Goodbye John Edwards

I’ve never liked John Edwards much. His demise means that I’m now old enough to have personally watched the national rise of a politician, who didn’t impress me, observed him on the trail during two presidential elections, and seen his inglorious demise.

It’s probably a bit cliche at this point for me to write about how classy it is for a man whose wife is struggling with cancer — although, as Edwards soundly pointed out, was in remission at the time — to hook up with some absurd floozy and them brandish the close relationship with his wife on the campaign trail. I would like to pass along a point from the Fabulous Dana, who wasn’t very impressed by Edwards’ assertion that he told the truth “99 percent” of the time. Other than the one difficult fact, Edwards told the truth all the time.

A couple of other notes:

One bright aspect of the story was the fact that Bob Woodruff, back from a Hellish brain injury in Iraq, got the story.

I empathize with Edwards staff members, whom, in the words of David Bonior, the candidate “betrayed.”

I laughed aloud when Edwards told Woodruff “I have no idea who that child is.”

Edwards campaign consultant in 2004, David Axelrod, the master of the message of hope and change, picked the right candidate when he dumped Edwards and signed on with fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama.

Here’s Dan Kennedy’s take on the whole Edwards debacle.

I’m also reposting an item on how Team Bush viewed Edwards as a potential opponent in 2004 — not very formidably.

Edwards and Obama

John Edwards endorsement of Barack Obama raises the immediate question of an Obama-Edwards ticket. I don”t buy it.

While plenty of structural reasons militated for yesterday’s endorsement, such as the fact that both Edwards in ’04 and Obama in ’08 relied up strategist David Axelrod, Edwards likely won’t be on a Democratic ticket with Obama.

Edwards was not an asset to John Kerry, whose top supporters still carry resentment towards the lawyer who couldn’t carry his home state of North Carolina. Edwards can’t help Obama in the South, where John McCain will win. And he hasn’t won white voters since 1998.

If shoring up Obama’s shortcomings on military affairs and foreign policy weren’t such an important need, I’d expect Obama to turn to a politician who could help with them. Prime candidates include Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Jim Webb of Virginia.