The rise and fall of John Edwards
Political stardom to public apology
(The Charlotte Observer) - When veteran Democratic strategist Bob Shrum first met John Edwards in 1997, he saw in the accomplished trial lawyer a raw political talent.
“I called my partners and said. ‘I think I just met a future president of the United States,'” Shrum recalls.
A year later, at 45, Edwards was elected to the U.S. Senate, launching a trajectory that in 2000 put him on the short list of Al Gore's vice presidential candidates. By 2001, he'd begun planning what would be the first of two presidential campaigns and, in 2004, ran for vice president with John Kerry.
(The Charlotte Observer) - When veteran Democratic strategist Bob Shrum first met John Edwards in 1997, he saw in the accomplished trial lawyer a raw political talent.
“I called my partners and said. ‘I think I just met a future president of the United States,'” Shrum recalls.
A year later, at 45, Edwards was elected to the U.S. Senate, launching a trajectory that in 2000 put him on the short list of Al Gore's vice presidential candidates. By 2001, he'd begun planning what would be the first of two presidential campaigns and, in 2004, ran for vice president with John Kerry.
posted by BP News Bureau | 8:50 PM
5 Comments:
This is all you need to know about John Edwards:
Shrum, then a Kerry advisor, said in a 2007 book that Kerry had qualms. Edwards, he wrote, told Kerry he was going to confide something he'd never told a soul: that after his son Wade had died, “he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service …
“Kerry was stunned, not moved,” Shrum wrote. “As he told me later, Edwards had recounted the exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before – and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else.”
“I believe he gave into a very human tendency,” Shrum says. “He wanted to be vice president and said what he had to.”
Critics found other reasons to question Edwards' sincerity.
After the 2004 election, he created a nonprofit whose stated goal was fighting poverty. The Center for Promise and Opportunity raised $1.3 million in 2005. But tax filings showed that much of the money paid Edwards' expenses as he gave speeches around the country, walked picket lines and met with foreign leaders overseas.
He also started a privately funded Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at UNC Chapel Hill, which gave him another public platform. And the candidate who vowed to make poverty “the cause of my life” was ridiculed for $400 haircuts, a 28,000-square-foot home and his work for a Wall Street hedge fund.
And yet, even though Edwards was the epitome of the hypocritical Southern politician, earnest liberals and moderates all saw him as the second coming of JFK (or something). Even after he became a complete caricature, they still adored him en masse.
Never underestimate the gullibility of the American liberal. Doubt me? Two words: Barack Obama.
Well it turns out he was the second coming of JFK in the adultery department.
While I agree that Edwards has acted despicably, it's not coincidence that The Republicans haven't beaten him up over this. After all, pubbie presidential hopeful John McCain, as history would have it, began his relationship with Cindy Lou Hensley while still married to wife #1.
The reason Republicans haven't beaten him up on it is because Edwards isn't a political candidate. Why use political energy on someone like Edwards when he isn't a threat?
What's a "pubbie presidential hopeful"?
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