Friday, August 8, 2008

Edwards is a total tool

Loyal readers of this blog will recall that I spent a fair amount of time (and not a small amount of my cash) promoting John Edwards as the best possible choice for the Democratic presidential nominee. With the benefit of hindsight, that clearly would have been a train wreck. He had an affair and possibly had an out-of-wedlock child. What's more, he ran for president knowing this secret could eventually reach the light of day.

Look, given my longstanding support for Bill Clinton, I'm in no position to be criticizing politicians for their moral failings. People do stupid things in relationships. But the fact that he ran for president assuming that this affair would never surface reflects incredible audacity and irresponsibility. Had he become the nominee, this scandal could have very well cost the Democrats the presidential election and more than a few seats in Congress.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's a Democrat. What do you expect? Seriously?

Eric Rubin said...

it depends on how you define the word "tool"

Eric Rubin said...

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_temper_boiled_over_in_92_0407.html

please respond professor. i am curious why mccain's anger management issues have not been reported. first i'm hearinf/reading about it.

Seth Masket said...

Anonymous, you're so right. I hate all those immoral, cheating Democrats, like David Vitter, Vito Fossella, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston, Larry Craig.... Oh, wait, those were Republicans.

Can we at least agree that infidelity is one of the few modern instances of bipartisanship?

Seth Masket said...

Eric, I love that McCain story. But it's an interesting question you ask. Some McCain critics seem to think that he's just managed to win over the media by being really nice to them and inviting them over for barbecues and stuff like that, so they protect him. I don't think it's quite that simple and I don't subscribe to such a view of reporters.

What makes somewhat more sense to me is that it's really hard to shake a media narrative. Somewhere along the line he got the reputation as a straight-talking maverick who was, of course, a war hero. That became the narrative, just like "Hillary's smart but abrasive" or "Reagan's charming but not detail-oriented." Whether the reputation is true or not, subsequent stories just tap into the same narrative. The idea of McCain as a nasty thug who berates his wife in front of strangers just didn't fit the narrative, so it isn't widely reported.

This may be changing. A lot of McCain's longstanding defenders in the mainstream media (Joe Klein, for example) seem a bit disgusted by his campaign behavior of late and are criticizing him for it.

saribotton said...

I am so disappointed in Edwards' judgement. That lame, smarmy, legalistic, narcissistic half-confession further lowered my estimation of him.

And is he so unsavvy as to believe the story will just evaporate now that he's confessed to one little detail? Or that the press and the public will really buy what appears to be a pretty cockamamie, obviously contrived set of circumstances?

Eric Rubin said...

Senator John McCain apparently said to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), after the latter accused the former of being "too busy running for president" to vote on most bills: "Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room!"

McNasty, ladies and gentlemen

p.s. i agree sari. edwards always struck me as someone who had some bones in his closet. he seems like the kind of guy who would ask a staffer to proclaim that the child was his. Obama or candada!!!

Eric Rubin said...

at least i didnt spell it candida :)

saribotton said...

If only JE would be a little more candid-a. ;) Yes, let's start our own Canadian Botton/Masket/Rubin enclave if things don't turn out well in November. Maybe in one of the warmer parts in BC? Montreal is great...7 months of the year.

Eric Rubin said...

Check out the movie "Blue State" - came out last year. its about a Kerry staffer who pledges to move to canada if bush wins. little indy flick that makes you think

Seth Masket said...

Virtually all of Canada is north of Chicago, which is already about as far north as I'd like to live. Meanwhile, for all their faults, you never hear Republicans threatening to move to another country if they don't get what they want. They stay and keep fighting, which is what Democrats should be doing, even if they lose the next election and the one after that.

Anonymous said...

It always amazes me when Democrats act like the rest of the world is a giant Santa Monica, where you can sit out the whole thing on a ferris wheel. Sorry, they still hate us out here. Unless you're really into spending eight years getting quizzed about Guantanamo/the Florida Recount/gun violence, etc, three or four times a week, you really don't want to spend a right wing era abroad.