Women weren't John Edwards' only problem--By ROGER SIMON

You think John Edwards had problems with women? They were nothing compared to his problems with his own campaign staff.

George Stephanopoulos revealed on “This Week” Sunday that several members of Edwards’ presidential campaign staff believed early on that Edwards was having an affair and decided to wreck his campaign if it looked like he was going to win the nomination.

“Several of them got together and basically said, if it looks like he is going to win, we’re going to sabotage the campaign, we’re going to blow it up,” Stephanopoulos said.

This is extraordinary on any number of levels.

First, the sabotage staffers were being no more moral than Edwards. If they were really shocked and appalled by the rumors of his affair, they could have confronted him and demanded that he withdraw from the race or that he reveal the truth to the voters.

Instead, they decided to cash their paychecks week after week and plot their candidate’s destruction behind his back. How ethically superior of them! How very, very high road of them!

Second, many Edwards staffers were doing such a crappy job anyway, they didn’t need to do anything special to sabotage his campaign. Edwards came in second in Iowa, third in New Hampshire, third in Nevada, third in his home state of South Carolina and fourth in Florida, after which he dropped out.

Third, just how were the staffers going to “sabotage” Edwards? By revealing the affair to the media themselves? I doubt it. The National Enquirer and the blogosphere had been reporting the rumors for months. The mainstream media wanted some proof before they went with the story. Sure, the sabo-staffers could have made big news if they had gone public with their suspicions. But none had the guts for that.

Which means their planned sabotage had to be something else. But what? Hiding Edwards’ Rogaine? Getting him to switch his bedrock campaign message from being a champion of the poor to being a champion of the middle class, thereby making himself indistinguishable from the other Democrats in the race? (Oh, wait, they did that.)

At this point, we don’t know their plans. But I do know this: If the names of the sabo-staffers ever leak out, they will be as finished in politics as John Edwards. When it comes to hiring staff, most politicians value loyalty above all other qualities, including actual skills (a problem Hillary Clinton ran into), and nobody is going to hire a staffer who says, “I will work very hard for you until I think you are doing something wrong and then I will secretly work to destroy you. And, by the way, I’d like a corner office.”

Fourth, we are being asked to believe by these sabo-staffers — who are now intent on making themselves look better than their candidate — that they actually were shocked by rumors that John Edwards was fooling around and believed that such behavior would put the nation in peril if Edwards got the Democratic nomination.

But why would they think that? Bill Clinton fooled around like crazy, nobody found out until he was elected twice and he turned out to be a good president. Sure, he hit that little impeachment speed bump after he got caught and lied about it in 1998. You know what lesson political insiders take from that? Don’t get caught.

But what if Edwards had gotten caught early on? What if he had gotten caught before the Iowa caucus in January 2008? Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton’s former communications director, thinks he knows what would have happened.

“I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee,” Wolfson told Brian Ross and Jake Tapper of ABC News shortly after Edwards admitted on Aug. 8, 2008, that he had had an affair.

“Our voters and Edwards’ voters were the same people,” Wolfson said and claimed that internal polling showed that “maybe two-thirds” of those who voted for Edwards in the Iowa caucus would have voted for Clinton, thereby giving her a victory over Barack Obama.

There is only one thing wrong with Wolfson’s theory: It’s probably not true. First, Edwards voters and Clinton voters were not the same people. Edwards voters in Iowa admired Edwards for saying that his vote on the Iraq war was “wrong,” and they hated Clinton for refusing to say that.

Second, David Redlawsk, a University of Iowa political science professor (who also became an Edwards delegate) conducted a survey on caucus night and found that of Edwards voters who said they would vote for someone other than Edwards if they had to, 51 percent favored Obama and 32 percent favored Clinton. In other words, if Edwards had been driven out of the race by scandal, Obama’s margin of victory in Iowa probably would have been even bigger than it was.

We can’t know that for certain, of course. The withdrawal of Edwards could have altered the political universe in ways that were not predictable. But Wolfson also told Ross and Tapper that the Clinton campaign was aware of the rumors of Edwards affair but did not push the media to pursue them. “Any of the campaigns that would have tried to push that would have been burned by it,” Wolfson said.

