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Why We Love to Loathe John Edwards: It's Science
Time ^ | Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 | Jeffrey Kluger

Posted on 01/11/2012 10:59:25 AM PST by presidio9

John Edwards is the putrefied meat of the American political system — literally, as far as your brain is concerned. Think about Edwards for a moment — the perfect hair, the honey voice, the oleaginous smile. Your lip curled ever so slightly, didn't it? A teensy bit of bile may have risen in your throat. The lip curl is a threat display, the bile is an attempt to purge a toxin. Both were triggered at least partly by your prefrontal cortex and your temporal lobes — and both would have also occurred if you'd smelled a piece of food gone bad.

Edwards, the one-time North Carolina senator and serial presidential candidate, was back in the news last week, as he motioned for another postponement of his campaign finance trial, set to begin Jan. 30 on charges that he illegally used campaign donations to cover up his affair with a staffer — with whom he later had a child. While his wife was dying of cancer.

Nasty stuff, to be sure, more than enough to exclude a man permanently not just from the political arena, but even from polite company. And yet there's a certain deliciousness to the way we loathe Edwards. We dismiss a mass killer like Osama bin Laden with a simple "rot in hell." We dismiss O.J. Simpson with a simple "rot in jail." And before you say that the difference is that both of those thugs have at least been dealt with, consider that the thrice-married and repeatedly unfaithful Newt Gingrich behaved nearly as despicably as Edwards, yet even now he is making a credible, if fading, run for the White House. Edwards, by contrast, can't walk into a restaurant without the risk of getting pelted by dinner rolls.

There are

(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: johnedwards; silkypony
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1 posted on 01/11/2012 10:59:29 AM PST by presidio9
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To: presidio9

2 posted on 01/11/2012 11:02:48 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB (Congress: Looting the future to bribe the present.)
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To: presidio9

it has to do more with the fact he’s an ambulance chasing scumbag lawyer than how many wives he’s had.

I doubt people hate Larry King like they do The Pretty Pony.


3 posted on 01/11/2012 11:05:20 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB (Congress: Looting the future to bribe the present.)
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To: presidio9

The fact that he got rich off the misery of others and is a philandering slimeball has nothing to do with it, then?


4 posted on 01/11/2012 11:08:12 AM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (Many things that are rare now were merely unpopular back then.)
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To: presidio9

Just as Obama is the black version of Jimmy Carter, Bill Richardson is the hispanic version of John Edwards.


5 posted on 01/11/2012 11:15:46 AM PST by SpaceBar
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To: presidio9

Sucks to be him.


6 posted on 01/11/2012 11:21:08 AM PST by Fast Moving Angel (Proud Right-Wing Trash -- stick it, Alec.)
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To: presidio9

and all along I just thought it was because he was such a schmuck!


7 posted on 01/11/2012 11:21:14 AM PST by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
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To: presidio9
Nasty stuff, to be sure, more than enough to exclude a man permanently not just from the political arena, but even from polite company. And yet there's a certain deliciousness...

That certain deliciousess is called sadism.

It's a profound form of insanity.

8 posted on 01/11/2012 11:31:45 AM PST by Talisker (Apology accepted, Captain Needa.)
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To: presidio9

What did Pinkie Pie ever do to you? :D


9 posted on 01/11/2012 11:33:44 AM PST by mountainbunny
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To: presidio9

“he illegally used campaign donations to cover up his affair with a staffer — with whom he later had a child”

I loathe Edwards as much as the next guy, still I don’t understand why this was illegal. Firstly, it was his money, freely given to him. He ought to be able to do with it as he pleases. Nevermind, though. I understand the justice in tying campaign donations to campaigns, even if in a perfect world it’d be donor beware.

More importantly, whence this notion that covering up the affair wasn’t campaign related? Very little decides whether or not you win an election than scandal. I should dang well think Edward’s donors prayed his filandering wouldn’t come to light.


10 posted on 01/11/2012 11:33:54 AM PST by Tublecane
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To: Talisker

“That certain deliciousess is called sadism”

No, it’s called schadenfreude.


11 posted on 01/11/2012 11:38:02 AM PST by Tublecane
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: presidio9
I Feel Pretty
13 posted on 01/11/2012 11:47:41 AM PST by JaguarXKE
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To: presidio9

Hey he’s going to marry Riehle Hunter. Thats punishment enough. LOL!


14 posted on 01/11/2012 12:02:33 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: presidio9
John Edwards is the putrefied meat of the American political system — literally, as far as your brain is concerned. Think about Edwards for a moment — the perfect hair, the honey voice, the oleaginous smile. Your lip curled ever so slightly, didn't it? A teensy bit of bile may have risen in your throat. The lip curl is a threat display, the bile is an attempt to purge a toxin. Both were triggered at least partly by your prefrontal cortex and your temporal lobes — and both would have also occurred if you'd smelled a piece of food gone bad.

OUCH!!!

15 posted on 01/11/2012 12:06:04 PM PST by KJC1
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All contributions are for the Current Quarter Expenses.
Please donate early.

16 posted on 01/11/2012 12:41:53 PM PST by RedMDer (Forward With Confidence!)
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To: Tublecane

I believe it was illegal because he accepted public money for his campaign. Since all money is fungable, any campaign money he received from donors or the government(you and I) must be spent on the campaign only.


17 posted on 01/11/2012 12:45:22 PM PST by gusty
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To: presidio9

Did Laura Ingraham get it a bit wrong when she referred to Edwards as “Silky Pony”?

I’m the same age as her and the only thing I can think that she was referring to was “My Pretty Pony”.


18 posted on 01/11/2012 1:26:27 PM PST by sinanju (ua)
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To: presidio9; WOBBLY BOB; ZirconEncrustedTweezers; SpaceBar; Fast Moving Angel; camle; Talisker; ...

Something about the basic premise of the article creeps me out as much as John Edwards himself.

The heart of it is that the concept of morality seems to be regarded as some weird atavistic brain fart. Yes, the concepts of morality and empathy do have some biological basis but I personally believe most of it has to be taught.

Anyone with morality and principles would have been wary of him from the start. His vanity, his ambulance-chaser background and his endless moral preening should have been obvious to anyone with a properly functioning sense of ethics, but for Libs, ethics and morality are just outdated, quaint concepts to be paid lip service to.

The only reason John Edwards has not been able to work his way back into the Dems good graces by now is because—as the article gives passing mention—he hung on in the race even after he knew it would come out eventually and ESPECIALLY because he hung in long enough to sink Hillary.

He betrayed his own side and that’s the only reason he’s “putrefied meat” to them.


19 posted on 01/11/2012 1:45:54 PM PST by sinanju (ua)
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To: mountainbunny

I have been including a MLP pic with every John Edwards thread for the past ten years or so.

I am disturbed by the fact that you can identify individual ponies by name.


20 posted on 01/12/2012 5:18:01 PM PST by presidio9 (www.catholicscomehome.org)
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