Peckerdillos

I used to be a supporter of John Edwards. His platform was the best of all the candidates', and his sunny disposition was refreshing. Now his egalitarian agenda rings hollow, and his sunniness, viewed under the cloud of his insanely bad judgment, looks like idiocy. Hearing him try to explain away his peckerdillo as the result of his breathless rise from humble roots to vice-presidential candidate was just plain embarrassing. Weren't those humble roots supposed to anchor him in simple virtues and common sense?

Elizabeth isn't the only person Edwards betrayed. His dickheaded behavior and thickheaded denials betrayed the democratic process and put the whole world at risk. You may feel a candidate's private life has nothing to do with his or her qualifications for public service, but we live in the real world, and in the real world, peckerdillos like Edward's are exposed and exploited by political rivals. It was criminal negligence for him to celebrate his entry into the presidential race with a sexcapade. If he had duped more Americans like me into supporting him, he could have become the Democratic candidate. Breaking now or postconvention, the scandal would have booted Edwards and made McCain a shoo-in (shoe-in?): more crappy politics, more war, more pandering to the rich. As it is, Obama has a chance. Of course, as my son J (who lives in a Latin neighborhood in Brooklyn) points out, Obama may "dip his churro" somewhere it doesn't belong too. We just don't know about it yet.

And how the hell do you prounounce Rielle?