The John and Elizabeth Edwards Appreciation Thread or Why John Solomon and the MSM Can Burn in Hell

[McCamy Taylor]

Yes, I am going here. The same press that called Gore a Liar and called Kerry a Waffler attacked Edwards before he was even out of the gate. They had their man, John Solomon on the case, reporting on Edwards house, his hair, his hairdresser. Solomon all but called him gay. I think Ann Coulter really did call him gay. At the same time, the national press--the same people who declared Gore a Liar and Kerry a Waffler---declared that Obama and Hillary were locked in a Two Man Race as early as Jan 2007. And they shunned Edwards. After the initial flurry of slime pieces, no matter what he did, he could not get any coverage. It was a total media lock out. Had Edwards walked on water, we would have heard about the cut of Hillary's pantsuit or Obama's new tie.

The press told Democrats: "You have two candidates. You can choose from Obama or Hillary."

When Edwards came in second in Iowa, we were told that Obama came in first and Hillary came in second. Edwards second place finish meant that he was out of the race. We were told this on Countdown of all places. But by then it was old news. Because the corporate bosses had been following the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Citicorp/J.P.Morgan/BlueCross/Pfizer/BigOil script all along.

Which president would have held war crimes tribunals? Which president would have made banksters do the perp walk? Which president would have gotten on television and pleaded with the nation to deliver single payer health care----for the memory of his departed wife. Yes, the GOP knew that Elizabeth would die. They remembered what LBJ was able to accomplish by asking Americans to do it for JFK. Think about the sheer impossibility of passing Medicare and the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s. But LBJ and Humphrey did it---with the help of a nation in mourning. The Bushies and the GOP were absolutely terrified of what the widower president Edwards would have been able to accomplish for the memory of his wife---

And so they character assassinated Edwards, deprived the couple of all hope, more than likely contributed to him seeking solace in the arms of another woman when it became clear that there was no way that they could win against the odds that were stacked against them and there would be no third chance for Elizabeth...



When Hillary Clinton is president, I want her to make single payer a priority. And I want them to name it the Elizabeth Edwards Act. To prove that the MSM does not always get its way.

[thesquanderer]

1. It wasn't the press

I liked Edwards in 2008, but he did himself in, with the affair and the lies on top of the lies to try to conceal/minimize it.

[yourout]

27. Same here.....I liked what he had to say but in the end he was done in by his libido.

Howard Dean on the other hand was absolutely cut off at the knees by big media.

[Fawke Em]

48. So was Wes Clark

He and Dean were neck and neck in fundraising and "Inside Politics" didn't mention his name ONCE in 19 days leading up to the first primaries (but they did mention all the other candidates).

[hamsterjill]

56. He let a lot of us down.

I was inspired by his "Two America's" concept. I had hope for him, and I was interested in seeing where his political career might lead. Even after it was obvious that Obama would get the nomination, I kept hoping that Edwards might be called for a cabinet post. Then...

He let Elizabeth down. He let us all down. He let his ego and his pride and his libido overtake him.

I understand he's trying to rebuild his life, and I wish him well. I don't wish to see him in public office, but as a human being, I do sincerely wish him well.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Edwards stood on stages during his affair and preached about his opposition to marriage equality

because of his traditional Baptist view that marriage is for one man and one woman, a sacred thing. 'It's just a part of me' he'd say. Self serving exploitation of an oppressed minority group. His late wife stood there and nodded along, knowing full well he was full of shit. Sorry. That was wrong of them. They never apologized.
I type this only because you bring up the press calling him gay, another exploitation. Edwards railed against gay rights. 'I'm the son of a Deacon' he'd say. Y'all can't have it every which way.

[reddread]

30. as has many a closeted politician and preacher

those are the least of his offenses.

[Bluenorthwest]

47. The behavior of others is no mitigation. I also don't see 'appriciation' threads for them.

It is a great offense. It's lying, exploiting other innocent people to cover your own guilt. Minimization of such wrongs is a definitive action. It was a vile, dishonest misuse of a minority group as scapegoat and smokescreen for his own reckless actions, his own utter disregard for his so called Sanctified Marriage. 'I'm the son of a Deacon, this is just a part of me.'
Liar. Bigoted, lying straight man.

[reddread]

49. I dont see ANY discussion of racism

so prevalent and destructive in our society.
excuse me if my panties dont bunch over these popular issues that
completely ignore the overall problem.

