How is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'?

Email Print posted by Cenk 08/08/2008 04:48:53 PM EST

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We have this weird notion in America now that if a politician is caught in an affair that his career is done. We seem to be saying that what he did in his private life effects his policies or how he governs. But we all know that isn't true. We know that because almost all of our great presidents, and great leaders throughout history, have had numerous affairs. Obviously it didn't hurt how they governed at all.

I love the idea of someone saying Alexander the Great can't lead his empire because he's cheating on his wife (by the way, doesn't Alexander's bisexuality single-handedly destroy the idea that gays can't serve in the military). How about Genghis Khan? He had so many affairs that nearly 1% of the entire world population has his genes. Not fit to lead? And there have also been men of great compassion who led noble fights while still doing ignoble things in their private lives. We are all human at home.

We have now heard the stories of JFK receiving sexual favors after speeches in his limo and partying with several women on a yacht while his wife was delivering. But those are all in the past - so they don't count. But John Edwards is caught having an extramarital affair and the overwhelming assumption is that his political career is absolutely over. How does that make any sense?

Does John Edwards care less about poor people today than he did yesterday? Would his affair lead him to change his position on NAFTA? How would it alter his policy on Iran?

Some will claim, as they did with Bill Clinton, that it's not the affair but the lies that went along with it. Really? Did JFK come out and tell the American people - or his wife - "by the way, while my wife was in the hospital I was having an affair with not one, but several women at the same time"? No, of course, he lied too. Every man that has ever cheated on his wife has lied (and so has every woman who has ever cheated). It is part and parcel of the affair.

Now, we get to the most relevant question - if John Edwards' political career is done, why isn't John McCain's? John McCain had a well-documented affair on his first wife, with his current wife. He has admitted in the books he has written about his life that he ran around with several different women while still married to his first wife. And don't forget that he left her for a younger, richer woman - multi-millionaire Cindy Hensley who is now Cindy McCain - after she had been severely hurt in a car accident.

So, why are McCain's actions any more excusable than Edwards'? Because it was thirty years ago? Does that wash it away? Will we be fine with Edwards running for office again in a couple of years because then it will all be in the past? What is the statute of limitations on an affair?

Remember Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan and Ross Perot were so upset with how John McCain dealt with his first wife that they didn't forgive him for a very, very long time. Perot still hasn't forgiven him. In fact, he said recently about McCain dumping his first wife for Cindy, "McCain is the classic opportunist. He's always reaching for attention and glory."

So, I want every pundit who condemns John Edwards today to tell me what the difference between him and McCain is and why John McCain shouldn't also be run out of politics for his adulterous affairs and what he did to his first wife.

Young Turks on You Tube

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How is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'? | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
Cenk, you are100% right, 0% wrong (none / 0)
and Wolf Blitzer will zip it up because it's John McCain, sainted hero. Oh the hypocracy!

But where are you when we need you the most, deep cover Obama media surrogates? St. John's true history needs to be injected into this conversation.  The public has a right to know!

by Chowfun on 08/08/2008 06:19:41 PM EST

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

[ Parent ]
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

[ Parent ]
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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The difference a little propaganda makes (none / 0)
The difference between the Edwards and McCain adultery-- propaganda.
Imagine yourself the entitled recipient of old money which you did not earn, and would likely never be able to earn yourself.  Would you: a) invest in a propaganda machine to keep the masses in breathless trivial confusion and indignation; or b) provide them the facts to incite them to rush out for pitch forks and torches?  Obscene wealth always seems to use its money to protect and engorge its own wealth.
As George Lakeoff might say, we are stuck with the tale we have come to love of a "press" which is the "fourth estate".
Progressive talk show hosts who still harbor dreams of hitting it big and serving the propaganda machine perpetuate the fairy tale of the MSM.

by NicoloM on 08/12/2008 11:18:09 AM EST

Here's how it's different, Cenk. (none / 0)
Back around the time that John McCain cheated on his first wife, John Kerry was also cheating on HIS first wife, a lady by the name Julia Thorne Kerry. Julia had a lot of emotional problems, and Kerry's philandering didn't help.

But just about everybody has an ex-spouse, so nobody really cared about this ancient history when Kerry ran for president in 2004. The same is true of McCain's ancient history. Sometimes relationships just don't work out.

John Edwards impregnated another woman, while his loyal wife was campaigning her heart out for him with all the energy she could summon as she was dying of cancer. Edwards was good enough to arrange a comfortable love nest for his mistress and his new baby, while they all waited patiently for his loyal first wife to finally hurry up and die already!

If Edwards ever decides to run again, he might have trouble attracting the woman vote.

by KenTX on 08/13/2008 07:00:40 AM EST

Republican double standards (none / 0)
This clip of Hannity is worth watching to see how Republicans tie themselves in knots to avoid the comparison between Edwards and McCain.

by desertpear on 08/13/2008 06:57:17 PM EST

Damn. Hannity was mad. (none / 0)
That was priceless.  Colmes was actually really solid there.  Thanks for the link.  I need to look at Crooks and Liars more often.

by Spencer on 08/13/2008 07:30:16 PM EST

[ Parent ]
How is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'? | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)
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