My heart goes out to Elizabeth and the Edwards family.

If he didn't run for President this year I don't think anybody would care. He put the party and the country at risk.

Also why was he at the hotel visiting his former lover if the baby isn't his? Something still doesn't add up there.

"I think this President has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen," - John Edwards, on Bill Clinton, 1999.

Still that niggling problem of him not telling his wife he went to visit his former mistress and her baby that's not his. If he's willing to take a paternity test, he was either being blackmailed or getting some while a baby was in the room.

who the fuck cares?

Poor Elizabeth. What a scumbag Edwards is!

Notice how many 'I's & me's' in his statement. Totally political and insincere.

You have nothing more to say??? Damn right, motherfucker! 'Cause your career is over.

Go back to your dad's friggin' coalmine, or whatever the hell it was.

See, if I was running Obama's campaign I'd challenge John McCain to issue a similar statement regarding his own many adulteries and his well-documented abandonment of his own ailing wife for the current drugged-out millionairess.

But then again, unlike most here, I support a candidate who pledged to pack a gun for the knife fight.

I'm impressed, too. If he had been a Republican, the other party to the affair would have been a man, a child, or a bathroom stall.

Aw, shit.

I really liked Edwards. he was my early first choice, before Obama really started to get press. (I switched my suport to Obama pretty early on. Never Hillary.) I am less shocked at the affair -- lots of people do that (see: my ex-wife and someone I thought was a close friend) -- than I am in the fact that he ran for president at all. Did he not think this would come out at some point? I daresay if he had (a) done better in the primaries or (b) been picked for VP, we would have heard about this a lot sooner.

I really wanted him for AG. I don't see that happening now. What a waste.

All that said, it's a matter for his family, not us.

I can understand why he may have not wanted to reveal this. Elizabeth is dying. His wife and the mother of his own flesh and blood is dying. Isn't it possible that he was trying to avoid admitting this terrible lapse in judgment to avoid Elizabeth having to endure during her last days all the talk in the press that would ensue if it was admitted publicly.

I think Elizabeth herself has said that she loves to visit the blogs. All major news sites, including this blog should respect whatever time Elizabeth might have and not report about this issue until after she has passed away.

Strom's Thurmond's parenting of a black child out of wedlock did not destroy the Republican party.

Neither should this incident destroy the rest of Elizabeth's life or prevent her from visiting her favorite liberal blogs. I hope there will be no more stories on this site about this subject. Unfortunately there are many hard and mean or non thinking people in this world.

You may not agree with me, but at least think about what I have said.

Offshore Drilling is very risky for politicians. Storms can erupt and create the need for massive cleanups.

He knew that the Enquirer had the story last fall. He endangered the nation with his deceit. The age of privacy is long over for politicians. If he had gotten the nomination, McCain would be a sure bet for POTUS today. How many lives would be lost in wars to follow? For one man's vanity...
"What evil lurks in the minds of men? Only the shadow knows..."

Isn't it possible that he was trying to avoid admitting this terrible lapse in judgment to avoid Elizabeth having to endure during her last days all the talk in the press that would ensue if it was admitted publicly.

O I'm positive he was trying to avoid what he did.

And I'm sure he wishes now that Elizabeth didn't have to go through this - but he should have thought of that before he took his cock out of his pocket.

However, his choosing to run for president with this secret in his closet is major political malpractice, and so his career in politics is justifiably finished.

Well, there's currently somebody running for president with a whole lot of adultery in his closet.

We don't go there, though. The Donkey obediently follows its well-worn tracks along the high road, even when they lead to the glue vat.

As far as I'm concerned, if someone wants to fuck around they ain't bothering me - as long as they are prepared to pay the price if they get caught.

That's the only rule that matters in having an affair - you have to ask yourself is you are willing to pay the price.

if you are willing...

A. I don't care so much about this sort of thing.

B. It's not any of our business.

If the Republicans care to somehow tarnish this on Obama, someone needs to remind them that McCain started seeing Cindy while he was still married to his first wife.

I feel for Elizabeth and the kids. This a family matter in the Edwards' household and John Edwards will have to deal with it there.

Additionally, it was a bone-headed move . . . in America. In Europe, this behavior would have got him elected to Prime Minister, President and Pope . . . But Edwards does not live there.

It is my belief that having a martial affair does not imped ones ability to lead and history is full of examples that supports this belief.

All said and done is just that . . . all said and done. Now, there is stuff that matters to be focused on and I think that we should focus on what is needed to get the job done.

Has anyone here ever read Lies My Teacher Told Me? It is an extraordinary book. It reveals not only the narrow minded perspective of the U.S. "history" we've been fed in school (i.e. designed to laud the American male of Northern European/British descent)but also our insistence on heroicising all comers to the table of noble behaviors.
I'd like to smack Edwards a good one for his asininity here, but it doesn't destroy the Democratic party nor denude him of all admirable qualities.
And George Washington COULD tell a lie.
And Thomas Jefferson DID own slaves.
And on and on.
Still, I'd take Edwards or worse, over Dick Cheney or The Village Idiot or John McCain any day in the blink of an eye.
If I had to cast my vote for the one who never lies, I'd never have cast a vote in my life and I'd never be able to vote again.

