Sam Harris

I may have this in the wrong slot, but articles about Elizbeth Edwards have been in many newspapers lately , and I want to comment on that .

From the way she is aiming at sympathy when she lays it on thick to reporters etc. you’d think her husband John was the only man politician ( or any other famous man ) to ever stray from his wife for an overnight stand , or just to have a little fun . She is so busy licking her wounds in public and playing the abused one, the betrayed poor little aflicted with a diseased one, and therefor hurt so much more than a wife without any problem like hers it’s as though she is getting revenge on him and loving it every minute .

Doesn’t it matter at all that he has given her all his love and attention and fortune ? That he’s been a wonderful father to all his kids up to his so-called “affair” ?  What ever happened to “stand by your man “?  He probably feels so broken hearten and miserable , and beat up and disgraced and ostrisized that you’d think she could feel a little bit for his pain and defend him. Surely this affair stuff shouldn’t be enough for her to be cold and disown him ! He has apoligized and still loves her and the kids. He admitts being a fool and unfair to her. I think thats more than most men would do . And the press etc. is soooo crying along with her and offering thier sympathy . Since John is such a rat , they love to make him as ashamed as possible.

I say give the guy a break . He stared campaining agan right after the last election. He’s been so dedicated , and worked so hard for years ! And almost all that time he’s been decent , and loves her yet. She loves to shame him , and she always WAS jealous of him. Boy, she’s a real faithful and loving person isn’t she ? Who’s betraying who ? She’s an egotisic woman who probaly was a cold fish towards him. It didn’t take an affair . She’s actually a very lucky woman-he’s given her SO MUCH !

Well, Elizabeth Edwards has gotten some spotlight lately as she came out of her million dollor home that her husband earned for her and sat before the cameras and enjoyed attention and sympathetic pats on the back . According to what I’ve read, she she is telling them, in so many words ,how disattached she is to a husband who can go to hell as far as she is concerned .

I have a feeling ( I wonder why ? ) that most people probably think Elizabeth Edwards is so abused and hurt and the blow delt to her was so overbaringly cruel and unfair that it would be almost inhumane to not fall all over her in her plight to “recover” from her husband’s “mean” disreguard for her fragile soul. And anyone who looks and listens to her objectively is an insensitive jerk .

It is so very obvious to me, I can’t understand why others don’t know what is really going on beneath her wound-licking and tearful act.  You may sympathize with her, and I do too. But not because her husband was disloyal to her, but because she has cancer.  Think about it : if she really loved him, why would she let a fleeting perfidious blunder by him dash a marriage of more than twenty years to abandon ? They went through heart-wrenching times together and nutured four children together , each of them having two adoring and devoted parents. It is not as if he said “Shut up and quit blaming me woman ! ” There have been sincere apologies , both private and publicly, from him .

Sure, she has suffered a certain amount of pain knowing her husband would stray while married to her, but I really believe her pain could not possibly be worse than his at this time. He was a famous and admired candidate for vice president and vice president too. He spent years and years of wearisome , strenuous, dedication to his work and cause , and was always the thoughtful ( almost obediant and deferant)and super respectful towards her.He was an absolutely doting father to his kids. He had unmatched tenacity to hang on and keep trying even though he was so often laughed at and ridiculed and snobbed . Even before the affair the media treated him like last month’s Christmas tree. 

Years and years of hard work and dedication; years and years of loving dedication to his wife and family and HE’S a COMPLETE OUTCAST. An outcast in every way. I doubt he could even attend a party without being ignored or snubbed as if he were nothing but a cruel and worthles monster .  It is patheticly ironic that he , who once had so many cheering supporters, and wonderful career life , would end up being treated like a hateful jerk who is rejected from society.

There is absolutely no doubt that he feels his wife’s pain and has given her full support and attention when she was discovered to have cancer. A man counldn’t be more considerate and respectful to his wife .And that is saying something when you consider how disrespectful and inconsiderate she always treated him . SHE DIDN’T ???  I won’t go into detail now, but I know that her attitude was criticizing and jealous of him . For most of thier married life she wouldn’t even take on his name. but wanted to use her maiden name instead.

He gave her everything- including a multi-million dollar home in the plush Chappel Hills and also at least two other homes.  He gave her fame, fortune, sincere love, children in thier later midle aged life so he could compensate for the loss of a earlier child .  Now she’s acting like he’s a lowly and delinquent non-person; and I wouldn’t doubt that she didn’t even sit down with him and discussed thier situation and how to handle the nosey reporters etc.

I know that , for some reason. John Edwards was a person who people just loved to hate . He’s a really handsome man.., but those good looks are also on the cute side, and maybe people just thought he HAD to be a conceited , vain ass; a big grin in an empty suit . Go ahead and be very negative about him- it seems to make for happiness being able to smirk at him.  Admit it ! Sen. John Edwards could be everything nice, and you’d still snicker at him or be disgusted in him.  But- HEY-I just had a good thought - NOW-since the “affair” you have a GOOD reason for sneering at him !! That settles it. Now you can justify your prejudiced attitude !! Good deal ! 

Think of it people : ” Scarlet Letters ” are not really a thing of the past . But they should be .

I find in this whole Edwards affair a delightful illustration of religion’s negative impact on morality. That the man stood up for the working poor, was (by most accounts) a wonderful father and husband and a committed worker for social justice suddenly pales into insignificance because he had an extramarital affair.

