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Edwards affair puts US Democrats on defensive
AFP on Yahoo ^ | 8/10/08 | Paul Handley

Posted on 08/10/2008 9:01:35 AM PDT by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats moved Saturday to staunch the damage after one-time party star and presidential hopeful John Edwards admitted having an affair during his White House run as his wife battled cancer.

With the party's national convention to officially crown Senator Barack Obama as its White House candidate just over two weeks away, Democrats sought to minimize the scandal as a personal matter for the Edwards family.

"We have unrealistic expectations for people. John Edwards like the rest of us is only human," said Howard Wolfson, a former senior official for the rival presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.

"The truth is a lot of ordinary, average Americans have affairs," Wolfson told Fox News.

Edwards, a North Carolina senator before he joined the presidential race in 2004, went public with his long-rumored affair on ABC television late Friday, conceding that it went on as he prepared his White House run and while his wife was being treated for breast cancer.

Edwards, 54, apologized profusely, admitting that life on the campaign trail had made him "increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."

He denied, however, fathering the six-month-old baby of 42-year-old filmmaker Rielle Hunter, although according to reports Saturday her family is seeking a paternity test from Edwards.

Edwards is married to Elizabeth Edwards, a popular figure due to her courageous fight against her cancer, which has been judged by doctors to be incurable since it returned in 2007.

She wrote on the Daily Kos website that her husband told her in 2006 of the affair, saying that it had been painful but that it was a private issue.

--snip--

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: affair; cultureofcorruption; defensive; democrats; edwards; riellehunter
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To: NormsRevenge
Edwards affair puts US Democrats on defensive

US Democrats, eh. Isn't that like referring to US Americans?

21 posted on 08/10/2008 9:45:43 AM PDT by C210N (The television has mounted the most serious assault on Republicanism since Das Kapital.)
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To: NormsRevenge
"The truth is a lot of ordinary, average Americans have affairs," Wolfson told Fox News.

Oh good. Well, I guess we can all back off now, folks. Everybody does it.

Edwards, 54, apologized profusely

I don't how profuse it was, but it was certainly nauseatingly insincere and calculating.

.... admitting that life on the campaign trail had made him "increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."

We thought it wasn't possible for anyone to be more egocentric and narcissistic than Johnny. But clearly he proved us wrong once again.

22 posted on 08/10/2008 9:47:18 AM PDT by JustaCowgirl
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To: NormsRevenge
"The truth is a lot of ordinary, average Americans have affairs," Wolfson told Fox News.

Oh good. Well, I guess we can all back off now, folks. Everybody does it.

Edwards, 54, apologized profusely

I don't how profuse it was, but it was certainly nauseatingly insincere and calculating.

.... admitting that life on the campaign trail had made him "increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."

We thought it wasn't possible for anyone to be more egocentric and narcissistic than Johnny. But clearly he proved us wrong once again.

23 posted on 08/10/2008 9:47:31 AM PDT by JustaCowgirl
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To: NormsRevenge

Hey everybody is getting their mistress pregnant while their wife is undergoing cancer treatment. eeeerrr right?


24 posted on 08/10/2008 9:49:25 AM PDT by JessieHelmsJr
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To: NormsRevenge
"The truth is a lot of ordinary, average Americans have affairs," Wolfson told Fox News.

The democrats once again trying to define deviancy down. However, its not ordinary for VP candidate, whose wife had cancer, to have a continued affiar convered up by the liberal MSM.

25 posted on 08/10/2008 9:49:48 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: NormsRevenge
"We have unrealistic expectations for people . . . "

Keeping it in their pants?

26 posted on 08/10/2008 9:54:19 AM PDT by madprof98 ("moritur et ridet" - salvianus)
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To: mkjessup

Wolfson sounds exactly like the late Roy Cohn.


27 posted on 08/10/2008 9:54:40 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Boycott Washington D.C. until they allow gun ownership)
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To: Slump Tester

“We have unrealistic expectations for people.”

No, we have unrealistic expectations of Democrats. They are amoral, and will whine and offer all kinds of rationalizations when get caught behaving like Democrats.


28 posted on 08/10/2008 9:56:56 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Boycott Washington D.C. until they allow gun ownership)
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To: NormsRevenge
Howard Wolfson sounds like an idiot who has skeletons in his closet. How did someone this boring and full of cliches get hired by FOX?

Wolfson parrots the party talking points that they bring out every time someone with a D after their name gets caught. Since he is in the Clinton camp, he is forced to make these silly excuses because Billy Clinton's sleazy history.

