Dominoes Fall Like This

I don't have a good feeling about this one. Former Senator John Edwards was a credible candidate for President just a few months ago. Some of my friends favored him over Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Now, in light of recent revelations, I shudder to think what would have happened had he somehow won the Democratic nomination for President.

Like most journalists, I was aware of the reports the scandal-sheet National Enquirer insisted that he had fathered a "love child." Collectively, we hold tabloids in such low esteem that none of us who consider ourselves professionals would touch that story.

It seemed preposterous.

Before, I continue, let me express yet another reservation. As a journalist, I have always hated probing a person's private life -- even a public figure, even someone running for President.

I've made enough mistakes myself to feel like I should recuse myself from seeming to be judging of any other man. In my experience, the errors we make are painful, not only to those we love most, but everyone else involved as well. The waves of pain spread outward in concentric circles, engulfing in some cases entire communities.

Now that I've expressed that, let me draw my conclusion, as a journalist, after studying all the available evidence. John Edwards is indeed the father of the child his mistress gave birth to. That is evident.

It's a good thing that he did not get his party's nomination.

Now, it is the Republican Party's turn to sweat. There are infidelity skeletons in John McCain's closet; we all know that, just as we once knew about the Edwards story. The problem for the GOP is that now yet another private boundary has been breached, when will the other shoe drop -- on the head of McCain?

I truly hate this kind of crap, but I am powerless to fight it. It is what it is. A man has to own up to what he has done in this world where there are no secrets. Never again will there be secrets.

Secrets are one of those things that have gone extinct. For that reason, IMHO a bad thing, McCain is probably doomed.

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