So John Edwards had an affair while his wife's cancer was in remission? Shame on him. The pundits (experts!) are standing on their ear about it. Shades of Bill Clinton's affair (Hillary wasn't ill at the time) while he was president. End result? Impeachment while Congress and the country focused entirely on the PERSONAL LIFE of Clinton. It's always so much worse when a liberal does it, in case you haven't noticed. Old conservative Newt had a track record that must have been the ENVY of every roving politician on both sides of the aisle. Yet the headlines today, have Edwards good looks, appearing more like mincemeat 24 hours after his admission of infidelity. His career all but OVER, and he is now a political has-been. Is it true that in America's mind, one's marital status, especially when the problem has been worked out by the married pair, themselves, is America's top priority? If that is the case, no wonder a rear BUM can wiggle into the Oval office, despite hints of impregnating an underage teenager, and arranging and paying for an abortion, when those were strictly illegal. And no wonder politicians LIE about such things in their past, or even present. Americans latch unto such tidbits, like a pack of starving dogs, when that kind of PERSONAL information, is thrown their way. It's interesting when I just heard a reporter on CNN say, 'Can you imagine if he (John Edwards) had become our president?!', as if that would have been the end of our country, which is groaning under the weight of REAL problems, curtsey of George Bush, Junior, yet America is more shocked by the PERSONAL antics of a Senator, and once candidate for replacing Bush? I think that John Edwards hit the nail on the head, when he tells how the giddy power of 'making it in DC' or any other profession for that matter, boots the ego to the point of thinking anything they want or do, is 'fine.' Few of them 'escape' those feelings, which are also only 'human' ego scratchers. Since that seems so all-fired important, and the backbone of the eligibility of someone running for the highest office in the land, let's take a close look at what the Republicans have hoisted for our contemplation...John McCain, public servant, decorated war hero and once prisoner of war.........perhaps THOSE qualifications erase HIS marital history, in the minds of this country? I personally don't give a damn if he is screwing the scullery maid, as long as he possesses the NECESSARY qualification on REAL issues, that can make or break this country. Here is John McCain's personal qualifications, in case some have conveniently forgotten or choose to 'forget' them.' Arizona, the early years

Dan Nowicki, Bill Muller
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 1, 2007 10:33 AM

CHAPTER V: ARIZONA, THE EARLY YEARS

In 1979, John McCain came face to face with his future.

He was in Hawaii, attending a military reception. While there, he met a young, blond former cheerleader from Phoenix named Cindy Hensley.


McCain was immediately dazzled and spent the event chatting her up.

"She was lovely, intelligent and charming, 17 years my junior but poised and confident," McCain wrote in his 2002 book, Worth the Fighting For. "I monopolized her attention the entire time, taking care to prevent anyone else from intruding on our conversation. When it came time to leave the party, I persuaded her to join me for drinks at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. By the evening's end, I was in love."

McCain recalls that both he and Cindy initially misled each other about their ages. McCain made himself a little younger, and Cindy made herself a little older. They found out their real ages when the local paper published them. McCain was 43, Cindy 25.

"So our marriage," McCain cracks, "is really based on a tissue of lies."

Early in the courtship, McCain called Cindy from Beijing, where he was traveling with a Senate Foreign Relations Committee contingent. Cindy was in the hospital recuperating from minor knee surgery. She thanked him for the lovely flowers in her room, sent from "John."

What McCain didn't tell Cindy was that he hadn't sent the flowers. They were from another John, who lived in Tucson.

"I never thanked him," Cindy notes with a grin.

After a whirlwind courtship, John asked Cindy to marry him. But there were some details to clear out of the way.

McCain needed a divorce from Carol, his wife of 14 years from whom he was separated. After McCain's dramatic homecoming from Vietnam, the couple grew apart. Their marriage began disintegrating while McCain was stationed in Jacksonville. McCain has admitted to having extramarital affairs.

"If there was one couple that deserved to make it, it was John and Carol McCain," author Robert Timberg wrote in John McCain: An American Odyssey. "They endured nearly six years of unspeakable trauma with courage and grace. In the end it was not enough. They won the war but lost the peace."

In February 1980, less than a year after he met Cindy, McCain petitioned a Florida court to dissolve his marriage to Carol, calling the union "irretrievably broken."

Bud Day, a lawyer and fellow POW, handled the divorce proceedings.

"I thought things were going fairly well, and then it just came apart," Day later recalled. "That happened to quite a few. . . . I don't fault (Carol), and I don't really fault John, either."

In his book Worth the Fighting For, McCain offers his own post-mortem on his failed marriage. He "had not shown the same determination to rebuild (his) personal life" as he had to excel in his naval career.

"Sound marriages can be hard to recover after great time and distance have separated a husband and wife. We are different people when we reunite," McCain wrote. "But my marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war. The blame was entirely mine."

Carol, who remains on good terms with her former husband, generally has avoided reporters interested in hearing her side of the story.

She did briefly address her divorce to Timberg: "The breakup of our marriage was not caused by my accident or Vietnam or any of those things. I don't know that it might not have happened if John had never been gone. I attribute it more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else."

In the divorce settlement, McCain was generous with Carol, the mother of their daughter Sidney and two sons, whom McCain had adopted. Among other things, McCain gave Carol the rights to houses in Florida and Virginia and agreed to provide insurance or pay for additional treatment she was expected to require End of excerpt, and to read the rest, just go here. <link>

1979?

That means they were married in 1965. He was taken POW in 1967. After 6 years as a POW, he came back and they BOTH already realized that the marriage was in trouble.

What marriage wouldn't be in trouble after only 2 years together, then 6 years apart? Both of them "handicapped" by incidents that occurred during those 6 years that neither of them experienced with the other.

