Disappointment

Shame on you, John Edwards.

I cannot even describe how profoundly disappointed I am in this man. He was a leading contender for president - heck, I would have voted for him. I admired his self-made man story; I loved the way he stood up for the working class. I like his wife, the way he has weathered hard times. I liked his health care plan.

And he to go and blow it.

To his credit - sort of - he (now) takes responsibility for his actions. He says that in the course of his campaign he became increasingly "self important" and "narcissistic," acting as if the world owed him something. So he took advantage, went after something just because he could.

I am disappointed, disillusioned. Once again, a politician has shown us just how careless he can be. How, when one is running for (or is) president, can someone be so stupid? How can he so easily stray?

But all of this is not what really gets me. I am tired of seeing Elizabeth Edwards referred to as "humiliated." Earlier today, I saw footage of several of these politicians' wives - Silda Spitzer, Hillary Clinton among them - and the story talked about they stood by their men. My husband commented on how hard it must be for them to be so humiliated.

But she has not reason to be. She did not do anything wrong - not Hillary, not Silda, and certainly not Elizabeth Edwards. She has nothing to be embarrassed about - she should feel no shame. Just because he misbehaved has nothing to do with her.

The only thing worse than his lapse in judgment is the way the story is covered by the media. We must get the "spurned spouse" angle, the first look at the other woman, look at the damage to his career.

What he did was stupid. But his spouse is not a pariah, the other woman is not a tramp, and he is not suddenly unqualified to ever work in the public sector again. It's all a gross exaggeration. Yes, I think he made a colossal error. But it's not the end of the world. If every man who had ever cheated on his wife were kicked out of office ... well, we'd have a world run by women, wouldn't we?

And I have a tremendous capacity for forgiveness - I'm a Democrat, after all.