United Liberty
John Edwards’ personal life is his own
Sat, 08/09/2008 - 8:24am | posted by Michael Powell
By Michael Powell
For my first post I thought I would talk about the big media dustup right now, which is John Edwards’ admission to an affair with Rielle Hunter. I had heard rumors about this before the story finally blew up. Pajamas Media’s podcast, “PJM Political,” had a segment on July 30 that focussed on the lack of coverage of the affair. Almost two weeks later, the story has broke out and people are getting worried. Christopher Beam at Slate worried outloud that the scandal may have a Mark Foley effect on the election, and went on to point out that John McCain didn’t have a clean marital history.
It does seem immoral to continue an affair when your wife has cancer. Edwards has noted that this was the result of his own hubris brought on by his success, and he has probably been greatly humbled by the experience. However immoral his affair seems to outsiders, it doesn’t seem that relevant.
On one level, Edwards is no longer running for president. He is not currently holding public office. The whole episode is mostly one of political celebrity gossip.
On another level, this sort of thing should be relegated to the private lives of individuals like John and Elizabeth Edwards and stay there. We elect politicians to office to be our representatives, not our pastors.
John F. Kennedy’s affairs were legendary and he was also known to be taking “mood-modulating steroids.” Winston Churchill has been known for high levels of alchohol intake. If held by to the standards we are holding current officeholders, those two would have made public apologies and possibly had their careers tarnished for something largely irrelevant.
We should hold our politicians accountable for the policy decisions they make, and leave their personal transgressions to be judged by their loved ones.
Editors Note: United Liberty is very pleased to introduce our newest contributor, Michael Powell. He is a freelance writer based out of the San Francisco Bay Area who’s been published in the San Francisco Examiner, among other publications, and maintains a blog called “Deschamps.”
joybran,
Thanks for the respectful disagreement. We need more of those.
My general point is that one’s family problems are largely irrelevant. Churchill is a good example of this, as was Thomas Jefferson, who did many things in his life that ran counter to his ideals.
I find episodes like this to be simply the flaws that come with being human. In my opinion, they are only relevant to their job as politicians if they are the type of official that speaks in strong moral terms, such as Eliot Spitzer, Larry Craig or former Spokane mayor Jim West.
That’s a good point about Edwards using family to run his campaign. I’ll concede that I didn’t think of that.
Yes, Jefferson was a rare example of someone who became the president but also had a strong intellectual fabric. I find interesting that he chose to go back into politics instead of leaving himself to his own devices at Monticello, as he likely would have preferred.
My defense of Edwards’ privacy was based on what you stated about libertarian impulses. If a celebrity, like say Robert Downey Jr., has trouble in his personal life in doesn’t make me more or less likely to go see a movie starring him. Unfortunately, we do often put politicians on par with celebrities in our culture.
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