A lot of people expressed contempt for Hillary Clinton because, during the months when her husband denied having an affair, she denied knowing or believing that he had had an affair. And she only acknowledged her husband had had an affair when her husband acknowledged that he had had an affair.
Now, John Edwards had admitted to having a (much more pedestrian) affair. I think we know that in both cases, poliical wives who were committed to their husbands' political careers did what they believed they should do and had to do in the face of their husbands' affairs: they kept up appearances for as long as they could, until their husbands were compelled to admit to the public that they were lying. And the wives, too, were lying when they denied knowing of their husbands' affairs before they were announced to the public. In fact Elizabeth Edwards acknowledges knowing about the affair, even as she criss-crossed the country, urging America to believe that John Edwards was a better bet as a presidential candidate than Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, without warning us that if he were nominated his campaign might erupt into a sex scandal. Is there any way to avoid the conclusion that Elizabeth Edwards is just as dishonest as her husband has been?
It is now apparent that angelic Elizabeth Edwards participated in a national charade to put "honest" John Edwards' name on the presidential ballot regardless of what it might do to the Democrats' chances of winning the presidency.
And Elizabeth Edwards was his accomplice.
John Edwards candidacy was premised on the proposition that he was an honest, decent and loving family man whose commitment to ending poverty was more than a campaign artifice to make his ambition seem selfless. But he never really offered more evidence of his "lifelong commitment" than the fact that he was honest when he professed it. And even the phrase "lifelong" really only meant "from 2004 onward". Now, his dishonesty about his affair compels us to question, once again, his credibility about his commitment to eradicating poverty.
And the fact that his wife campaigned for him vigorously, knowing that he was lying to us about the affair, makes her just as politically responsible as her husband is.
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