Regarding

Regarding the John Edwards affair, as this politician wasn't out selling hypocritical family values or God or any of those non-issues which make it so much more fun for Dems when a Republican is revealed for having done as he does but not as he says, I'd like to quote Bert Cooper, the fictional co-founder of the fictional 1960's advertising agency at the center of AMC's brilliant Mad Men, as he responded to the very truthful accusations by Pete Campbell about Don Draper's true identity:

"Who cares?"

And furthermore:

"This country was built and run by men with worse stories than whatever you've imagined here."

John McCain and his doppleganger Karl Rove are trying to turn this election on a fabrication about Barack Obama they want to shove down our throats and into our psyches, while the guy who blatantly cheated on and dumped his wife for a beer heiress, millionaire McCain's burgeoning bad judgment is revealed to again bode ill, having caused a huge loss of jobs in Ohio, and he's trying to chastise the Obama campaign for mentioning it -- a real issue.

And a real, true, character issue.

McCain is worthless now. Here John Edwards, the only candidate amongst both parties, over 15 of them, who put tackling U.S. poverty at the top of his agenda. Multi-millionaire McCain doesn't care, except in the abstract. When was the last time he left one of his eight houses, got out of his private plane, and actually helped a poor person build a house, maybe on a visit with Jimmy Carter. He's not some benign alternative to Obama -- he's the aging side of the American oligarchy, and if he's their front man this year, so be it -- he'll say anything he has to, allow his Rovian campaign to run any lowlife ad it wants to and say he's proud of it, he'll do his job to keep the lid on investigations, true change..and true growth.

Beyond anything else, this country needs to grow. It can only grow in a sustainable way with change.

Russia just invaded neighboring Georgia. I'd think I'll do as Elizabeth Edwards asked today, extraordinarily quick, forthright and free of self-pity. Her husband isn't running for anything right now. Let private citizens be private.