gender.  That's being human.  What makes Edwards a duschebag is the fact that he gave in when he did.  He couldn't get through his campaign?  He couldn't wait for his wife to die?  The man is pitiful -- a fucking junior achievement prepboy. 

And, this has nothing to do with John McCain.  Comparisons only undercut our position.  I say throw them both under the bus.  I want to see tire marks. 

by vaughnink on 08/09/2008 02:52:40 PM EST

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How is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'? | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)