John Edwards And Andrew Young

I watched Andrew Young's segment on "Hardball" tonight. It's kind of frightening how close John Edwards came to being president, or at least vice president.

Of course it would've been better if Kerry had beat Bush in 2004, which would've meant Edwards would've been veep. He would've been better than Cheney. Of course anyone would be!

The way Andrew Young described John Edwards, who was a dear friend for quite a while, is that he's someone with no ethics. So Bush, Cheney, Edwards... We could've done worse.

Still, it's definitely a good thing that he didn't get any farther in 2008 than he did, for many reasons.

The charges at the time didn't sound 100% credible and they didn't sound 100% incredible. I was guessing the truth was in the middle somewhere. But we, the common folk, were just sitting here in our homes. We couldn't figure it out until it was all exposed. Fortunately I was never a big Edwards fan, so I wasn't downcast to realize what a slime he was. I never gave him any money so I wasn't invested in him at all.

I met Edwards at a couple of events, one in 2003 and one in 2004. The first one was an intimate little setting -- not intimate in Edwards' terms, but intimate in the sense that there must've been less than 30 people in the room. He seemed very charming, but slick. He was very friendly, of course. In 2004 it was less intimate, because it was a packed place and a rousing speech. I really saw some old people fall in love with him at that, like they were under a spell. At the end of it, somehow I had gotten to the back of the room, right where he ended up coming toward, then would turn toward the door. By the time he got to me -- I believe we shook hands at that turn -- he looked like he was exhilarated by the whole thing. There was some real adulation. Then on to the next place!

By the time 2007 rolled around I had the chance to go see him, but I didn't want to. I'd already seen him in 2004, wasn't going to support him anyway, so what was the use? I drove by a place on my way to Walmart or to exercise or something and he was standing in the road, and it seems like he was doing an interview with a TV station. I should've gone to see him in '07, because that's where the real action was!

My opinion in 2007 was that he shouldn't be running for president, that he should be home enjoying his life with his wife, since she was so bad off. It seemed stupid to me for him to be running for president when he had bigger responsibilities with her. To me that fact alone showed he had some character problems. Little did I know what was really going on!

Andrew Young did a good job on "Hardball." Chris tried to trip him up once, calling him a "rat fink," but he still came out of it looking pretty good.