THE SITDOWN John Edwards makes his apologies in an interview with Bob Woodruff.
It’s not impossible to understand why John Edwards had an affair. It’s not so hard to imagine why he thought he could get away with it. What is baffling is why he thought talking about it on television would help. The answer was not in the solemn, carefully worded interview he gave on “Nightline” on Friday. It is buried in the campaign “Webisodes” taped in 2006 by his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, just before he formally declared his candidacy in the Democratic race for president.
Sprawled on a private jet in faded jeans and open-collar blue shirt, Mr. Edwards is glowing with confidence and self-regard, laughing and flirting a little, but earnestly convinced that it was necessary and wise to have the filmmaker and her crew recording his every movement and offstage thought.
“I have come to the personal conclusion that I actually want the country to see who I really am,” he says in the slow, emphatic tone of a man under the spell of his own centrality. Those Webisodes, which were removed from the Internet when rumors about the affair surfaced, are back up and also flashing furiously on television, another widening ripple in the scandal he stirred up by telling his version of the story to ABC News.
For politicians, television is the triumph of hope over experience; time after time, scandal after scandal, officials in disgrace agree to a television interview in the hope of quelling the fuss and restoring their reputations. (Television is so critical to starting a political career that it may well lead elected officials to believe it has the power to resurrect one.)
Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho didn’t have to go on “Today” to defend himself; he chose to speak to Matt Lauer and, if anything, made matters worse.
Even if he acted to pre-empt another wave of reports, Mr. Edwards didn’t need to put himself in front of a camera. Silence, or a written statement followed by a tactical retreat from public life, would have sufficed. But apparently Mr. Edwards is not ready to leave the stage; he just wanted to have more control over the script.
“Nightline” was fascinating, but not because it showed a disgraced, humbled man self-immolating in front of the camera. Mr. Edwards, who repeatedly referred to the affair as “my mistake,” was poised, earnest and at times almost combative, alluding to other politicians, including John McCain, who he said had survived extramarital missteps. “I mean, I’m not the first person to do this,” he said. Mr. Edwards looked genuinely surprised, and almost indignant, when the ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff suggested that his career was coming to a close. “I don’t think anything has ended,” he said firmly. “My Lord and my wife have forgiven me, so I am going to move on.”
And he made a point of telling Mr. Woodruff that his wife’s cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Ms. Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards has since been told by doctors that she has had an incurable recurrence of the disease. Mr. Edwards’s performance was buttressed by Mrs. Edwards, who issued a statement after the interview praising her husband’s “courage.”
Like many a politician, Mr. Edwards was still trying to win over his audience. At times, his voice rang with the conviction of a trial lawyer who believes that all he has to do is get in front of a jury to prevail. At other times, he showed a lawyerly deftness, denying he had paid Ms. Hunter hush money, with caveats. “If someone was being paid,” he said, “it wasn’t being paid on my behalf.” (Later, Fred Baron, his former campaign finance chairman, told ABC News that he paid Ms. Hunter but did not tell Mr. Edwards about it.)
On Friday afternoon, the former senator from North Carolina ended a long written statement with a promise: “I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.” He then promptly said more. Before ABC had a chance to show the “Nightline” exclusive, Mr. Edwards upstaged “Nightline” by contacting CBS.
At the top of the “CBS Evening News,” Bob Schieffer went on the air holding a yellow legal pad and told viewers that Mr. Edwards had called him shortly before the broadcast to explain himself further. Mr. Schieffer said he asked to speak to Mrs. Edwards, who came to the phone, as he put it, “obviously in tears.” Mr. Schieffer reported that when he asked Mrs. Edwards how she was holding up, she told Mr. Schieffer, “This is really, really tough.”
Mr. Edwards said he came forward to put an end to the incessant tabloid stalking. Instead, his revelation spurred every network, newspaper blog and cheesy entertainment program to new heights: he was the lead piece on “The Insider” on Friday, ahead of Clay Aiken’s new baby and the pop singer John Mayer, shirtless in a hot tub and far from his latest flame, Jennifer Aniston.
Cable news showed over and over the interview Ms. Hunter gave the show “Extra” in 2007, about her time on the Edwards campaign, lingering over one sound bite in particular: “He is so open and willing to try new things.”
Mr. Edwards, who dropped out of the presidential race in January, was well on his way to becoming a private citizen when he made his admission. He said the sin of hubris drove him to have an affair, telling Mr. Woodruff that he strayed because political campaigns “fed a self-focus, an egotism, a narcissism that leads you to believe that you can do whatever you want.”
Narcissism doesn’t lead politicians to believe that they can have an affair and get away with it. It leads them to believe that they can go on television and dispel it.
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