[JI7]

3. Edwards "Character Assassinated" himself

[reddread]

4. the only thing more useless than an Edwards supporter pre-baby momma

is one that remains an Edwards supporter post CHILD DENYING and every other well understood aspect of that loathsome example
of what the cancer of corruption and dishonesty has done to our political process.

[HERVEPA]

5. Delusional much?

[rurallib]

6. Just to show that DU does have diverse opinions

I agree with most of what you say.

Edwards did some stupid things, but he was the only one I heard talking about 2 Americas and the reality of corporations riding herd on the poor and middle class. He was the only one who said anything about standing up to corporations. Bill Richardson was the only other one who barely touched on some of these issues.

Obama and Hillary and Biden were low in my pecking order at that time because all were so tied to corporations.

Go ahead beat me up.

What happened between he and Elizabeth was ugly, but to me it was their business.

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. +1

[amandabeech]

24. Edwards was the only one going after income inequality and

out of control corporations at that time. And he was a fighter.

He was my candidate, too.

The problems in the Edwards marriage were ugly, and John was in the wrong when he decided to start an affair with Rielle Hunter.

But I think that the MSM and many establishment Dems already were after him because they were afraid of any Dem who would stand up for the vast majority of Americans.

[reddread]

32. discount price on large quantities of bunk?

He was an insider. in so many ways.
much like Gavin Newsom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom

these crawling lowlife scum are the CHOICE of the "establisment Dems"
who can overlook the knives in the backs of their closest associates,
so please reconsider what you are thinking.
he was no threat to any status quo concerns facing working and non-working Americans.

[cali]

41. He was a hypocritical creep. I got so much shit for pointing out the obscenity of

his house- the clear cutting, the monumental size of the thing, the way the guy seemed to think he was exempt from practicing what he preached re the environment.

He was a hypocrite on so many levels and a fuckwad opportunist. I never believed his crap about caring about the poor or his inflated version of how poor he was growing up or any of it. and yes, there were others.

fuck him.

[question everything]

45. "Obscentiy of his house" - what about Gore's?

I don't disagree with you. And we obviously are heading toward similar comments about Hillary and family.

I just don't remember - not sure - about similar comments about Gore. Of course he built his after he was out of politics...

The question that will obviously face many is: do we really expect our representatives to talk a vow of poverty..

Or do we weigh all factors and determine that perhaps riches is not as important as policy, electability and, as always, the Supreme Court?

[onehandle]

7. DU's short memory forgets that John Edwards was DU's #1 pick up until he dropped out. nt

[hfojvt]

11. not me

but I am just much more prolix than you

[reddread]

8. famous moments in intramural sports (aka "Democracy")

[hfojvt]

9. before he dropped out

Edwards ruled DU. Not that I ever did a poll, but it was probably something like
Edwards - 60%
Obama - 30%
Hillary - 10%

In retrospect, I am glad he dropped out when he did, because if he hadn't dropped out before super-duper Tuesday, then Hillary quite likely would have won the nomination. Edwards would have pulled off enough Obama supporters for her to win most of the contests that day and the drumbeat to get on the bandwagon would have been overwhelming.

Then again, at this point I am not sure Hillary wouldn't have been a better President than Obama. Plus we'd still have TWO democratic Senators from Illinois and perhaps one from Kansas too.

As I have said before about Edwards - I have no regrets. I supported Edwards because of the things he said, the policies he proposed.

He talked about ending poverty.

After he dropped out, the poor were never heard about again.

I can even understand the affair. It seemed like his wife was dying. Heck, much of the press seemed to say/think that she had only a few months. Another woman comes along who seems to be crazy about you, well the temptation is gonna be quite strong.

[cali]

12. I always knew he was as phony as a $3 bill and I got endless shit for

pointing out his seemingly endless inconsistency and rank hypocrisy.

Not that that bothered me terribly.

[cali]

10. ridiculous. and a little creepy.

and I'm sorry, but it's delusional to think that Hillary will push for single payer let alone name such a program after Elizabeth Edwards.

[Puzzledtraveller]

57. You got that right.

[Dreamer Tatum]

13. The PRESS drove EDWARDS into the arms of another WOMAN.

Just repeating your words back to you for critical review.

[maddezmom]

40. smh at that one

[cigsandcoffee]

14. Is this satire? n/t

[question everything]

15. I supported Edwards in both 2004 - before Kerry picked him - and 2008

But I was glad that he dropped. For both him and Elizabeth to think that the affair could have remained secret in these times was either arrogant or delusional.

