Apparently unhappy with his 15 percent approval rating in a recent poll I mentioned just the other day -- the lowest that polling firm had ever recorded -- former senator and candidate John Edwards dashed out on Thursday to make a statement that should drive it even lower.
Actually, the statement, an admission that Edwards is in fact the father of Rielle Hunter's baby, may not affect his numbers because it was surprising to no one. Sure, Edwards had previously denied it. But he also consistently denied the affair in the first place, then admitted it but denied he was the baby's father, then claimed his wife's cancer was in remission at the time of the affair, not that that would make it okay but that wasn't true either, and so really the only remarkable thing about the public announcement Thursday was Edwards' apparent belief that the public gives a crap about what he does or doesn't do any more.
Oh, wait -- there was another remarkable thing, and that was that Edwards also did not tell the truth about why he was making the announcement right now. A spokesperson gave three reasons for the timing: First, "Senator Edwards is very concerned about Elizabeth, how she felt about this subject, and he was concerned about her health." (Please.) "The second concern, of course, was the children. The third concern was that there was a child support agreement in place." That last one seems to refer to an agreement Edwards and Hunter signed on Wednesday, although why that would have delayed the announcement was not explained. All very interesting. Probably just a coincidence that a tell-all book is about to be released written by Andrew Young, a campaign aide who originally claimed to be the baby's father. Thursday's announcement seems much more likely to be about John Edwards' concern for his wife's feelings, don't you think? Yes, I do too.
Later on Thursday, Edwards apparently showed up in Haiti with "30 doctors and a load of supplies and the intention of helping in the relief effort for several days," again according to the spokesperson. I'm not sure even Haitians would be happy to see John Edwards at this point, no matter how many doctors he brought along, but maybe this will at least get his numbers into the mid-teens with the Haitian-earthquake-victim demographic. It's a start.
Link: NYT Caucus BlogLink: New York Times
