wackyjer:The point is that all of the facts we have are evidence of something
Ahem. Nobody is talking about "something." The story was that he's the father of the baby. There are plenty of reasons why he might have visited an ex-staffer late at night and then avoided reporters. But apparently the only one people are insisting upon is that he's the father of the baby.
Rather than do any actual investigation, everybody jumped to a specific result because Drudge said so. And once again, he got the story wrong but nobody will remember that the next time he comes up with a half-baked piece of trash.
wackyjer: But I was commenting that a lot of Slate posters seem to be arguing that none of this evidence could serve to impeach Edwards credibility in this matter
In what matter? That he's not the father? When the mother says he isn't? When another man claims to be?
wackyjer: The fact that there could have been an innocent explanation for all this
Who said anything about innocent? I know I certainly didn't. All I said was that there is no evidence that he's the father and plenty of evidence against that claim. That doesn't mean he was visiting his ex-staffer late at night because she just needed to talk. I never said he didn't have an affair with her. I simply pointed out that the conclusion that he might be the father had no justification.
wackyjer: Is any of this any clearer now that Edwards just admitted that he lied about the affair?
No. It actually proves my point: Everybody jumped to a conclusion and it turns out they were wrong.
wackyjer: Do you want to be the first to now say that just because Edwards claims he isn't the father, he can't be the father?
Who said "can't"? I know I certainly didn't. All I said was that there is no evidence that he's the father and plenty of evidence against that claim. A paternity test would certainly be conclusive, but none of the parties involved have any obligation to any of us to take one.
wackyjer: Because I'm not ready to say that he definitely is the father, but neither do I think his new denial closes the issue.
"New" denial? Nothing has changed.
