Hating on Palin and Musing on an Edwards Comeback
By LisaB on February 7, 2010 at 7:00 PM in Current Affairs
The Atlantic is already debating John Edwards’ comeback chances in politics (one suggestion: wait until Elizabeth passes away from cancer).
Every time John Edwards’ tale of lies and adultery seems to have reached its sordid limit, a newly depraved twist arises. Is Edwards unsalvageable? Could he ever return to any form of public life? We asked a chorus of Dark Arts practitioners.
——-Focus on Fatherhood: Edwards has “an opportunity to come across as an outstanding and doting father in a way that most other men who stray don’t. And I do believe the American people like and respect people who are good parents,” said David Heller, president of Main Street Communications.
Outlast Your Ex: One prominent PR consultant voiced what others were too polite to say (but only, of course, on the condition of anonymity): John Edwards will have a hard time venturing back into the public eye as long as his wife is present to remind Americans of the scope of his betrayal. “I honestly don’t believe he can make a true comeback until well after Elizabeth has passed away,” the consultant said. “As long as she is alive, his comeback chances are dead.”
Meanwhile, resident Palin-gynecologist-hater (won’t use his name; it makes my keyboard bleed) continues to refer to Sarah Palin as all the horsemen of the apocalypse rolled into a skirt.
Titled “One Last Word” (could we possibly be that lucky?), gyno-wannabe breathlessly says two lines from Palin’s Nashville address stood out for him:
Two lines stood out for me. The first is a sign that she believes and her followers believe that she has a divine destiny. She is Esther, with a touch of martyrdom:
“I will live, I will die for the people of America.”
The second was the Dolchstoss attack on the duly elected president of the United States:
“We need a commander-in-chief not a professor of law.”
These two potent messages – delegitimizing Obama as “the other” and as a weak-kneed traitor to the troops, and casting herself as the avatar of the real America, ready to die for its survival – are political gold. Most politicians in liberal democracies she somewhat from stating them so obviously, because they clearly invoke certain, shall we say, non-democratic forms. Not she.
Yep, these two lines are dynamite!!! Palin loves her country and says so in a somewhat over-the-top manner (she WAS in Nashville – country music USA). Then she has the utter gall to call Obama a. . . . . . PROFESSOR!! Horrors. With cutting language like that, I don’t think political discourse will ever be the same.
Of course, this writer did pardon himself for missing the whole Edwards story because, you know, it hit too close to home.
It just seemed too awful for me to believe. I mean his wife, whom I took to be a very decent person, had terminal cancer. Although adultery is extremely common – especially among people disturbed enough to seek political office – I dismissed it too easily. I mean his wife was confronting death on a daily basis. I just couldn’t believe a husband could do that to his wife then. I also felt protective toward Elizabeth, feeling that investigating this would be deeply hurtful to a woman faced with mortality. Maybe my own brushes with mortality affected me in this as well.
Of course, Mr. Trig-truther, it’s all about you. Mr. Trig-truther had a “brush with mortality” and looked the other way on Edwards. Mr. Trig-truther, however, doesn’t have a womb, so game on regarding Palin’s youngest son. What a guy! What a hard-hitting truth seeker! What a jerk.
Kind of interesting, isn’t it? On the one hand, the Atlantic considers how John Edwards might make a comeback despite a fall of Shakespearean proportions amid lies piled on lies and a sense that there is no center to him. On the other hand Atlantic’s resident Palin-hater-gyno-wannabe says to know Palin is to know fear. So, somehow Edwards is still more viable than Palin? Are you kidding me?
by Ronald Scott
* More novels by 
* 
(
)
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
