I suppose, in the end, it’s my fault, really (in case you don't know what I'm talking about somehow, you'll find out shortly).And maybe, if we feel our opinions are superior to those of others to the point where we do this and feel that we’re bringing order to chaos in our own small way, it's ours too a bit.
But see, I really do endeavor to tell what, as nearly as I can determine, is the truth here. And I think anyone who does this with any professionalism (the whole “blogging” thing, I mean) is trying to do the same thing.
And yes, there’s plenty of snark here where I honestly feel that it is deserved.
But when the time comes for me to take the hit, I have to stand up and take it. And that’s what this post is all about.
And I have to admit that, as I try to reconcile all of my own feelings at this point in order to compose something with some logic to it, I come back to the image of Private Pyle in “Full Metal Jacket” after he snuck a jelly doughnut into his foot locker.
You see, I honestly investigated John Edwards before I decided to devote such an enormous amount of space on this site towards publicizing his candidacy for president, and doing all that I could to help him along (including authoring this post, which I thought represented what he was truly all about).
And I believed in him, as anyone with any familiarity with this site knows, kind of the way that F. Lee Ermey (in his demented way) and the other recruits in Pyle’s company somehow believed that he would conform and become a “soldier” of sorts on our behalf (of course, if you saw “Full Metal Jacket,” you know full well what eventually happened to Private Pyle).
But maybe it’s my fault, as I say, that I didn’t pick up on what I suppose were warning signs during the 2004 campaign when it seemed like Edwards was freelancing in an effort to build his 2008 candidacy; I mean, John Kerry is a great American, and he would have been a great president, but the man has a charisma gap – sorry, but it’s the truth – and Edwards filled that. But if I thought that that was all there was to Edwards, I would not have given him a second thought after the ’04 campaign ended.
Maybe I was projecting that, like Pyle as a marine, Edwards would hit the right notes as a candidate and follow through, all the way to the nomination (and I guess the fact that he was saying he was taking his candidacy that far earlier this year when the numbers provided a decidedly more realistic message should have been a tipoff also).
What I’m saying is that it’s all about standing up and doing the right thing, in politics as well as everything else.
So I stuck with him, through all of the crappy-to-non-existent news coverage (such as this), and the debates, and the Iowa loss that pretty much sealed the deal (and I want to emphasize that I never had bitterness about that; Obama beat him fair and square, and that’s the way it goes – the only time I’ve ever really flipped out on Obama was over FISA, and I’m STILL not thrilled with him over that…to be honest, I thought that was the lowest I’d ever feel as a blogger – silly me).
And soon after the numbers started to trend against him once and for all, I started to hear the whispers about Rielle Hunter.
Ridiculous, I thought. This goes against everything he represents (to say nothing of hurting Elizabeth, whose honor as a result of this unbelievable mess is something that cannot be measured as far as I’m concerned; to be honest, I still can’t completely comprehend all of this at this moment because of the utter shock).
And when the National Enquirer started writing about it, I didn’t pay it any mind (a commenter reminded me of it also who I put down, though this person has been proven utterly right, and I’m sure I will be reminded of that in due course). But I have to admit that, when I saw a HuffPo post from Lee Stranahan about it, that got my attention, with Marty Kaplan answering in a manner that seemed to defend Edwards (and don’t ask me about what Leno and those people were saying – I haven’t a clue).
And as the drumbeat got louder and I continued to defend him (hell, I even made a remark today about Pawlenty that was intended as a jibe over the haircut business!), I took comfort from this McClatchy story (I mean, how much firmer of a denial could he provide, even though the birth certificate indicated no father?).
But of course, this is where we are now (and, for good measure, here also).
So give John Edwards credit for legitimately trying to call attention to poverty in America throughout his campaign for president and during his recent efforts, as noted here; despite this, that should not be forgotten.
But he is now a pariah (it's still unreal to contemplate this along with, say, Senator Wide Stance or "Diaper Dave" Vitter, or "Governor Emperor's Club," but again, this is where we are).
We online (to say nothing of his campaign staff) have, as I noted previously, invested incalculable hours and effort to promote him and his work and to make the case for his role in government (I said somewhere that I believed he should be the Attorney General in an Obama administration – can't find the link at the moment, though; more fool me).
And no, don’t expect any quarter to be given. As harsh as I am on those who deceive us and betray us for whatever the reason, expect the very same to be doled out to him (worse, actually, because according to the rules of this game of trying to shape and inform public opinion, we are nothing if we are as bad or worse as those we criticize).
As always, the mistake is forgivable by itself. If he had come forward about the matter when it first happened, that might have still ended his career in public life, but he still would have retained a measure of respect. But it’s the goddamn lies and the cover up that absolutely reeks to high heaven!
So have fun now, trolls. You were right and I was wrong. That’s the risk I run when I put my opinion out here like this – it’s your time now.
And coming back to “Full Metal Jacket” again, I hope John Edwards enjoys his metaphorical donut, if you will. I hope he takes a seat in the middle of that floor, so to speak (like Pyle did in the movie) and has a real big time with it (with Ermey barking out commands to the other marines, punishing them because they failed to straighten out Pyle also, as he saw it). And when Edwards is finished, I hope he crawls under a rock and stays there for a long, long time.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll start doing some pushups.
Update: And by the way, as a lead-in to his show on MSNBC, Tweety ran a promo with Edwards and Barack Obama in photos together, with the voice-over asking what will happen to the Dems as a result of these revelations (implying that this will affect Obama somehow).
Thanks, John. This will be "a gift that keeps giving" into November, I'm afraid.
Update 8/9/08 #1: And we have a winner! in the Corporate Media Horse's Ass competition to state publicly that this is somehow bad news for Obama here, though Josh Marshall has a cautionary note here (hat tips to Atrios for both).
Update 8/9/08 #2: I've had this song in my head ever since this story broke...
Update 8/9/08 #3: Gee, HuffPo, have MORE of a field day with this, why don't you (and please remind us once more that you're "cutting edge" - you have the right to do this, I realize, but then don't go preaching about ethics to "dead tree" media).
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