The Politician

In my quest to satisfy my prurient curiosity about the John Edwards scandal, I read The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down, which was written by Andrew Young, one of Edwards’ political aides who initially claimed that Rielle and Edwards’ baby was his! Because he wants to work again, The Politician is an unsatisfying mixture of pride and repentance. Like most political memoirs, he has to be frank, but not more frank than necessary. If I had absolutely no life, I would reread all the books and create a definitive timeline to see who is closer to the objective truth and who is full of crap. Young reminds me of people who allude to everything so that when you later discover that something is actually worse than you initially thought, he can say honestly, “I mentioned it. Don’t you remember.” Mm hmmm. Side eye.
The Politician shows everything that is wrong with politics.”It’s like being the best friend of the quarterback in high school. You protect him even if that means helping him get away with stuff.” (pg. 176) Fun fact: Young was the captain of the football team in high school. Politics is infested with the worst aspects of high school popularity and sports culture. What makes Edwards presidential? How he looks, and how he made Young feel. Even Young notices that initially when questioned about why Edwards would be qualified to be president, Edwards had no real answers and does not end up hiring the person who asked the right questions, but met his questions with anger. If you do anything for your man, you draw the line with his women. All of Young’s breaking points involve Mrs. Edwards, who unbelievably bought her husband’s cover story, and Rielle. Somehow Edwards’ insane requests are seen as reasonable until job security evaporates, but Mrs. Edwards and Rielle’s demands are not. I find Young’s funhouse morality and boundaries fascinating because none of them were reasonable. He characterizes the Clinton Lewinsky affair as a “stupid, lying attempt to escape the truth.” (pg. 25) Even John Kerry seems instinctually creeped out by Edwards, which didn’t prevent him from asking Edwards to become his running mate. Young provides an armchair psychological analysis of why he acted against his own interests and common sense based on his childhood experiences, but at the end of the day, The Politician shows that football captains flock together ready to erase each other’s bad behavior and lack of substance, and Young just got out sketched by a master.