John Edwards Admits to Affair

I'm not sure how many of you have heard about the John Edwards affair yet, but I'm betting before tomorrow you all will have heard something. The story is still developing, but the gist is that Edwards has admitted to having an affair that appears to have lasted two years with speculation that Edwards is also the father of her baby who was born in February of this year. He of course denies that he is the father, but has admitted to the infidelity.

Honestly, I am stunned. I have always liked John Edwards. I liked him when he was running with John Kerry and I liked him when he was campaigning for President. In fact, I was hoping he would be the Democratic nominee. So, it is with an especially deep sense of disappointment that I watch the story unfold. I wrote a post the other day about hypocricy and the disappointment we feel when we find out that our expectations of someone does not match the reality. It is certainly disheartening that while he was proclaiming the importance of family values, morals and honesty as a part of his campaign he was lying to his wife (and the people of America) and having an extramarrital affair. It is even more upsetting to me that he was engaging in this behavior as his wife was battling cancer. Truly that is probably immaterial. Betrayal on any level is devestating, but to betray your wife as she is fighting for her life seems especially cruel to me.

Infidelity seems to be increasingly common among our elected leaders. I don't know if that is true or if more are just getting caught and coming forward. In any event, I feel that if you are serving in an elected position you need to be above reproach. Sure, they are human but they need to not be putting themselves in positions that cause the people they serve to doubt their credibility.

The punishment for his crime will be decided by his wife. It will be tried and judged in the press and the court of public opinion. Ultimately, it will be his wife who has to decide if she can move forward with this man or if the betrayal was too much to get over. As for me I am disappointed that a man who seemed to be different, a man who seemed to be sincere when he said his family was the most important thing to him and that he had the utmost respect for his wife, is a man who has admitted to being immoral and a liar. (Wait, maybe he would make a great President).