Edwards- the broken promise

Prior to the rise of Barack Obama, the two most talented politicians I had ever seen were Bill Clinton and John Edwards. They had obvious similarities- smooth talking Southern lawyers who were viewed by their adversaries as being too slick. I always liked both of them, but never fully bought in to them.

In 2000, Edwards was one of three finalists to be Gore's running mate and I really hoped he'd be the pick. Even at the time, I thought Lieberman was an uninspired choice- guy was just so drab and boring. In debates with Cheney, Lieberman never bothered to point out the extreme positions that Cheney had taken throughout his political career. The VP nominee normally doesn't make a huge impact, but I really believed that the difference between Edwards and Lieberman could have eliminated all the nonsense in Florida.

In 2004, I was an early and ardent supporter of Wesley Clark, but Edwards was a close 2nd choice. When Clark fizzled early on (skipping Iowa was huge mistake), I quickly switched over to Edwards. I think he was really close to being the nominee- he just missed a few breakthroughs that I think would have catapulted him to the nomination. He almost won in Iowa; narrowly lost to Clark in Oklahoma; and then almost beat Kerry in Wisconsin once it was a two-person race.

Despite not being a huge fan of Edwards on a personal level, John Kerry picked him to be his running mate because of Edwards obvious abilities as a campaigner. As the VP nominee, Edwards never really went after Bush and Cheney- second time in a row that the Dems needed a pit bull as the VP nominee and instead got a poodle (Biden was a refreshing change).

After the 2004 election, it felt to me like Edwards' time had passed. Since he had given up his Senate seat (in part because he would have had a tough time winning reelection), he didn't have a natural platform to build a 2008 campaign. He announced that he was founding a poverty center at UNC. I wasn't always sure of his sincerity, but it was good to see a politician addressing the issue of poverty in America.

With Obama and Hillary Clinton in the race, there never seemed to be a plausible path to victory for Edwards. He banked everything on Iowa, but his fund raising was so far behind the other two that he was incapable of running a truly national campaign. Once Obama won Iowa, Edwards had no hope of winning the nomination, but he stayed in the race. He continued to hammer on the issues of poverty and universal health care- in a lot of ways, it seemed like he was keeping Hillary and Barack on their toes- keeping them honest about some of the tough issues.

When the whole mistress scandal exploded, I was split between sadness and anger. I certainly felt horrible for Elizabeth Edwards and their children. But I was angry that he had the audacity to run for the Presidency when he had this ticking time bomb shoved in his closet.

Now Elizabeth Edwards has written a new book and she'll be on Oprah tomorrow. She's certainly handled herself with dignity and grace when faced with numerous tragedies- her son's death and her own battle with cancer being the most prominent ones.

Unfortunately, part of the book seems to be an attempt to settle a score with Rielle Hunter. It's America and Elizabeth Edwards certainly has the right to tell her story- but it just seems like everyone would have been better off without this book. It stirs up some uncomfortable questions- the obvious one being the paternity of Hunter's baby. Hard to believe that Edwards isn't the father and his denial doesn't have much credibility. Furthermore, it just takes an unbelievable amount of gall to run for President when tabloids are already writing about your mistress being paid by your campaign and your wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Since John Edwards had his televised confession, the couple had largely withdrawn from public view. I have a feeling that over the next few weeks, I'm going to find myself wishing they had stayed out of view.

Wendy Button, a former Edwards speech writer, has an interesting article at Politico.