The Shaming of John Edwards

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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January 31, 2010

The Shaming of John Edwards

David Zurawik notes ABC News "attracted a large audience Friday night of 8.1 million viewers for its hourlong interview/report with Andrew Young, the former Edwards aide whose new book, The Politician, chronicles the one-time presidential candidate's adultery while his wife was battling cancer..."

"The network has been out front on this story, and it has more on the way with interviews and reports about Edwards, his affair and his love child with a former campaign videographer scheduled for every day of the coming week on Good Morning America. And by the intense reaction of readers at this blog and elsewhere on the Internet, I am starting to believe that ABC News is playing a major role in something important: a public shaming of Edwards. And that is news, because it has seemed, at least since Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, that our culture has lost touch with the concept of public shame."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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January 31, 2010