John Edwards did not center his campaign around being a devoted husband. I'm tired of that false point being made as a basis to ridicule him and to keep him from re-entering the public arena. He did not center his campaign around being a devoted husband any more than any other candidate. One's wife is present, around, and involved in a campaign, and it ends there. No one knows what goes on in any marriage of any successful or unsuccessful public figure.

I welcome John Edwards back, and welcome his strong voice and ideas for implementing progressive policies.

His sex life and personal life should have no bearing on his proficiency and talents to fight for and help implement progressive public policy.

We all know that JFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton, and FDR had indescretions and complications in their personal lives, but were still allowed to be strong elements of the Democratic party and given opportunities to move the country forward.

As a Black American, living in the "Red" South, I want to say thank you to John and Elizabeth Edwards. It is because of your courage and patriotism that that there now is a President Barack Obama. I thank you, Elizabeth, for enduring those all day and all night bus tours throughout cold and snowy Iowa during the Primary. I thank you John for being our modern day Paul Revere. I remember the Coopers Union speech where you tried, oh so gently, to prepare us for what has happened, the collapse of our nation's financial institutions. In July of 2007 Senator John Edwards, proposed the following solutions:

"First, I will create a Family Savings and Credit Commission to make sure that financial services treat families safely. ...It will deal with all financial services ...It will ban the most abusive terms and make sure consumers understand the others. ...pass strong national laws protecting us against the worst abuses in credit markets predatory mortgages, abusive credit card terms, and payday loans with interest rates of 300 percent or higher. Finally, I will help create alternatives to abusive lenders. I will help working families build up a cushion by matching their savings and bringing bank accounts to the 56 million without them. And I will support non-profit groups offering affordable, short-term loans. We need a new era of responsible lenders who see families as long-term investments, not quick bucks. All across the economy, we need to do the same thing take on the special interests and put Washington back on the side of regular families. "

John Edwards (unlike many of the others who are now trying to scratch and claw their way into a Presidential Cabinet position) has over the last two years shown that he understands the problems that lay ahead for this country, and he would be an intelligent and competent addition to President Obama's Administration. I believe John Edwards has earned the U.S. Attorney General Position or an alternative position. For example, President Obama could create a Poverty Czar cabinet position for Senator John Edwards. There is no better person to head up such a department. Elizabeth Edwards has stated that she and John are willing to make fighting poverty their life's work.

As for "National Enquiring" minds let me share with you some quotes from
two Indiana University students:
"Sophomore Mariela Colindres told the Indiana Daily Student she thought Edwards
was right not to address the affair during the speech."Nothing he could have said to make it better, plus it's a personal issue," she said.

Graduate student Kortnee Warner agreed."I heard about some of those issues," Warner told the student newspaper. "It happens more than you realize it. I didn't make any character judgments."

Matthew 21:16
"They said to him, "Do you hear what these children are saying?" Jesus replied,
"Yes, I do. Have you never read,
'From the mouths of little children and infants, you have created praise'?":

God bless you, John and Elizabeth Edwards, and remember
"Black America Has Your back".

I am just so saddened by the demise of John Edwards, and I fear his current actions described in this article will only serve to delay any chance of recovery for him. He would have made a great appointment wherever Obama saw fit, but I am afraid it is just impossible at this point to hope that the media would focus on Edwards' qualifications rather that all the unseemly details of the affair. It just distracts from important issues to have Edwards associated with anything Democrats are doing at this point.
I think the advice in the article to go down to New Orleans and really roll up his sleeves is the best he should heed right now.

Well, John Edwards has gone down to New Orleans, already,
several times and rolled up his sleeves and helped out.
I believe, now, it is time for others like Paulson, and his friends on Wall Street, to whom he is giving billions of U.S.
taxpayers' money, to go down and help out.
They can all fly over and float down using their
"golden parachutes". Also the AIG Insurance company,
the US Auto Executives, and all of the other "secret people" getting the US government bailout should join John Edwards in New Orleans. Go to this url address and see John Edwards helping out in New Orleans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DaofQCkbA8

Edwards is finished as a public figure. His qualifications were minimal from the outset--essentially consisting of making a good stump speech (though frankly his 2004 effort was better than his 2008). He definitely doesn't have the temperament or judgment thing going for him.

I agree that helping the recovery in New Orleans would be a good path for him.

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, committed adultery and fathered children with his slave Sally Hemmings. John F. Kennedy committed adultery and he inspired this country to greatness. Franklin Delano Roosevelt committed adultery against the much beloved Eleanor Roosevelt, but he lead this country through the Great Depression and World War II. Lyndon B. Johnson committed adultery, but he got passed most of the U.S. Civil Rights Legislation. And we know more about President Bill Clinton's love life than we want to. I value John Edwards' political expertise, especially concerning the economy. Now that the U.S. has had a total collapse of its financial system I know John Edwards can be helpful in the Obama Presidential administration.