Marc Ambinder, an associate editor of The Atlantic, has a different recollection. He wrote Sunday that “plenty of aides to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton” believed Edwards was having an affair and “that associates of the Clintons were very aggressive, in particular, about making sure that reporters didn’t give up the chase.”

But the chase, such as it was, went nowhere. Edwards stayed in the race and was driven out by a lack of voter interest and not staff sabotage.

Which is too bad. I would like to have seen what he looks like without Rogaine.

Roger Simon is POLITICO’s chief political columnist.

John and Elizabeth Edwards are Gutsy in the face of Adversity

I heard the rumors but I didn't believe it because it came from the National Enquirer. Then it hit the major news outlets and my phone quickly began to blow up. I quickly became engulfed in something that I never thought I would have to be involved in. John Edwards, a person who I have supported for President of the United States of America for the last two presidential elections, cheated on his wife and lied about it while on the campaign trail. I was hurt, lost for words and even confused on what I should believe in until I heard John Edwards statement which was one of the most honest and real interviewers that any politician has ever gave when faced with the question of cheating and lying.

John Edwards stood their with Bob Woodard of ABC Nightline and told Woodard & the American people including those who believed in him, like myself that he began to feel like he was special but in reality he was egoistical and narcissistic. Heavy words from a politician to say about himself and Edwards began to redeem himself with me as I read the statement but his wife's validation of when she found out about the affair and how her and her family want to deal with the issue privately, only gave me more momentum that I did the right thing in supporting John Edwards for President over both Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. While some say Edwards ran a populist Presidential campaign, I say that his words, his vision and his plans were what set the tune for the Presidential race in 2008. In fact, it was Edwards who spoke about issues first and released plans on universal health care, Iraq, the economy and AIDS before Hillary or Barack even thought of it.

It was Edwards who set between two rock stars and told the American people how the failed policies of Bush and Congress have led us on a even worse road than we were in back in 2004. It was Edwards who looked like an adult during the South Carolina Presidential Primary debate. However on Friday, my whole world was starting to crumble for a minute as I begin to question why are all the politicians I believe in beginning to show signs of greed and wanting to do anything to win. That's when John and Elizabeth Edwards thought me a lesson of guts and glory because if Edwards told his wife about his extra-martial affair in November of 2006 but they decided to still run for office and than Elizabeth got re-diagnosed with cancer but they still didn't drop their Presidential bid. Instead Elizabeth wanted John to continue on. Then I have seen it all, just how far and how much the Presidency meant to John and Elizabeth.

I have seen just how passionate and compassionate John and Elizabeth Edwards truly are. Some might say they were power hungry but I say they were real about it. They knew they were not perfect and that perhaps the lie or secrecy might come back to hunt them but regardless of all of that, they campaigned on the issues and talked about two Americas and how we can fix the two Americas of the haves and have not's or the rich and poor. John and Elizabeth championed the rebuilding efforts of Hurricane Katrina and fought for the poor and underprivileged by talking about poverty like no other politician has ever done. It was John Edwards who was vocal about Jena 6 and demanded answers for the black community in regards to the situation from the Bush administration, the Justice Department, the Governor of Louisiana and other Louisiana state leaders especially the prosecutor in Jena.

John and Elizabeth Edwards lied to the American people but is a man's shortcomings in marriage or in a relationship, reason enough for him not to be qualified to be President. John has been there for his wife through it all and so has Elizabeth, therefore it is no reason why they decided to keep their private life separate from their political life and that is something that we as people need to understand. A person's private life should be just that. While so many of us, always want to know how our politicians family life is, I for don't. The only thing I want to know is where my political officials or those seeking office stand on the issues. I want to know do they agree with the behaviors of current political officials who are using taxpayer's dollars for their own private trips. I don't care if one cheated on his wife but I do care if he beat his wife.

Now that John Edwards is not a public official and isn't planning to run for office any time soon, I hope that the public respects Elizabeth wishes and allow the Edwards to deal with this issue privately. The Edwards are no different than the Clinton's except for the fact they are not currently in office. I respect Elizabeth just like I respect Hillary for not simply giving up on their marriages but being willing to work through it in order to keep their marriages alive and well. Elizabeth could have easily walked out on her marriage and gave up on it but instead, she didn't and embraced her husband after his betrayal and until this day she is still supporting him.