Had he been our nominee and then the news of the affair broke out we would have lost right then and there.

Let the matter die peacefully.

[reddread]

16. "remained secret"? You think nobody knew except the Enquirer?

all that oppo research and inside the belt touchy feely stuff between campaigns jockeying for advantage?
IS IT TOO LATE TO PUT ON THE 20/20 PRESCRIPTION OF HINDSIGHT?
He was NOTHING but a stalking horse looking to collect whatever fruits he could.
There is no if, and or but about that.
What a pity the history and logic that follows is so elusive.
I mean, REALLY?

[BootinUp]

35. Sure, some weird conspiracy. Makes perfect sense.

[reddread]

37. love your avatar

[question everything]

46. Yes, REALLY. Perhaps you've been in the know

and, based on your comments on this thread, you are on some kind of a crusade to trash him and his supporters.

But most of us who did support him, who did believe in his "two America" vision, were not aware of this.

Still, just let this topic die in peace.

[reddread]

50. oh hell no

people need to learn from the burn.
just because suckers keep coming, doesnt mean we cant learn and adapt to the system that foists these
"electable" and "inevitable" candidates to protect the system that they feign concerns about.

[Marrah_G]

17. Elizabeth was lovely

But John......had he been the nominee when the affair and baby came out, it would have cost us the election.

He knew there was a huge skeleton in his closet and he still went on with it. I was once a big fan, but not anymore. What he did to Elizabeth, while she was sick and dying showed a real character flaw.

[SidDithers]

18. Ugh...nt

Sid

[BootinUp]

36. +1, lol.

[geek tragedy]

19. Is this snark? nt

[BootinUp]

38. Yeah, the person who made one of the earliest major attempts to reform Healthcare

would never try to do anything to improve the system like that. /sarcasm

Its actually one of the only interesting parts of the OP.

[wyldwolf]

21. I could get past everything Edwards did except how he treated Elizabeth

Sorry. She deserved A LOT better.

[BootinUp]

39. Yep.

[slipslidingaway]

22. Never got behind the Edwards bus after looking at his voting record ...

and Edwards was the first of the three major candidates to get behind the "public option" idea. In all the debates I watched there were three major candidates.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6456383&mesg_id=6456383

THE HISTORY OF THE PUBLIC OPTION...

""...it's worthwhile to trace the history of exactly where this idea -- a compromise itself -- came from. The public option was part of a carefully thought out and deliberately funded effort to put all the pieces in place for health reform before the 2008 election -- a brilliant experiment, but one that at this particular moment, looks like it might turn out badly. (Which is not the same as saying it was a mistake.)

One key player was Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America's Future. Hickey took UC Berkley health care expert Jacob Hacker's idea for "a new public insurance pool modeled after Medicare" and went around to the community of single-payer advocates, making the case that this limited "public option" was the best they could hope for. Ideally, it would someday magically turn into single-payer. And then Hickey went to all the presidential candidates, acknowledging that politically, they couldn't support single-payer, but that the "public option" would attract a real progressive constituency. Here's Hickey from a speech to New Jersey Citizen Action in November 2007:


....Starting in January, we began to take Jacob Hacker to see the presidential candidates. We started with John Edwards and his advisers -- who quickly understood the value of Hacker's public plan, and when he announced his health proposal on "Meet The Press," he was very clear that his public plan could become the dominant part of his new health care program, if enough people choose it.

The rest is history. Following Edwards' lead, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton picked up on the public option compromise. So what we have is Jacob Hacker's policy idea, but largely Hickey and Health Care for America Now's political strategy. It was a real high-wire act -- to convince the single-payer advocates, who were the only engaged health care constituency on the left, that they could live with the public option as a kind of stealth single-payer, thus transferring their energy and enthusiasm to this alternative. It had a very positive political effect: It got all the candidates except Kucinich onto basically the same health reform structure, unlike in 1992, when every Democrat had his or her own gimmick. And the public option/insurance exchange structure was ambitious.

But the downside is that the political process turns out to be as resistant to stealth single-payer as it is to plain-old single-payer. If there is a public plan, it certainly won't be the kind of deal that could "become the dominant player." So now this energetic, well-funded group of progressives is fired up to defend something fairly complex and not necessarily essential to health reform. (Or, put another way, there are plenty of bad versions of a public plan.) The symbolic intensity is hard for others to understand. But the intensity is understandable if you recognize that this is what they gave up single-payer for, so they want to win at least that much...."

