Paul of PowerLine Blog quotes Elizabeth Edwards:
I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.
And adds:
I am in complete sympathy with this statement and do not intend to write anything additional about the affair.
Yes, but Edwards used his family for political gain while campaigning, as much as if he had bragged about nonexistent military service or legislative record.
His stated or implied “Trust me” on the campaign trail has been falsified, and he has contributed to public cynicism.
Families are routinely and to varying degrees brought into play by vote-seekers. In Oak Park, on the other hand, ten or so years ago, a white candidate for the high school board left it generally unknown that he had a black wife, when that might have been a factor in a race in which he went against the black-preferential grain and was once shushed by a black candidate for daring to speak of being color-blind.
She herself was a genuine charmer who nonetheless embraced the liberal black-preferential line. They both lost in a 12–person race, for what it’s worth, to better qualified people — all of them white as I recall, but to be honest, I’m not sure.
Later: Let us add this to the mix, from Instapundit:
SO NOW THAT WE KNOW THAT THE PRESS COVERED FOR EDWARDS — just as, pre-invasion, they covered for Saddam — that raises a question: What else are they not telling us for fear it will hurt the Democrats’ prospects?
Yet more, from an indignant former supporter:
[The Edwardses] made a conscious decision to make their relationship a focus throughout the campaign. That emotional goodwill you feel for them? They not only let you feel, they took actions and made statements specifically so you would feel it.