What I admire more about John Edwards is that he has the guts to know that he didn't want his wife by his side as he addressed the public about this issue. John told Woodard that, his wife didn't do anything wrong and it is he who must deal with this problem, not his wife. John said, he doesn't know why others bring their wives with them to discuss their extra-martial affairs but for him, he didn't want Elizabeth standing by his side cause she didn't do anything wrong. He didn't want this to be a political issue and he didn't want to do any political posturing so that's why he chose to do the interview solo. John not only said the right things but he did the right thing when faced with this political problem. Nonetheless, if it is one thing that I didn't agree with John in doing the interview was the fact that he repeatedly said, can I explain to you what happened.

John Edwards was real about the whole ordeal and I commend him for addressing the issue. The Edwards have restored my faith in politics and my passion as well my zeal to want to continue to fight for the truth and justice that my country was found on. I am proud to say that John Edwards did the right thing by admitting his faults and allowing the American people to scrutinize him for his actions. John told the truth, kept it real and made it clear that he will deal with this issue in the public's eye alone so leave his family out of it. However his wife Elizabeth has said that her and her family will be here for John when he leaves the public eyes and closes the door, her and the family will be waiting on him with welcoming arms to embrace him, care for him and love him no matter how others might see him. That was real commendable and heart warming as well as refreshing to hear from not only Elizabeth but John. The Edwards are real people who understand that it takes guts to do somethings in life and it takes having some real balls to try to pull off what they attempted to do. I salute John and Elizabeth Edwards!

References:
John Edwards admits to affair he denied as candidate http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view/2008_08_09_John_Edwards_admits_to_affair_he_denied_as_candidate/
Forget John Edwards, It's Elizabeth Who Matters http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080810/cm_thenation/45343835

Elizabeth Edwards Stands By Her Man http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/comments?type=story&id=5551007

John Edwards: Affair was result of egotism, narcissism http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view/2008_08_09_John_Edwards:_Affair_was_result_of_egotism__narcissism/
Fresh questions for John Edwards over affair with Rielle Hunter http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4499018.ece
Democrats Shrug Off Edwards' Affair, Paternity Questions http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,401127,00.html

John Edwards ex-mistress rules out paternity test http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view/2008_08_10_John_Edwards_ex-mistress_rules_out_paternity_test/

Edwards would 'seriously consider' VP offer

2004 & 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate and 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee as well as a one term United States Senator from North Carolina, John Edwards has changed his mind in regards to being Obama's VP. Just a couple of months ago after endorsing Obama, Edwards was asked would he be Obama's VP and he told a British newspaper that he wasn't interested. However recently Edwards has changed his mind and has told news outlets that he would seriously consider any offer from Obama.

Now does words don't necessarily mean Edwards is campaigning to be Obama's number 2 or is lobbying Obama to be the second in command but it is a different tone from months early. Edwards words that he would seriously consider the VP offer or any position from Obama is not a surprise since Edwards has endorsed, he has continously advocated others to join the Obama train. At a recent conference for ACORN in Detroit, Michigan Edwards told the ACORN crowd how Obama is the best candidate for the Presidency and how an Obama administration will help many Americans especially ACORN workers deal with the issues that currently plague America.

Edwards has continued to speak about poverty and two Americas since bowing out the Presidential race in late January but what Edwards offers Obama is the credentials of someone who is just as young as Obama and wants change as well. Edwards has a health care, economic, educational, and Iraq plan that is similar to Obama's but goes a little bit further than Obama's. Also Edwards can deliver Obama some of the working class vote that he needs to win in November and a lot of the swing states that Obama is struggling in, can perhaps go Obama with Edwards on the ticket if Obama allows Edwards to do the thing that has garnered Edwards national attention.

Now the question many might ask, will I support an Obama-Edwards ticket, I am skeptical to say yes but I must admit, I am a huge Edwards supporter and I wanted him to be President so I will support the ticket, although I think Edwards doesn't really want the position. Although Edwards has said that he would seriously consider it, I think it is all talk to just appease the public curiosity. However I said it back in 2007 that if Obama gets the Democratic Presidential nominee, Edwards would be his VP and vice verse but as recently as 4 months ago, I said Obama and Clinton needed each other and Edwards wouldn't have a shot as either one of their VP's. Now since the Democratic primary has calmed down, I must go back to my original opinion and say that Edwards is right back in the driver's seat to be Obama's Vice Presidential candidate.