They hung on for another 6 years some of which they were already seperated, then amicably divorced. McCain admitted his failures...didn't "hide" them.

AND this was almost 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, Edwards was fooling around while convincing his wife he was happy (which veneral diseases did he expose her too?). Notice he doesn't claim he had "protected" sex as the reason he isn't the father of the child...he claims the "timing" is wrong...since apparently he shared his slut with another of his staffers...and KNEW she was sleeping with his other staffer. Pillow talk, eh?

The biggie of course is the $100,000 of YOUR MONEY he gave her for basically nothing.

Doesn't that bother you at all?

If you remember, Looney supported Edwards for President both times, when he ran against Kerry and when he ran against Clinton/Obama.

I think it's a crush.

The 'reasoning' may be different, but the end results are so often the same.

At least Bill and Hill are STILL together, and doing quite well I might add. John and Elizabeth also are still together...which certainly is of great benefit for the children affected in both.

Lets see now, McCain ISN'T with his children...Newt isn't with HIS children...so I guess you think that it's far worse to work things out and stay together, right?

Also, it's damned sad that ANYONE'S PERSONAL life, is the subject and target for the scrutiny of anyone and everyone else, many of whom have far worse skeltons in their own closets, than do those they are judging.

Better do some Bible reading...there is only ONE who is the true Judge, and also there is something about people who live in glass houses.

But thank you for a typical spin and twist republican reply, whereby only the liberals who indulge in this, are at fault...and the conservatives escape any labels or ruination.

Do you have any concept of how really stupid you sound? McCain isn't with his children??? Newt isn't with his children???

Edward's wife is likely to die before she could get a divorce if that's where it was headed. Did it ever occur to you that some of these adults have talked and decided to go separate ways, amicably?

I don't really care who Edwards fucks; but this time, hahaha, he fucked himself.

This isn't something I'm doing to him or Jack Dallas is doing, Edwards is on National Television all but bragging about it.

By Monday, Obama will be looking for a bus to throw him under, claiming he was never a seirous contender for any cabinet position much less V.P.

Better do some Bible reading...there is only ONE who is the true Judge, and also there is something about people who live in glass houses.

Aren't you an athiest or agnostic???

McCaines is a lying sleezeball. Naturally, the cons are going to defend him to the hilt but they're certainly running out of REAL heroes in their party. What a bunch of dorks with a ton of double standards.

John is just waiting for his wife to die. That eliminates him sharing any money with his wife, that divorce would require. How "noble".

If she was smart, she would divorce him right now. Take him for as much as possible. Then leave her legacy to their children and NOT for John to spend on more bimbo's. She should also change her life insurance payout to their children and not John. And if she dies before she wins the divorce settlement, her estate can still pursue it and award the money to the children.

And I would recommend she appoint some other executor to her will and to her estate that will look out for the CHILDREN, and not John.

As I understand it, McCain has a great relationship with his children from both marriages. AND even his -ex wife. There also wasn't AIDS in the 70's. Both Clinton AND Edwards purposely exposed their wife's to the possibility of fatal diseases. Newt probably too. Of course Edwards can at least claim that his wife already had a death sentance.

Meanwhile, this will provably have a negative effect on the health and longevity of John's wife. Depression has that kind of effect.

Essentially, John has killed his wife before her time.

Go ahead and support that if you want.

And also change her life insurance payout to her children. Her estate can still pursue the divorce settlement after her death in order to also send that money directly to an executor for the Children.

another woman by convincing her that you will marry her once your wife with a terminal disease dies.

Right?

Divorce in the family with children, should be a last resort...if possible. As long as there is no verbal abuse, and no physical threat to anyone involved, then the children's needs come first. They were not the ones that said 'I do' and also they did not ask to be born.

How is the young woman you were helping because of her hardships doing these days? You haven't given us a report on her in a long time, or possibly I missed it?

I hope that she has found and made her own niche in life, and has matured in her own right.

If Edwards were a conservative, he wouldn't have a problem at all:-)

Unfortunately, they will see to it that hie is dead meat if they can.

She should go ahead and divorce him and ensure the money that belongs to her from the marriage goes to her children and not him. Staying in a marriage where he is hoping you die soon so he can play the field isn't exactly "marriage".

Put it in a trust fund.

The woman I was helping has a beautiful and healthy 4 month old baby girl. I'm past trying to psychoanalyze her, but I think she has these kids because men have treated her like crap all her life and she probably feels that she can get the love and trust she wants from the children.

I doubt she will ever mature past that point. I guess the hurt runs too deep after the physical and mental abuse and betrayal of her first "love" she underwent as a teen. (Betrayal being the beatings he subjected her to).

because I think he is a lying male chauvinistic sleeze ball but so is Edwards. He stood in front of a camera and said his affair with this woman was a lie and to put salt on the wounds he said the only woman he has ever loved is the woman he has been married to for 35 years.

He also read Clinton the riot act about ML...seems it is alright as long as he is doing it.

SG

Loree:

Divorce in the family with children, should be a last resort...if possible. As long as there is no verbal abuse, and no physical threat to anyone involved, then the children's needs come first. They were not the ones that said 'I do' and also they did not ask to be born.

How is the young woman you were helping because of her hardships doing these days? You haven't given us a report on her in a long time, or possibly I missed it?

I hope that she has found and made her own niche in life, and has matured in her own right.

LOL - Get an abortion but not a divorce. Be kind to your children, live together, have your names smeared all over America and just be nice to each other; you're doing the kids a big favor.

Looney, they call you that for a reason.

Wouldn't Michelle be a proud American if she could join Elizabeth Edwards and Hillary Clinton as the brunt of sex jokes in America? What a proud American she could be.

Liberals have a strange sense of values.