I'm extremely pissed off, because I was one of his supporters.

I suppose that yes, if a person wants to cheat on their spouse, its really an internal family matter. And yes, Edwards is back to being a private citizen.

But what business does that person have running to be the standard-bearer of their party if they have a recent incident like this? Just to see that party 'standard' get dragged through the mud?

As if the Republicans don't have enough made-up bullshit to throw around, why in the world would Edwards even think about running when he knew damn well this would come out anyway? I suppose anyone supportng Edwards was supposed to defend him? He was expecting voters to give him a pass as well?

I'm glad now that Edwards dropped out. I would rather Obama or Clinton would be the nominee.

Thanks "John".

I think this story should be a segway into John McCain's many affairs and his nasty abandonment of his first wife for the younger, very rich Cindy. There is no point in wallowing in our disappointment about Edwards' hiding this from the electorate and thinking he could get away with it. But there is a point in reminding the public or educating them about Mr. Straight Talk Integrity McCain's real and rather lurid history.

From a clinical standpoint, it is utterly amazing to me how strong, even lethal is the male sx drive. That men who know so much better, and given the Clinton mess and the other scandals that are so recent, would go ahead anyway--risk everything for a moment--(ok an hour)--of reckless abandon. John Edwards is a man of integrity, accomplishment, who loves his wife, and yet---------.WTF?.. She isn't even pretty.
Hey, I'm a woman, what do I know?

In my humble opinion, you need to get a life, get off your high horse, and worry about your own sins. We all live in glass houses, including you.

I was just watching coverage of this at Olberman. I was thinking back on the night before Edwards gave his concession from the primaries.

My boyfriend and I decided to go see him in St.Paul to stump. I was very excited- this was the first Presidential candidate, let alone, President of the United States I had seen. In any case, great speech, great to hear him say somethings another candidate hasn't said in a long, long time.

Towards the end of the speech he was talking about veteran's, veteran's benefits, and listing some of the ways W. has effed them over.

Anyways, while he's reading the laundry list, a few in the crowd were shouting, emotionally "SHAME!".

"SHAME!"

I remember the look in Edwards eye. He seemed very affected by it. I thought it quite remarkable that a crowd could get such an emotional response from a candidate like that. Certainly it was my first brush with him as real human being. I was used to seeing him as a mere talking image on a screen. I didn't really know what to make of it at the time. I still don't.

I would have felt sorry for Elizabeth if this was 2006. Or if he'd had the affair in 2007 after announcing. But this is 2008 and she went into this election KNOWING about the affair, yet remaining complicit in keeping it silent. I'm disgusted by John Edwards and deeply, deeply disappointed in Elizabeth Edwards.

He talks about narcissism. It's the ultimate in narcissism to think you can get away with an affair while running for the presidency in our current media climate. Especially while dragging your young children to every campaign event and refusing to stop running even after your wife is diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. I'm really quite pissed at them both.

I could not possibly care any less about the extramaritail affairs, sexual orientation, or other such private details of a politician's life.

It's between the two parties; the rest of us should butt out.

Beat me up? Look at this lawyer's spin to violence...to distract the mental neurons. No, I don't want to beat you up. I want to SUE you for misleading and abusing the public trust. Put you in the poverty camp. Mr. big ego man.

The National Enquirer was the only responsible press in this matter. Given the immaturity of the American Public which ignores the historical evidence that great public figures can have poorly conducted private lives, the existence of an affair on John Edward's part was an electoral time bomb waiting to go off. Regardless of Elizabeth's forgiveness, he should not have run. The MSM should have investigated the charge and revealed what they found.

You're a liar. I know Elizabeth Edwards, and she told me about this herself in 2006. See how easy that is? Unless you name some names and establish any sort of credibility at all, then there is no reason anyone should take you seriously. That's not an opinion, that's fact. My opinion is that anonymous rumormongers rank barely a step above pedophiles in personal morality. You probably do sleep well at night. Sociopaths are rarely troubled by conscience.

I am without sympathy for these two regarding this deception of the progressive movement. I guess people are going to give Edwards a pass because he's rich and goodlooking, and his wife a pass because she is charming and in ill health. This campaign was drawing dead from the jump.

In poker, when your hand is going to lose no matter what, the best case is that you fold early. But Edwards sucked a lot of money and time from volunteers and donors before folding. He should have thrown that off-suit 7-4 into the discard, knowing he was going up against high pairs in his party and maybe in the general election.

I never bought Saint Edwards new platform when he remade himself from the centrist he was in 2004 to a sudden champion for the poor in his 2008 run.

Anyway, people here keep saying that he made it their business by going public to the press about it and ask why he did this if he wanted to keep it private.

Well, a surrogate of the Obama camp mentioned prior to his public announcement that if he wanted any hope of being part of a future Obama administration this would need to be cleared up.

Unfortunately for Edwards, the damage he did might very well prevent him from any future in politics. Especially if what he's told the public so far is not the whole truth, with the meeting at the hotel with his 'ex' mistress being highly suspect in the eyes of the public.

I can't help but note one final irony.

All the gushing commentators pushing for an Edwards VP ticket using the argument that Edwards had the advantage of having already been 'fully vetted'. A lot can happen in 4 years.