So now an Obama-Edwards ticket is just as much as a winning ticket as the Obama-Clinton ticket. That's why I am excited if this ticket comes to be true.

References:

Edwards would ’seriously consider’ any offer from Obama http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16135.html

Obama's #2 Prospects: Edwards, Kerry & Bayh http://donklephant.com/2008/07/09/obamas-2-prospects-edwards-kerry-bayh/

John Edwards Still Has Work To Do http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92334322

Edwards wins Texas Democrats' online vote

Presidential Candidate John Edwards is surely picking up momentum as he won the Texas Democratic online poll. The fact that Edwards won isn't the most impressive part but it is how he won. He garnered 38% of the vote while Senator Barack Obama finished second with 21% and Senator Hillary Clinton finished third with 20%. So what does all of this main for Senator Clinton whose national poll lead continues to remain far ahead of Edwards and Obama. While for me it means one thing that national polls don't tell the whole truth because in order for Senator Clinton to win the Democratic Presidential nomination she has win in primary/caucus states that usually appeal to the candidate who speaks to the heart of their problems.

Since Iowa is the first caucus, many experts believe that Edwards might win Iowa and New Hampshire might very well go to Obama since it has many independent voters that are predicted to vote Democratic this go round in the Presidential race. Therefore Senator Clinton might have to look to Nevada for a primary victory as well as Michigan and Florida before the primary in South Carolina where a victory for her would really be big for Senator Clinton's campaign. However John Edwards looks good right now for Super Tuesday because clearly the Texas Democratic Party online poll shows that Edwards is the more electable candidate out of Edwards, Clinton and Obama. Texas which is a red state, can easily turn Democrat if the right candidate is put up to run who can challenge any Republican state and make the state of Texas a lot harder to win than like in 2000 and 2004.

So Edwards is definitely capitalizing on the online poll victory in Texas as his website launched an email telling supporters about the way and encouraging them to give to the campaign in order to keep the momentum of the campaign going. No matter how it is looked at, Edwards victory has made the Democratic election not so much of a slam door or better yet a two candidate race like others have assumed as of lately.

Got big bucks? Meet Edwards, other presidential candidates

VALLEY ELITE GET POLITICAL ACCESS TO EDWARDS, OTHERS - FOR A PRICE

Many of the multimillionaires gathered Tuesday afternoon at the Los Altos Hills estate of high-tech entrepreneur Steve Kirsch have been at these presidential fundraisers before, dropping a couple thousand dollars at the Thompsons in Woodside to meet Barack Obama or at the Hasans in Saratoga to get a personal word with Hillary Clinton.

The fat checks they write to gain entrance to these intimate get-togethers buy them a rarefied, front-row seat to the spectacle of a presidential campaign, where they are able to assess the candidates not through CNN clips and blog postings, but up close and personal, over afternoon lemonade and tomato and basil sandwiches on fresh baguettes.

So when Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards stepped lightly up the Kirsch's limestone steps, past the commissioned bronze sculpture and reflecting pools and into the midst of the 30 paying guests, he had an impression to make. And with his poll numbers in California showing him trailing Clinton and tied in a distant second with Obama, it had to be a good one.

In this mostly Democratic crowd, his talk about solving the global warming and health care crises, opposing the war in Iraq and ending poverty was eagerly embraced.

But to the party's host - a serial entrepreneur who founded Infoseek - Edwards has something Clinton and Obama don't: electability. Even though Edwards is struggling for support in California, he's in a dead heat in Iowa and other battleground states.

"You have to think a little bit beyond who you like and think about the bigger picture - and that's who's more likely to win in the election in November," said Kirsch, who was first attracted to Edwards for his strong stand on global warming. "Edwards has a really compelling story."
In an interview after the two-hour event, Edwards - no surprise - agreed he has the best shot against a Republican.

"We need the strongest general election candidate and there's a lot of evidence that I'm the strongest general election candidate," Edwards said in a telephone interview as he left the party. "The key to winning the Democratic nomination is to do well in the early states and come into the California primary with momentum."

And Edwards hopes the voters of Silicon Valley, including those who collectively anted up $50,000 for him at Kirsch's party, will help generate that momentum. They are taking advantage of the candidates' frequent swings through Northern California to look them in the eye personally.......