It's Like a Made-for-TV Movie

I tell you what: New York Magazine puts together one helluva yarn.

Some of you may recall that back in 2004, John Kerry ran for president. It was a terrible campaign. Just terrible. The campaign did exactly two things right, in my opinion: 1) they chose an unknown state senator Barack Obama to be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention; and 2) they named John Edwards as Kerry's running mate.

I thought that Edwards was a bit smarmy, truth be told, but I rather appreciated that he was the only candidate who talked at all about poverty. But, you know, this was in 2004, and we didn't really have a poverty problem in this country until Hurricane Katrina. If you don't see it, what's the problem?

We all knew Edwards would return. And I was rather looking forward to his campaign in 2008. Especially since I wasn't the biggest Hillary fan. Edwards was positioning himself to the left of the other viable candidates. So yeah, I had hoped he'd do well. He didn't. By the time New York got its primary vote, he was well off the ballot. And we all know about his downfall since.

But holy shit! The inside story linked above in New York Magazine is riveting stuff. There are some real revelations there. I encourage you to read it. Start to finish, it's a page-turner (or, indeed, a page-click-forwarder). Yes, there's sex; yes, there's ego; yes, there are attempted backroom deals; yes, there's an embattled wife with a chasm between her public and private personae. It's seriously tasty.