No pun intended, but that’s just f**ked.

As I pointed out in another thread there’s a historical reason for personal morality taking precedence over civic virtue. The Hebrews had no political power hence the NT emphasis on inner virtue, there was no outer/civic/political virtue to be had, described or codified.

Or, as Bertrand Russell said - this is why a politician who commits adultery is considered a thousand times worse than one who takes bribes, even though the latter probably does a thousand times more damage.

In a sane world, Elizabeth wouldn’t have the entire country particularly interested in her personal tribulations. That’s what friends are for. I’ll agree with you here, Dee - and add that while I was never a huge Edwards fan - that a lifetime of hard work and dedication can be essentially annihilated by a marital indiscretion leaves me cold. And I take a pretty dim view of a wife who fans the embers.

How about an article or two that points out how horrible Elizabeth Edwards is. I just don’t understand your visceral hatred of this woman, Dee.

rab - 21 September 2008 06:14 PM

How about an article or two that points out how horrible Elizabeth Edwards is. I just don’t understand your visceral hatred of this woman, Dee.

All political spouses are horrible. It doesn’t really matter which one runs for office. Take Hillary Cliton, for example.

My advice is, if your spouse decides to go into politics, it’s time to head out the door. Married people should not be politicians.

rab - 21 September 2008 06:14 PM

How about an article or two that points out how horrible Elizabeth Edwards is. I just don’t understand your visceral hatred of this woman, Dee.

Why do I dislike Elizabeth Edwards ?  Because she is a total phoney . She comes across as a faithful and supportive wife who do anything to promote him, she believes in him so much. The truth is she harbors an undue objective attitude about him. She was fat and even shorter than he is, she knew that he got a lot of praise and attention and she’s a real egoist. She is so jealous of him. She did everything she could to but in and shoot off her mouth to the crowd when, actually, she was acting like it was HER who was running for president. She wanted attention so much, because it pained her to see him so glorified.

She is glad that his “affair” finally was disclosed- now the people can weep along with her . She gets the sympathy coming to her and he gets stigmatized as a scondrel ( spl ?) She is loving every minute of it.

Edwards may be a pain in some ways and come acoss as a conceited phoney himself, and hard to take seriously, but he is not a ruthless rat, a hating person- he seems to not have a mean side at all, and in spite of how it may seem, he IS a family man and a wonderful father .He slpped up one time but for the most part he loves her and shows a lot of respect . He is also a generous person and has fantstic stamina . He doesn’t have a glass jaw—in the midst of awful insults and ridiculing he took it like a sport , shall we say ? He is amazingly strong and rather rare - one side of him is soft as a marshmallow , and the other side he is made of iron.

I can’t help but be sorry for him. He’s like a man shot down—really hurting , but no one will even give him a chanch to talk about it. She gets to air her sorrow. Women cry out loud. Men bleed slowly from within .

Wow! I just don’t see what you see. I met Elizabeth in 04 and I found her intelligent and warm. She stumped for her husband, not herself. She did as well in 07 and even called in to Chris Matthews when Ann Coulter was a guest and laid into her for calling her husband a “fag.”

rab - 24 September 2008 10:54 PM

Wow! I just don’t see what you see. I met Elizabeth in 04 and I found her intelligent and warm. She stumped for her husband, not herself. She did as well in 07 and even called in to Chris Matthews when Ann Coulter was a guest and laid into her for calling her husband a “fag.”

Rab: try putting yourself in Edwards shoes : even before this bad news about him came out he was a person who was ridiculed alot . Maybe it is because he seems like such an unlikely choice for president. I agree, even though he’s a very good-looking man it is very hard for me to see him as “commander and chief ” . Maybe it is that boyish “cute” look he has. But he worked so hard and so persistantly, and for so long that it was truely a staggering determination to win that prize. He must have had a real belief in himself as a man who could be a good president . He started his 2008 campaign a week after the 2004 election was over . He’d been campaigning all this time.For some spiteful reason the media decided to ignore him. Yet when this scandle about him came out he was a feast for the media—it took a big “sin” to get publicity ! The muckrackers decided he was a worthy subject then. No one ever worked harder and got so little credit for it . Now, because of one transgression in his personal life he finds himself an outcast; a person rejected by society -every society, not just political . O.J. Simpson never had it so bad.

He admitted he had been a fool and very wrong. He said he still loved his wife and family very much. He was hard on himself: he said he had “beat “up ” on himself for his bad behaviour . His wife knew how sorry and apologetic he had been.    But instead of telling the world she had forgiven him and she hoped that they would stop making such a big deal of it she did not say anything in defence of him. She should have told the world they loved each other and conflict between them had been reconciled .But it was as though she decided to exploit him and the situation by going along with accusers . She wants to play the hurt woman and get sympathy . It’s her way of getting revenge on her husband .  If I were in her place I’d stand by him and want to protect him from being stigmatized as a shameful jerk .

Compare his misdemeaner to that of other politicians : even John McCain left his wife and had an affair with another woman before they were devorced . His wife was suffering from a painful misfortune just as Elizabeth Edwards is : she was in a wheelchair from a terrible accident at the time. Yet nobody held it against him. He was clean as the driven snow and still a worthy citizen.

No matter what the pulic wants to think about Edwards I still see him as a pretty nice guy . When it comes to her—it’s all about revenge .