Although his trial ended yesterday with a partial acquittal and mistrial, it is clear that John Edwards’ life in politics is over, even though a case can be made that these charges should never have been brought in the first place, and mainly benefited a politically ambitious prosecutor.
Back in 2007, before his fall due to self-inflicted wounds, Edwards delivered a short, impromptu speech in which he clearly laid out what the problem was in this country and what should be done. It was these kinds of things that he said, and his focus on helping the poor, that attracted me to his candidacy, over that of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton who had been compromised from the beginning.
Whether or not he was yet another Democratic fraud serving the interests of the wealthy while talking a good game is something that we, sadly, will now never know.
I, too, started out as an Edwards supporter. If his career in politics is over now, that’s a good outcome regardless of his guilt or innocence.
His incredible lapse of judgement indicates to me that a local school-board position would be too much responsibility to entrust to him. To my view he endangered his country by making it possible for the Republican to win after his scandal inevitably surfaced. I wish him a long career of writing books, or making speeches, or whatever outside of public service.
Shalom Mano,
The actions of John Edwards fall under the question: “can people who, under my person rubric of what is good behavior, behave badly do good?”
The most famous example in recent memory, of course, was Dr. Martin Luther King, but we can point to a long list of politically, artistically and socially extraordinary individuals who had very human failings.
Ought the former be obliterated by the latter?
(That question is going into the Socrates Cafe jar.)
Is any other nation as obsessed by sexual misconduct as we are? Is this obsession to our betterment or our detriment?
B’shalom,
Jeff