Now that the U.S. has had a total collapse of its financial system I know John Edwards can be helpful in the Obama Presidential administration.
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Except, in today's media-saturated culture, image is just as important as the message. John knew that better than anyone and tried desperately to maintain his aw-shucks image. Obama's team won't allow him to tarnish their finely crafted image, regardless of how many good things he's done.

John needs to follow the Bill template...continue to be involved with TONS of charity/humanitarian work and hope people will ignore your personal faults.

Apparently the country's real problems are still not serious enough to get attention off sex and malice.

America needs to 'grow up' when it comes to people's personal lives and affairs etc. What is the percentage of americans who are divorced? Have had affairs? Those who live in glass houses should stop throwing stones already.

Personally I have never been married or had an affair but I understand that our country is incredibly immature about the matters. Other countries see us a completely immature about sex.

Can you just imagine that it could happen that a man who's wife is very ill and perhaps dying acts out by having an affair? I am not condoning it but I can certainly have compassion for why it might have happened.

This man has talents and skills that are of value to our society and if he is willing to take the heat of the immature and scandalous media attention he will get for his public humiliation then I am willing to move on and let him play a role in helping to get our country back on track.

Let's keep it real, I would bet that a large percentage of public political figures have had extra-marital affairs. That doesn't make it right, but let's not crucify John for having the same failings that many of his colleagues have.

I remember in a high school history lesson we were presented with a ballot.

Candidate A- Known to have smoked opium in collegiate days, proven to have a mistress and consumes liquor heavily on a daily basis.
Candidate B- Takes injections of amphetamines, has had numerous affairs outside of marriage.
Candidate C- Decorated war hero, disapproves of tobacco use and maintains a strictly healthy diet.

When one takes the personal lives of political figures out of context, and chooses issues on the gut reaction to a candidate, the real issues are left in the dust. Although I disapprove of cheating in a relationship, I respectfully acknowledge when it is none of my business. With that said, the Democrats have lost one of their most powerful voices on the issue of poverty in America.

By the way, A is Winston Curchill, B is JFK, and C is Hitler.
Who did you vote for?

In my years as a psychotherapist I have seen a number of women who, having somaticized their pain, rage, and grief after having been betrayed by unfaithful spouses, developed breast cancer or some other potentially fatal malignancy. I don't claim anything other than anecdotal evidence based on my own experience, but it has happened often enough for me to recognize some potential etiological linkage. If my observations have any substance to them, then John Edwards has sufficient challenges of personal shame and guilt -- if he is capable of feeling those fundamentally human emotions -- to offer him bountiful opportunities for transformation and personal transcendence. And wouldn't that experience, should he embrace it, prove precisely the criteria we seek in a great and humanized leader? The simultaneous existence in a single personality of base as well as admirable traits is a phenomenon not limited to politicians; neither does it automatically prove hypocrisy. And sometimes it is precisely those individuals most publically confronted with their own flawed imperfection who can emerge from the tempering flames
as better people. I sincerely hope that this is true for John Edwards, who may as yet have many years of service and advocacy remaining to bestow upon this endarkened planet.

I keep reading the Edwards' ordeal and keep shaking my head in disbelief. What John has done sucks and it hurts. I know, have been there myself. But who is to judge?? Especially all those who go to church, read the Bible and...judge. They are holier than though. Let's face it: who is without sin here?? Also we might look what John has done and what he stands for for the common good. The Edwards' marriage is NONE of our business....I live and work in Europe. You can imagine, how they, again, laugh at us - and our hypocrisy. We wage wars, have guns and punish people for minor trespasses...and let the real crooks off the hook. A politician in Europe who happens to be entangled in a extra-marital affair ( and sorry, most do) doesn't get any space in the news. It is not important. Just - maybe - in the gossip columns. And that is where it belongs. Americans cheat like everyone else around the globe does. It' is just our sick sick sick hypocrisy that makes us a ridiculous, distorted bunch. As long as we are warmongers and have a rather dark history we should shut up and concentrate on the jobs that need to be done...so, those without sin should throw the first stone......

Don't feel sorry for Edwards. He'll be back, but for now he needs to just lay low for about a year, and then slowly crawl back. He can take another shot at the presidency in 2016.

What John Edwards NEEDS TO DO IS TO SHUT UP...AND STAY HOME TO HELP HIS CHILDREN AND AID HIS DYING WIFE!!!!!!...i, for one, never want to hear another lie come out of his all-too-cute-$400-haircut face!...take care of your wife, John....really!