The John Edwards Affair

Dear John,

Like many women on the left, I once admired you as a politically progressive candidate for the country’s highest office. And, these feelings were underscored when you arrived in my small Iowa town as you campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination the fall of 2008. You positioned yourself as a voice for the working man and for the diminishing middle class being bled dry by the cooperate behemoth that has put our nation in peril. Of course, I had heard you treated yourself to $400 haircuts and that should have put me on notice that perhaps you didn’t always walk your talk, but I let that slide because I liked your fight for universal health care and the fact you came from a working class family that faced the same struggles as most of us trying to make a living – we saw you fighting for the little guy.

I thought your wife, Elizabeth, was wonderful and admired her forthright and unscripted way of speaking with us as she held a Q and A meeting at our CivicCenter. Her unpretentious way—she was wearing pants and just a tad of makeup—made her seem like a woman we could all relate to. I’ll admit, I thought you were a bit of an odd couple because of the contrast between your classic movie star good looks (the $400 haircut just a bit too coiffed, in my opinion) and Elizabeth with her down home, middle aged mom, everywoman beauty. Also, she wasn’t skinny, and middle aged women seem to like that in other women. John, women love your wife. We were blown away she could fight breast cancer and still follow you all over the country on the campaign trail on behalf of the disenfranchised, making a strong case why you could lead us from the depths of the Bush Cheney hell. We wanted a more enlightened era of social fairness, a cleaner environment, and an end to the corporatized heath care nightmare of red tape and bureaucracy that is a death sentence for millions, even the so-called insured. Elizabeth was so obviously brilliant, connected to the people, and passionate about fighting for affordable healthcare for all, we admired her.

But, like many of my fellow Democrats, I was still on the fence. I was smitten by the charisma of the Senator from Illinois whose oratory gave me goose bumps. Barack Obama arrived at our Old Armory building where I shook his hand and asked him personally how he was different from you. I hoped I could be persuaded to move off the fence. “In terms of the rhetoric,” he answered, “we are pretty close. The difference is actually more about walking the talk.” Obama was as compelling up front and personal as he was in front of a crowd – he had the X factor, the mojo, the magic. I’ll admit, I was mesmerized, but still a bit undecided, and as I listened to your supporters and looked more closely at your platform, I discovered you were rated as more progressive than Obama. You fought the nuclear power industry and supported single payer health care. You views were more in line with mine on many issues. During your single term representing North Carolina in the U.S. Senate, you only received a 63 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters -- a score lower than might have been expected because you missed a number of key votes while campaigning for president and vice president in 2003 and 2004. However, you were given kudos by environmentalists and the left for being more aggressive on the issue of climate change than other Democratic candidates—they later ended up following your lead. And, after listening to you speak at our 2nd Street Café at 8 a.m. one morning, I ended up caucusing for you. And, John, I was thrilled when my little precinct voted for you. While at the end of the day, Iowa went to Obama, I still felt good about having supported you.

I did move forward and enthusiastically supported Barack Obama’s campaign in Iowa, and was thrilled when he won the election in 2009. Of course, I didn’t understand until later, when your affair with Rielle Hunter (aka Lisa Hunter) who was filming your political career made headlines, how lucky a vulnerable Democratic Party and county in crisis was that you lost the nomination for President. I was pretty surprised that Elizabeth, who knew about your affair before you ran, supported your decision to go for it anyway. Really, you know no stone is left unturned in this day and age. You shouldn’t have put your supporters at risk.

After all John, you and Elizabeth are no strangers to the world of politics, and you should know that a candidate’s dirty laundry is destined for a public showing. You should have known your party and your supporters would become the recipients of potentially devastating blow-back. Had you been nominated and the news of your close encounters with a third party made public, we could now be a country under the influence of John McCain and his running mate, the intellectually and morally challenged Fox television star and Rush Limbaugh supporter, Sarah Palin.

John, affairs do have consequences. And, while most often, the consequences are of a more personal nature, they are sometimes of a far more reaching nature. Sometimes they can change the course of history, and your decision to run for the highest office knowing there was not only the possibility of, but the probability of, the opposition calling you out in one of history’s most consequential elections, was unconscionable. John, you were a very bad boy, and I’m not talking about your affair. That is not my business. You know the media lies in waiting to expose the sexual indiscretions of politicians in hopes of igniting a fiery media circus to increase its insatiable desire for ratings. I’m referring to your decision to put your country at risk by choosing to run for the Presidency when you had a target on your back, to your dishonesty, to grasping for power at the expense of the people you claim to fight for.