Deeper Into the Edwards Scandal

I’ll use James’ post over at OTBto spring off of, because I’ve been thinkng about this for a couple of days:

John Edwards has been spotted back together with his alleged mistress, Rielle Hunter

James quotes the story, and then comments:

This is the National Enquirer we’re talking about here, not the Washington Post.  Then again, as Byron York points out, “the Rush Limbaugh oxycontin story was broken by the Enquirer, and the press ran with that one.”  Indeed, the Enquirer breaks legitimate scandals all the time.  But they run with all manner of nonsense too — they just don’t care so long as they sell papers

Mmmppppfhhhh.

I’m not sure I accept York’s argument.

 Let’s remember that the National Enquirer  is home to a large number of Hillary Clinton supporters, not least among them David Kendall.  So conceptually, Hillary Clinton’s fingerprints are all over that one at the off.  But the reason behind such a move may not be apparent to the casual observer… and frankly, it wasn’t until last night that this occurred to me; I’m somewhat annoyed at myself for not seeing this earlier.

John Edwards had all the endorsements of the various unions wrapped up, before he dropped out.  Most of these are unions, the rank and file of which have shown some reluctance to vote for the “Black”  guy.

(I put black in quotes because of course Obama is half-white… but I digress..)  (

(Oh… and yes, racism is alive and well among Democrats…)

 Obama chosing Edwards as a VP at that point would have been a no-brainer, and likley would have been enough to at least cause McCain some serious trouble in the general election.  Edwards would ahve brought the union voter along with him. With the scandal though, Edwards is a less attractive candidate to say the very least, thus lowering the chances of HIllary Clinton gaining the White House.  So, the National Enquirer  offered up this story… true or not, it has the desired effect. And, for the record, I consider it true. So much for Union support for Obama.

So where does this leave us? It leaves Obama with one less obvious choice for VP for one thing, it leaves him without union backing, barring anyone else in that position that the Unions will rally to, sice they’re clearly less than inclined to rally around Obama himself… and it leaves Hillry Clinton in a position once again to be taken seriously as a VP candidate. Else, it leaves Hillary Clinton in a position to be running against a Republican incumbancy.

Either way, she’s not out of this thing yet, gang.