[Nye Bevan]

25. John Edwards chose to cheat on his cancer-stricken wife, lie through his teeth about it,

Last edited Thu Jul 10, 2014, 11:39 AM - Edit history (1)

and induce his friend to pretend to be the father of the child he conceived with his mistress.

He also chose to pursue the Democratic presidential nomination with full knowledge that if the story came out after his nomination the election would be thrown to the Republican.

Elizabeth Edwards deserves appreciation. John deserves nothing but contempt.

[slipslidingaway]

26. Even before his affair became public, people could easily look at his voting record in comparison...

to his previous actions/voting record.

Same with Obama and his words vs. actions ... which matter more in the long haul.

[tammywammy]

28. but according to the OP

The media drove him into the arms of his mistress.

[WinkyDink]

29. Rielle. It was Rielle.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. To clarify, his affair with Rielle Hunter began in 2006

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/08/edwards.statement/index.html

and he later admitted the child was his, despite the denial in that statement. It started in February or March 2006, according to a friend of Hunter: http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/tag/pigeon-obrien

[Orrex]

33. He's a contemptible man and a political idiot

His behavior toward his wife is inexcusable. His choice to engage in such behavior while campaigning shows that he's an idiot.

May Elizabeth rest in peace.

Fuch John Edwards.

[KittyWampus]

34. So reporting on Edward's house is smear but Hillary getting a speaking fee is hunky dory?

LOLZ at your bringing up Edwards.

[cali]

42. posting and running is not an act of courage.

[Spazito]

43. Total nonsense....

Edwards was an egotistic, two-faced liar. He chose to fuck around while his wife was fighting to survive cancer. The media had NOTHING to do with his choices, NOTHING.

To believe that the media " more than likely contributed to him seeking solace in the arms of another woman" yet extolling his virtues had he become President is bizarre, imo. If, as you seem to believe, he was so affected by what the media did or didn't do, how affected would he be by the media when President, what bad decision would he have made due to media criticism? It is pretty scary to contemplate.

[BainsBane]

44. Elizabeth Edwards was awesome

John Edwards can suck nails as far as I'm concerned. He has no appreciation from me.

[mylye2222]

51. I had never ben a JE fan but there were absolutely no reason

The press treated him and Elizabeth ( Rip) this way. That say I had the same doubbts as stated above about his sincerity. I had never had a crush on populist speeches he made during 2004.

[geek tragedy]

52. Has anything about John Edwards ever been proven authentic?

He was a fraud as a husband. But stood up on stages and preached about how awful adulterers were, and also how marriage was something so sacred that it had to be protected from teh gay.

He was a DLCer when he was in the Senate and endorsed right-to-work laws before running for Senate, then ran for President as if he had Russ Feingold's record.

He signed up with a hedge fund after leaving the Senate.

He yanked all of his money away from the poverty center he funded after he stopped being a candidate for any kind of office.

He never did a single minute of pro bono work as a private attorney, and only took cases where there was a big payday involved for him.

Oh, and he publicly disowned the child he knew was his own flesh and blood.

Sleazy DLC ambulance-chasing pig.

[Skidmore]

53. There is absolutely no reason to

cover this ground, IMO. Elizabeth has passed on and he is no longer in public life. We need to move on and focus on the future before the past runs over us.

[Arkana]

54. John Edwards didn't need the press' help to destroy his career.

He did that the moment he screwed Rielle Hunter.

[Botany]

55. John Edwards is a piece of dirt and I want my money back that I gave him

Although I support many of his positions as a person he is below contempt.

[4Q2u2]

58. He was an Ambulance Chaser

The only ambulance he did not chase was the one carring his wife to the hospital.

[Inkfreak]

59. No. No. No. No. (nt)

[Orangepeel]

60. Oh, jeeze. Really?

If one wanted to dig deep into DU archives, one would find that I was a strong supporter of Edwards in the 2008 primary because of his focus on the economic divide.

He's the first candidate I've ever been embarrassed to have supported.

Even ignoring the incredible sleeziness in his personal life and accepting the unlikely accurately not guilty verdict that he used campaign funds to bribe a staffer to pretend to be the real father, there is NO evidence Edwards believes any of his populist rhetoric.

The only thing we know for sure is that he is a lying liar who lies.

In any case, if he'd been the nominee, the scandal would have hit the mainstream press the summer before the election and he would have lost to McCain (who might have picked Lieberman as a running mate)