Thoughts from Jim Garaghty:
Unless former John Edwards aide Andrew Young is making it all up — and at this point, Edwards has forfeited the benefit of the doubt — America came within Ohio’s electoral votes of electing a mad, narcissistic, and perhaps psychopathic monster to the vice presidency.
…It can’t be said enough. Almost every Democrat in the country did everything they could to put this man into the vice presidency in 2004, and quite a few of them worked hard to put him into the presidency in 2007 and 2008.
It’s what they do. And the truly disgusting thing is the way that the press, particularly the LA Times, covered for him.
And, having failed to put that mad, narcissistic and perhaps psychopathic monster into the Vice Presidency in 2004, they turned around and elected a different mad, narcissistic and psychopathic monster to the Presidency in 2008. Democrats have a death wish.
Sadly, that deathwish only applies to the rest of us…
Mea culpa. I fell hard for the Edwards charm in 2003, during my brief non-ironic Democratic voter phase. I eventually walked my way out of that particular misconstrual (by the fall of 2004, I was campaigning hard for Bush/Cheney, literal shoe-leather canvassing), but lord, I can’t even recognize that version of me any more.
I can’t imagine the MSM mob that would have hounded Bush or Cheney if they’d been caught having an affair while their spouse was suffering through cancer treatment.
…and everybody here in NC, DEMOCRAT or not, was scratching their head going, “…John Edwards…OUR John Edwards? Huh?” No, seriously, there must be another John Edwards…right?…”
It seemed that the only ones working toward him running, were those who would get something in return.
It was just hard to see Edwards go from Ambulance Chasing, Pseudo-Science, Lawyer for the Everyman, to VP in a few short years. REALLY hard. And in the end, he showed his true worth.
Zero, zip, nada.
Edwards as Veep tells you all you need to know about how Kerry would have made his appointments. They would ALL have been preening hacks.
Mind you, the contrafactual of a Kerry Presidency requires a narrow Ohio win fueled by ACORN – with a popular-vote deficit making 2000 look like a landslide. I can’t see the Kerry Presidency as being anything less than a calamity. I doubt he (or Edwards) would even have made it past 2006.
Those who voted for Kerry in 2004? Shame on you.
Kavaangh, you just have to look at how they treated Gingrich.
But Gingrich deserved it.
To be fair, much of what we know about John Edwards was not public information two years ago, much less six years ago. On the other hand, nearly half the country voted to put Sarah Palin a 73-year-old-heart’s beat away from the Oval Office, knowing full well that she was utterly unprepared for the job. People don’t generally look very closely at the VP slot.
I can’t see the Kerry Presidency as being anything less than a calamity.
Whereas what we got was merely the worst economic catastrophe since 1929.
And the other half voted to put an even less qualified 47-year-old into the President’s job. What was your point?
And Joe Biden? He’s the best life insurance policy any president could buy. If the words “President Joe Biden” don’t send a shiver down your spine, you obviously have not been paying attention.
Whereas what we got was merely the worst economic catastrophe since 1929.
Yeah, that’s what we got for the voters snit-fit in 2006 giving Congress to the Democrats. . along with Barney Frank (D-MA)’s gift that keeps on giving to his ex-boyfriend.
We’d have been much better off with McCain/Palin. It’s been okay to admit voting for Obama was a mistake for 11 months now.
The nation would have been better off today had the 2008 Democratic ticket been reversed. Either Biden would be president, or McCain would be, and we wouldn’t have just been treated to the spectacle of the most powerful man in the world complaining about how The Man is keeping him down.
I gather from what I’ve read that Edwards wasn’t nearly so narcissistic in 2004 as he became by the time of the 2008 campaign (based on the excerpts from Game Change in the New Yorker. Acquired narcissism is an interesting subject. I suspect it shows up often among politicians, athletes, astronauts, and celebrities, and there’s been surprisingly little research on the subject.
As a liberal, I’m as upset at having been taken in by Edwards as anyone else who supported him in primaries.
Jane, did you get married? If so, best wishes. And welcome back.
I did, yes. And thank you!