29 posted on 08/10/2008 9:58:16 AM PDT by Jane Austen (Boycott the Bahamas!)
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To: JustaCowgirl

“Edwards, 54, apologized profusely”

Horse hockey. He offered a short statement, concluding with a “that’s all I have to say on the subject”. Only a Democrat who has the news media doing CYA for him could get away with this.

The American public should make sure the Edwards, the Democrats, and the news media don’t get away with this.


30 posted on 08/10/2008 10:00:20 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Boycott Washington D.C. until they allow gun ownership)
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To: NormsRevenge

Having Democrats lecture us on morality is like having Bill Clinton lecture on marital fidelity.


31 posted on 08/10/2008 10:01:20 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Boycott Washington D.C. until they allow gun ownership)
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To: NormsRevenge
"The truth is a lot of ordinary, average Americans have affairs," Wolfson told Fox News.

Sad, but true.

Very few people, however, are stupid enough to have an affair while running for President.

Reporters were following him around struggling to find something interesting to write about. Opposition research teams for candidates in both parties were digging for any dirt they could find. Did he really think no one would notice? Does the name Gary Hart ring any bells?

Setting aside all of the issues of morality and lack of character that arise from having an affair while your wife is dying of cancer, Edwards' affair while running for president raises serious issues of stupidity, narcissism and utter lack of self control. These are not qualities most people look for in a president.

32 posted on 08/10/2008 10:08:06 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (DNC = Do Nothing Congress)
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To: NormsRevenge

IF the affair was over is ‘06, why is he visiting the woman now in ‘08 and leaving through the back door at 2am?

John & Elizabeth must have a “open” marriage.


33 posted on 08/10/2008 10:16:17 AM PDT by It's me
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To: NormsRevenge

“As I have been saying for the last five years, there are ‘two Americas,’” Edwards alleged. “In one of these Americas I am the people’s tribune fighting for social justice. In the other, I am a conniving liar.”

read more...

http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens1.htm


34 posted on 08/10/2008 10:18:07 AM PDT by John Semmens
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To: detch
Right now you should be demanding that Reille Hunter agree to a paternity test, as your husband has — SO THE TRUTH CAN COME OUT.

Well he can agree to a paternity test knowing full well that Reille won't agree to one.

What a sleeze bag....

35 posted on 08/10/2008 10:19:22 AM PDT by It's me
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To: NormsRevenge

John Edwards’ affair while his wife is battling cancer is a microcosm of what the Democrats are doing to the country -

They SCREW around while the country is hurting economically.


36 posted on 08/10/2008 10:30:55 AM PDT by Ben Reyes ('Illicit Sex? Everybody does it!' - Democrat Campaign Slogan)
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To: NormsRevenge

Excuses, excuses.

If one can stand looking at some of the lie-beral sites one can see how many reasons they can come up with as to why it’s ‘natural’, ‘reasonable’ and ‘excusable’ behavior for Edwards. It’s really incredible, especially the ‘men have certain needs’ excuse. Can’t they just say, “No”?


37 posted on 08/10/2008 10:37:57 AM PDT by whatshotandwhatsnot
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To: PresbyRev

There’s low down, and then there’s LOW DOWN. When they use the sacrificial donations of campaign supporters in order to reward and bribe their “conquests”, then they are CRIMINALS. Not to mention, when your spouse has a terminal illness, you have the human decency to accept reality and use some common sense. Thieves are also human, but they still go to jail for their crimes.


38 posted on 08/10/2008 11:02:27 AM PDT by Twinkie (TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE A RIGHT !!!)
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To: whatshotandwhatsnot
Can’t they just say, “No”?

Were they actually *MEN*, then the answer should, and would be, *YES*. John Edwards isn't a *man* at all, he's a punk, a boy who never matured into real adulthood. Just like that other punk Billy Jeff Boy Clinton...

the infowarrior

39 posted on 08/11/2008 3:43:18 AM PDT by infowarrior
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To: woweeitsme

Actually, it is only among other libertine Democrats that the values-free rule applies. That happens to only include about 30% of the US population. A person can’t get elected if the other 70% have written him/her off as a undependable sleaze. One would have thought that claiming to channel the thoughts of a dead fetus would have put paid to Edwards’ credibility, but then again if anything is printed in the newspaper, it is the horoscope. So they can have all the party-time they want, but even among themselves, in the privacy of their own hearts, they have to pay the price of illegitimacy and infidelity. It’s only the MSM, which has yet to pay its own price, which can barefacedly allege what is and what is not ‘a private matter’ and does or does not have moral consequences.

And that regime is steadily going down.


40 posted on 08/11/2008 3:49:04 AM PDT by BelegStrongbow (what part of 'mias gunaikos andra' do Episcopalians not understand?)
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