Schultz's point
A while back I observed that the uniformity of commentators had switched. Until about two years ago, the D media were predictable mechanical followers of official talking points, while the R media were somewhat more independent. Now it's the other way around.

Good example this morning.

Tuned into Rush's substitute, heard him talking about Edwards, falling back into the same old tired 10-year-old business about Clinton and Monica, it's not just sex, etc.

Tuned into Ed Schultz, who is more or less the D opposite of Rush. Schultz is outside the recorded message. Instead of defending Edwards and saying it is just sex, as you'd expect, he says Edwards is an all-around slimeball, and character does matter. If Dems want to defeat the Republican Bathhouse, they need to be comparatively clean. (And I might add, the newer generation of Dem candidates are in fact cleaner than the Republican Bathhouse.)

Schultz also makes an interesting speculative point: If Edwards had openly admitted the affair earlier, Hillary would have the nomination right now. Why? Because Edwards and Hillary were competing for the same primary voters, a group that wasn't going to vote for Obama in any case.

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Later: quite a few others have made that point now. Leads me to wonder.... All the insiders in politics and journalism knew about Edwards's affair. Many of them have now stated that they knew but held back. Why? Especially, why did Hillary's campaign operatives hold back? The Clintons are world-class experts in media manipulation. Releasing this story a year ago would have at least removed Edwards from front-runner status, thus making Hillary's campaign path much easier. Simple incompetence? Or some kind of Mutually Assured Destruction in the war of blackmail and extortion?

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And later again: Apparently there is some kind of unwritten rule that you shouldn't expose info about another candidate in your own party, because this will give the opposite party more dirt to use.

This is a fantastically stupid rule for three separate reasons:

(1) Using the information will eliminate Edwards from the nomination. After that, the R party won't be able to use the info against him because he won't be the nominee of your party. Thus you might as well use it.

(2) Everyone knew about this. Therefore you could safely assume that the brand-R blackmailers weren't going to use this dirt for idiotic reasons of their own. So you might as well use it.

(3) Presidents are supposed to show leadership. Presidents are not supposed to be saints. By withholding this info, Hillary's people may have increased their credits on the heavenly ledger, but they failed to advance their own cause, thus failed to show leadership.
  ¶ 9:34 AM